Voters crowd polls for New Hampshire primary
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- New Hampshire voters crowded into polling places Tuesday for the final hours of the first-in-the-nation primary election — a race that once again may serve as a turning point in the race for the White House.
Large numbers of voters, many lining up before dawn, turned out in spring-like weather Tuesday to pick their favorites for president with the independent vote holding considerable sway over the outcome. Secretary of State Bill Gardner predicted a record turnout of about 500,000. The number would smash The previous high: 396,000 in 2000.
On the Democratic side, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois looked to add New Hampshire to his victory in the Iowa caucuses last week, with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and former North Carolina senator John Edwards also seeking a boost. Arizona Sen. John McCain led most pre-primary GOP polls, and a win here by him could muddy the Republican field already shaken up by former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee's Iowa win last week.
Obama spoke Tuesday at Dartmouth College while his relatives in Kenya gathered outside near a radio, waiting to hear results.
"Today you can make your voice heard — you can insist that change will come," he told the crowd. "The American people have decided for the first time in a very long time to cast aside cynicism, to cast aside fear, to cast aside doubts."
Although polls close at 8 p.m. ET, there was an early smattering of results. By tradition, two northern state hamlets — Dixville Notch and Hart's Location — turned out at en masse at midnight, long before statewide polls opened at 6 a.m., to cast the first 46 ballots of the primary seasons, half for Democrats and half for Republicans.
On the Democratic side, Obama picked up 16 votes, Clinton 3, Edwards 3 and Bill Richardson 1. On the Republican side, McCain got 10 votes, Huckabee 5, Rep. Ron Paul 4, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 3 and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani 1.
McCain, who is locked in a tight race with Romney, joked that the early results were a good omen: "It has all the earmarks of a landslide, with the Dixville Notch vote."
