MANCHESTER, N.H. (Jan.8)- Outside of the Brookside Congregational Church, John Knieriem and Bob Conway don’t mind standing in the icy parking lot to chat.
The topic: today’s election for the presidential candidates from both parties in New Hampshire.
“Who do you think will win?” Conway yells loudly amid a slew of Clinton volunteers shouting their chant:
“Ocean to ocean!
Sea to sea!
Everyone’s voting —
For Hillary!”
But Knieriem isn’t buying it.
“I don’t see a big difference among the Democrats, but I did not vote for Hillary,” Knieriem said. He didn’t care much for former President Bill Clinton either. “She’s worse than that husband of hers.”
Outside polling places around town, voters stood in line, chatted among themselves and warmed themselves against the winter chill with more talk of the hottest political action.
Diane Beaudroy had a prediction for Sen. Barack Obama and John McCain. “I think Obama and McCain are going to take it,” said Beaudroy, who came with her daughter, Ally, a first-time voter. “McCain is just a respectable person and he has a lot of experience.”
Beaudroy voted for McCain. Her daughter Ally voted for Obama.
At the Carol M. Rines Center, another polling place along busy Elm Street, campaign volunteers waved tall signs endorsing their candidates behind a pinkish-red neon tape, as if they were confined to a crime scene.
Voters stood in bunches in the wet parking lot, predicting wins—mostly for Obama and McCain. Some scattered along snow-banked sidewalks when camera crews and reporters descended on them.
Inside the polling places, everything was calm and organized. For the most part, voters were in and out of the voting booths within five minutes. Even children were able to cast pseudo ballots in miniature voting booths set up especially for them, as part of New Hampshire’s Kid’s Voting Now project.
At the Bishop Leo E. O’Neil Youth Center, Kevin Finefrock, 22, was impressed at how smoothly the voting process went as well as the voter turnout. “I think this election is huge because people are not satisfied with the status quo. They want change,” said Finefrock, who is a McCain supporter. “I can’t wait to see who wins.”
Koren Temple, a magazine-newspaper-online journalism graduate student, is covering the New Hampshire primaries for Campaigns&Elections magazine.)
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