Report from the polls
By Soren Dayton Posted in 2008 | New Hampshire — Comments (13) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
When I pulled into the Hooksett polling place around 6:30 AM, I came into a traffic jam. It was 15 minutes before I could get to a parking spot. Simply put, turnout was huge. The Union-Leader reports massive turnout. The Secretary of State has predicted a 500k turnout, and three or four campaigns are using this for their turnout model. Last night, talking to some state party officials, they pointed out that 417k people voted in the high-turnout 2006 general election. I am watching MSNBC right now and Chuck Todd semi-predicted even higher. If, as the Union-Leader reported, over 10% of the voters are new-registrants, it could be even higher.
At the polling places that I have seen, Obama, McCain, and Clinton have volunteers at polling places. No Romney or Rudy people. (although one place had a parked truck with a big Romney sign on it) Chatting with the Obama and Clinton people on the ground, they made it clear that they were rooting for Romney because they felt like they could beat him.
Watching the results tonight will be interesting.
Excellent comment. If they don't want to fear the most articulate and intelligent candidate, that's their problem.
....never, NEVER, trust a liberal.
“.....women and minorities hardest hit”
about beating Obama first, methinks.
Anecdotal reports from So NH co-workers (Pelham, Salem, surrounding areas) is that the polls were mobbed - like they've never seen it before - this morning. Could be a record-setting day.
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Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.
I said it many, many months ago, "The Hill" would implode before she got too far. America, IMHO, is ready for a female leader and we should have one. Just not Hillary...
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So NH is loaded with MA transplants. I think the indpendents will go for Obama. The MA transplants will go for Romney
After all the Drive-By Media has been doing everything it can to convince people that McCain and Huckabee are the most electable candidates.
I vote in Manchester's ward 10 and turnout was light there. I've seen it heavier for gubernatorial and municipal elections, honestly.
From the time I walked in the door to the time I put my ballot in the reader and exited the gymnasium, *maybe* five minutes went by.
Turnout will be heavier after many get out of work, no doubt.
Though it's a little early for the "lunch rush" this is still sort of surprising - I would have thought Manchester would have been humming from wire to wire today.
Any thoughts on why?
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Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.
If a half million people turn out, we'll have around one third higher turnout in NH than Iowa in real numbers, in a state with less than half the population.
"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." - Bill Shankly
To be honest this is my first time voting in a primary--I always vote all the other elections ; my reason? It seems so much more important than it ever has before. I think there is a lot of that going around up here.
And I can tell you that on the local level this has always been the case in NH.
Population of around 1.3 to 1.4 million. potential 500K registered voters casting ballots. That's not too shabby.
I might conceded that NH justs wants their primary status to remain relevant, but I think more people really care about this election cycle.
Anyone aware of any exit polling going on today? Not that they've been that reliable in the past, but still ...
I thought that the preliminary results released only to the campaigns usually isn't available until about 2PM EST. Could be wrong through ...
MOlsen6
Proud supporter of McCain '00 and McCain '08
think they can beat Romney. The liberals also thought Gore and Kerry could beat Bush. Oops.