Local, national issues drive Belknap County voters to polls for primary election

It was a slow primary election day, with voters trickling into polling stations and out of the light but steady rain Tuesday. Despite the poor weather, supporters and even a few candidates clutching plywood-handled signs were present at nearly every polling station in Laconia, and the single location at St. Katherine's Church in Alton.

Belknap County voters came to the polls with a wide array of issues in mind, but issues like Gunstock Mountain Resort, immigration, inflation, border security, abortion and combating Free Staters seemed to be at the forefront of voters' minds.

“I'm more concerned with the drugs coming in left and right, and we're not doing very much about it. In other words, close the borders,” Irene Johnson said after casting her ballot in Laconia's Ward 3. “The impact the immigrants are going to make on local communities, the schools, health care and living arrangements, we already have a housing shortage as it is. It's only going to exacerbate the problem.”

“My family came over from another country but they came here legally. And it bothers me that all these fentanyl drugs are coming in and killing many people,” said Joan King, a self-proclaimed die-hard Republican. “It bothers me when you let people in from the border that don't have the COVID tests, but you have people come from overseas like relatives I have and they have to have all these tests, it just seems like it's very imbalanced."

King also expressed concern over the country's economic state, another topic Republicans have utilized to invigorate their base.

“The primary reason [for voting] has to do with the economy,” King said. “I'm a retired person. My income is fixed. I go to the supermarket and oh my god what it's costing me, even for my poor cat. That concerns me.”

Ward 4 voter Dick Kuhn listed the economy and inflation as his primary concerns in this year's primary.

“They've taken this country to an area that it's never been before,” Kuhn said. “In less than two years, we went from prosperity going in the right direction to the total opposite.”

When it came to local issues, Kuhn criticized the so-called Free Staters, a loosely knit group of extreme Libertarians that have mixed in with the New Hampshire Republican Party.

"[The Free Staters] are transplants to New Hampshire. They really don't belong here,” Kuhn said. “They've just moved in here to inflict their political aspirations on us.”

“Defeating the Free Staters, affordable housing, reproductive rights, making sure the Belknap County commission is fair and reasonable, and also making sure the Gunstock Area Commission is a working, reasonable commission,” said Ward 3 voter Lois Kessin while listing her primary concerns. “Basically, all the ideals of democracy.”

“For me, it was abortion. I needed to go blue,” said Democrat voter Cindy Bodah, when asked what her key concerns were this election cycle. “I think the Republicans are destroying our democracy, that's why I'm here to go blue.”

When it came to how voters informed themselves, newspapers, television and traditional media were the most common answers.

“It's difficult, I'll tell you,” Kuhn said on the topic of research and staying informed. “One thing I did this morning is start googling and finding out who the Free Staters are, because they're being anonymous as they possibly can, and The Sun, I get a lot of information from The Sun as far as local issues are concerned. I also watch TV broadcasts. Sununu was on Fox this morning.”

For Kessin, both local and national print publications were her primary sources of staying informed.

“I read The Daily Sun, the Concord Monitor, I read the Globe, the Washington Post and the New York Times daily,” Kessin said. “Traditional media and research people send me. I research the voting records of our delegation, so I'm one of those incredibly obnoxious informed voters.”

Other voters like Bodah and her husband, Bill, utilized television as their primary source.

“Internet and TV,” Bill Bodah said. “I pretty much avoid the [campaign signs].”

“We watch CNN, we'll occasionally look at, especially my husband, Fox to get the other side,” Cindy Bodah said.

Younger voters like Andrew Davis have become more politically active as information has become easier to access via social media.

“I don't have a lot of faith in the system, but I feel I still need to do my part and make an effort and come out and vote for people,” said Davis, 28. “This is probably my second or third time [voting in a primary]. I'm more informed, there's more information out there for me to be aware of it. When I was younger, there wasn't a lot of info, no one I knew was doing it, so it wasn't a big deal for me. But now that I'm getting older, watching the news, looking at things that are happening in the world at large is just making me more politically informed and more likely to vote. That's what brought me out today.”