Crowds jam polling places in the morning, voting steady throughout the day

LACONIA — About noon Tuesday, 800 votes had already been recorded at the Ward 4 polling place in Memorial Park Clubhouse.

“We’ve been right out straight,” said Moderator Mark Haynes. “It’s more than ever, and there are a lot of new people registering to vote.”

There are about 1,800 people registered to vote in the ward, one of six in Laconia, which had more than 11,000 people registered to vote in the lead-up to Election Day.

Lines eased off in the afternoon, but many polling places, including those in Laconia, Gilford and Meredith, reported long lines when they opened at 7 a.m.

After voting at the Gilford Youth Center, Ernest Goodwin stopped for a moment in chilly, breezy weather on his way to his car.

“This election is important because of what’s going on, the economy and the COVID epidemic,” said Goodwin. “I don’t think Biden can last four years, and I think Trump did the best that could be done on the pandemic. Nobody could have done better.”

Nearby, Sarah Snow was also getting into a car after voting.

“We have to vote for Trump,” she said. “We have to get rid of this lockdown. It’s ridiculous.”

Inside the polling place, Gilford Town Clerk Danielle LaFond, said that at 6:30 a.m. the line of people waiting to vote extended into the parking lot, and by 7 a.m., it stretched down the road.

In Meredith, Town Clerk Kerri Parker also reported morning crowds.

She said that even if in-person turnout is the same this year as it was four years ago, there will still be many more total votes.

“We are at like 1,600 absentee ballots and we only had 600 last time,” she said.

The New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office said Tuesday that there had been 249,658 requests for absentee ballots statewide — more than three times as many as four years ago — and 235,834 of those ballots had been returned.

In 2016, a record 755,850 New Hampshire residents voted in the presidential election, narrowly favoring Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump.

Secretary of State William Gardner says he expects the overall turnout this time to easily exceed 800,000.

Outside the Meredith Town Center polling place, Norm Silber, a Republican who is running for state representative, was one of the candidates holding signs.

“Every election is an important election, but this happens to be maybe a little more important than most,” he said. “The results of the state House and the state Senate will determine redistricting for the next 10 years.”

He said he voted a straight Republican ticket.

“I want to see a red wave,” he said.

After casting her ballot, a woman who declined to be named said she hopes the country can come together and find common ground after the election.

“I think before COVID people were starting to come together because the economy was getting better, but I think with COVID and the economy taking a hit, people split apart again. I believe the Republicans have a better chance of getting the economy back to where it was. So I’m hoping that if the economy gets better we can come together again.”

Clerks and moderators in Laconia, Meredith and Gilford said there were no particular problems encountered. Polling places in Meredith and Gilford each had one police officer present. Laconia police occasionally visited polling places as part of their regular patrols.

“It’s Meredith,” Town Clerk Parker said. “People are nice, they’re respectful.”

In Sandwich, a volunteer at the polls said they expected as many as 90 percent of the town's 1,200 registered voters to vote, about half by absentee ballot.

"That went a lot smoother than I expected," a woman said to a poll worker after voting at Belmont High School, where a squadron of helpers guided voters through the process when they arrived.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office also said there were no significant problems at polling places. They fielded more than 100 people to polling places to assist local officials and help with any potential problems.

The office also set up a hotline for people to call with election-related questions. About 100 calls came in.