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.
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New Hampshire Primaries in Progress « Chicago, Athens, and Jerusalem · January 8, 2008 at 3:40 PM
[…] News reports and eyewitness accounts suggest extremely (possibly historically) high voter turnout. When projected turnout is compared to the existing electoral rolls, it appears that many independents and previously-nonvoters are participating today. Based on plausible speculation about the identities of these new voters, the high turnout is good news for Obama, McCain, and possibly Ron Paul (who is eager to beat Giuliani, as Congressman Paul and the former NYC Mayor have been involved in a bitter weeks-long argument over the root causes of the 9-11 attacks). […]
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