The Constitution
One of the oldest still in force, and it is not amended the way statutes are: a CACR needs three fifths of both chambers and then the voters.
New Hampshire's constitution took effect in 1784 and is among the oldest still in force anywhere. It is in two parts. Part First is the Bill of Rights — thirty-odd articles on what the state may not do. Part Second is the Form of Government: the House, the Senate, the Governor, the Council, the courts, and how each is chosen.
It is not amended the way statutes are
A statute changes when a bill passes both chambers and the Governor signs it. The constitution does not. A change starts as a CACR — a Constitutional Amendment Concurrent Resolution — and it has to clear three things:
- Three fifths of the entire membership of each chamber. Not three fifths of those voting: 240 of the 400 House seats, whether or not everyone is there. An absence counts against it.
- The other chamber, on the same terms.
- The voters, at the next general election, where it needs a two-thirds majority.
The Governor has no part in it at all — no signature, no veto.
Why almost none get through
The first step is the one that stops most of them, because a three-fifths threshold measured against the whole membership is very close to unattainable in a chamber where turnout varies.
In the record
There are 57 CACRs in the record across the two terms this site covers. None of them reached the voters. Nineteen were killed outright, twenty-seven died when the session ended, three passed one chamber and stopped, and the rest are still in committee or were postponed.
They sit in the bill list beside ordinary bills. A CACR that shows "Passed one chamber" has a much longer way to go than a bill with the same words beside it.