I just did my civic duty and exercised my right to vote.
While I was there I spoke to a dozen candidates, activists, friends, folks out in the sun holding totems and shaking hands. The first obvious question is how is the turnout? The answers were “Lousy.” “Low.” “Pathetic.”
Merrimack is a large, Republican town. In the November 2012 election we had the largest single polling-place turnout of any location in the entire nation. There are easily 18,000 registered voters on the rolls but today, as of 4:30pm, most of them had not exercised their right to vote. Yeah, it is a primary, but there are a lot of choices and plenty of variety among the candidates up for elected office.
Will we get a post-work surge? I’ll let you know. I’m expecting final vote totals this evening.
One other point of interest. No one from the Brown camp was there with a sign. Not just when I was there, all day. Reports are that this is the case at a number of polling places around the state. No Brown campaign sign holders at the polls. Not even in Merrimack? Why not?
