There are reports all over the media that the turnout in New Hampshire has been huge all day, and that some areas have been running out of ballots:
ABC News’ Karen Travers Reports: New Hampshire Deputy Secretary of State Dave Scanlan told ABC News that turnout among primary voters today is “absolutely huge” — and there are concerns about running out of ballots in towns like Portsmouth, Keene, Hudson and Pelham.
“Turnout is absolutely huge and towns are starting to get concerned that they may not have enough ballots,” Scanlan said. “We are working on those issues. Everything else seems to be going smoothly.”
Scanlan said that the Secretary of State’s office is sending additional ballots to Portsmouth and Keene (traditionally Democratic strongholds), Hudson (Republican leaning with significant numbers of independents) and Pelham (large number of independents).
According to Scanlan, the ballot strain seems to be on Democratic ballots, which suggests that the undeclared voters are breaking for the Democratic primary. New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner predicted that 90,000 undeclared voters would vote in the Democratic primary compared to 60,000 voting in the Republican primary.
If these anecdotal reports are true, it would seem that a lot of people want to vote in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary, and it’s only logical to assume that most of those people are voting for Barack Obama. If this holds up, we could be looking at a huge wave of momentum that could carry Obama to South Carolina and beyond.
