Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump are the winners of yesterday’s New Hampshire primary election. Republican presidential candidate John Kasich and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton placed second in their respective races.
Trump received 35.2 percent of the vote, compared to Kasich who received 16.0 percent. Sanders received 59.7 percent of the vote, followed by Clinton at 38.7 percent as of press time.
In Grafton County, Trump took 45.3 percent of the vote, followed by Cruz who trailed with 15.8 percent and Kasich with 13.8. Sanders took 66.2 percent while Clinton lagged behind with 29.6 percent as of press time.
Polls were open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for the first presidential primary in the 2016 presidential race. Hanover High School was open to students and residents of Hanover as a polling place.
For the past few weeks, students involved in campaigns and political organizations on campus have been urging other students to exercise their right to vote by raising awareness through emails, posters and word of mouth.
Madeline Cooper ’16, president of the College Democrats, said that the organization had been working to disseminate information about student voting rights and logistics of getting registered.
“Our goal is really to do the work to let students know that they have the right to vote here in New Hampshire and know how to do it,” Cooper said.
Austin Boral ’16, a Dartmouth for Hillary fellow, said that a significant issue in voter turnout was the disinterest or busy schedules of young people. However, he said that peer influence could help raise the number of younger voters in the election.
“Telling your friends that you’ve been working hard on this campaign and that you’re planning on voting is going to automatically get more people to think that it’s their responsibility to vote too,” Boral said.
New Hampshire’s position as the first-in-the-nation primary would also motivate students who are not originally from the state to vote, Boral said.
NextGen Climate, an environmental advocacy organization that raises awareness of climate change and advocates for powering America with more than fifty percent clean energy by 2030, provided rides for students to Hanover High School.
Teddy Smyth, a NextGen regional campus organizer, said that the rides to the polling places began because the organization is dedicated to bringing the issue of climate-change to the forefront of American politics. He said that he wanted to not only inspire people to vote but to also show the number of young individuals concerned about clean energy and climate justice.
“There’s many ways that we can express that desire,” Smyth said. “One of the biggest ways to express our voices is through the vote, to turn out to the primary and vote for candidates who will stand up and fight for our issue.”
Small daily barriers often hold students back from voting, Smyth said. Although the distance between Hanover High School and the College is walkable, NextGen decided to help get people to the polls, he said.
“I think the barrier to voting should be lowered as far as possible to ensure that no vote is suppressed at the end of the day,” Smyth said.
Sanders and Clinton are the two frontrunner presidential candidates who have stated their support for NextGen’s 50by30 campaign. NextGen is a bipartisan organization that does not endorse a specific candidate, Smyth said.
Students involved in campaigns and political organizations were highly visible on campus in the weeks leading up to the primary as well as the day of the elections.
Benjamin Vihstadt ’16, a volunteer for Kasich’s campaign, showed his support for Kasich by standing outside Hanover High School with fellow volunteers. Vihstadt said that he had seen increased support for Kasich, from both students and professors who had not initially planned on voting for Kasich in the primary.
Boral said that the primary was a day that the Clinton campaign had been working towards since September. Volunteers spent time canvassing the neighborhoods near the College and phone-banking residents of New Hampshire, ultimately amounting to over 50 hours per week and close to 100 hours in the weeks closing onto the primary.
“Dartmouth volunteers have been turning out in a big way to get the vote out,” Boral said.
Volunteers like Boral have also been involved in facilitating dialogue on campus about Clinton’s presidential run through tabling in Baker-Berry Library, Boral said. Discussions included issues that students were concerned about and explaining how Clinton approached such concerns through her political career and in her potential plans for the presidency.
“A big thing in politics is having a lot of candidates speak openly about ideological platforms and all the things that they promise the voters to get done, but Hillary is really the only candidate in the race on both sides that not only has a lot of great things to say but also has very explicit plans and knows how to achieve those goals,” Boral said.
Anabel Moreno-Mendez ’19, a volunteer for the Sanders campaign, said that her role in his campaign included encouraging people to get out to vote and being active in social media promotion of Sanders.
“He’s taking the lead in the polls, but the polls don’t mean anything if people don’t get out to vote, so that’s been a large focus,” Moreno-Mendez said, adding that she herself had not been aware of Sanders as a candidate six months ago, but had seen and agreed with the ideas presented on his website.
“Bernie was my number one by a long shot,” Moreno-Mendez said.
Monica Lee ’19, a first time voter, also said she voted for Sanders in the primary. She said that she had deliberated between Sanders and Clinton because she strongly agreed with Sanders’ ideas but felt that Clinton was slightly more trustworthy because of her experience. However, she said that seeing Sanders’ popularity in the recent weeks convinced her that he had a possibility of winning the Democratic nomination.
Austen Robinson ’19, co-vice president of the College Republicans, said that he felt that members of the Democratic party had a much stronger presence on campus, especially in the case of Sanders, citing how volunteers for Sanders’ campaign have been “over-canvassing” in dorms and placing posters everywhere on campus.
An hour and a half after voting booths closed at 7 p.m. in New Hampshire, the Associated Press announced Sanders and Trump as winners of the primary. The College Republicans, the College Democrats and the College Libertarians hosted an event at 8 p.m. to watch the results of the primary in the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy.
At the event, Latrell Williams ’16, co-president of the College Libertarians, said that it was not surprising to see Trump and Sanders pull ahead in the primary based on prior polls.
“I think it’ll be more interesting to see the spread of how far ahead they were, and that will dictate the actual results of New Hampshire,” Williams said.
Jeremy Lewin ’19, a supporter of the Republican party, said that he felt it was obvious that Trump would win the primary, but was glad that Kasich and Jeb Bush were doing well. He noted that Cruz was expected to do worse in New Hampshire than Iowa because of the lack of right-winged evangelical Christians in the state’s population.
Robert Wright ’18, a supporter of Sanders, said that he was happy that the results matched up with polling predictions, indicating that the predicted win did not lead to voter complacency.
“He’s been ahead for so many months, I thought he had a really solid position in the state, probably more than any other state beside Vermont,” Wright said. “I figured it would be a substantial lead.”
Cooper said that being able to vote in New Hampshire was an exciting and unique opportunity for students of the College.
“It’s incredible that we get to go to the polls today having met most of the people we would be voting for,” Cooper said. “I sense that a lot of people are very excited about the election and are excited to have the opportunity to vote in New Hampshire.”
