Voter turnout was high in Tuesday's primary, both in-person and absentee

Primary voting was comparable to previous trends in Laconia and Franklin. But several Lakes Region towns experienced record or near-record voter turnouts in Tuesday’s primary election, some greatly surpassing numbers seen in 2016 primary polling.

As expected, voting by absentee ballot rocketed due to COVID concerns. Throughout the region, a higher percentage of Democrats voted by absentee ballot than did Republicans, according to voting records. But in-person voting remained clearly preferable overall. Voter turnout bumped in all towns that responded.

Laconia experienced a 33 percent turnout of registered voters, compared to 27 percent in 2016 and 30 percent in 2012.

In Franklin, where most of the electorate is undeclared and general election participation hovers around 20 percent, primary balloting came close: 17 percent of Republicans voted Tuesday, compared to 12 percent of Democrats.

Late Tuesday Belmont’s town moderator, Alvin Nix said he believed Belmont had record numbers voting in the primary: 1,580 out of 5,523 registered voters by 6:30 pm. “That’s a good chunk,” Nix said.

Tilton also experienced a surge in participation: 776 out of 2908 voters compared to less than 600 in the 2016 primary, according to Chuck Mitchell, the town’s moderator.

Gilford, too, had a substantial jump: 2,644 primary voters compared to 2,149 in 2016.

Even with all of those votes, one local race remains at least partially undecided. In the Republican primary for the Belknap District 2 seat in the state’s House of Representatives, which takes in Gilford and Meredith, Harry Bean, Glen Aldrich and Norm Silber clearly won the first three seats. The fourth and final seat in that district wasn’t as clear. On first count, Jonathan Mackie earned 1,082 votes, beating Dee Jurius by eight votes. Jurius said she would ask the Secretary of State for a recount.

“Jonathan Mackie and I are good friends, we both agree that a recount is appropriate and there’s no hard feelings between us. It’s not our ideal situation, but we’re in agreement,” Jurius said.

In other contested races of local import, Marcia Hayward, David Huot, Gail Ober and Carlos Cardona earned the Democratic nomination for Belknap District 3 House seats, which represent Laconia.

In the race for the Republican nomination for the two Belknap District 6 House seats, which represent Belmont, Mike Sylvia and Douglas Trottier came out ahead of John Plumer and Shari LeBreche.

Travis O’Hara easily secured the Republican nomination for the Belknap District 9 House seat, which covers Belmont and Laconia. He earned twice as many votes as Brad Kirby in the contest.

The race for the GOP nomination for State Senate, District 2 was yet more lopsided. Incumbent Bob Giuda took 81% percent of the vote, easily defeating challenger David DeVoy.