7:40 a.m.: Initial voter turnout
Jared Gonzalez Arce / The Dartmouth Senior Staff
Turnout at the polls has been sparse so far.
Hanover town moderator Jeremy Eggleton said 38 voters have come through the polls at this point. The voting process has been running “smoothly,” with no “abnormal turnout” expected. Voter turnout “varies” throughout the day, he added.
“We'll get a surge after 3 p.m. when the sports teams at the College finish practice and the coaches tell them all to come over and vote,” Eggleton said.
7:00 a.m.: Polls open at Hanover High gymnasium
Iris WeaverBell / The Dartmouth Senior Staff
Polls for the 2026 New Hampshire primaries are now open in the Hanover High School gymnasium at 41 Lebanon St. Polls will close at 7 p.m.
Voters who are registered as either Democrat or Republican will choose candidates from that party to advance to the general election on Nov. 3. The governor’s seat, one Senate seat, both House seats, Executive Council District 2, state House and state Senate seats and Grafton County officials’ races are on ballots today.
Following Sen. Jean Shaheen’s, D-N.H., retirement, New Hampshire is key to Democrats’ effort to control the Senate after the 2026 midterms.
Former U.S. Senator John E. Sununu, brother and son of former governors Chris Sununu and John H. Sununu, is favored to defeat former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown and six other candidates for the Republican nomination today.
U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H.-1, and progressive scientist and first-time candidate Karishma Manzur face off in the Democratic primary today. Pappas led Manzur by 13 points in an Aug. 26 University of New Hampshire poll, down from a 46-point gap in April.
A poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire suggested Sununu would narrowly lead Pappas if the two advance to the general election. He would be the state’s first Republican senator since former senator and current governor Kelley Ayotte was elected in 2010.
Ayotte is running for reelection for the first time. Agriculture worker and carpenter Shaun Fife and Goffstown, N.H. resident Bob Wayne McClory are challenging her for the Republican nomination. In the 2024 general election, Ayotte beat out former Manchester, N.H., mayor Joyce Craig with 53% of the vote after receiving an endorsement from her predecessor, Chris Sununu.
Attorney Cinde Warmington, who represented District 2 on New Hampshire’s Executive Council from 2021 to 2025, is the only Democrat on the ballot to face Ayotte in the General Election. Warmington ran for governor in 2024 and lost to Craig in the primary.
The race for New Hampshire’s second Congressional District is projected to be a rematch of 2024 between Lily Tang Williams, a Republican, and current one-term Rep. Maggie Goodlander, who defeated Williams by 6% in 2024. Today, Williams faces stone mason Michael Anthoy Callis, entrepreneur Dan Nicholson and construction business owner Victor Orlando. Progressive State Rep. Paige Beauchemin, D-Nashua, is challenging Goodlander.
All primaries for State Senate and House elections as well as Grafton County officials are uncontested.
Iris WeaverBell ’28 is a reporter and editor. She is from Portland, Ore., and is majoring in economics and minoring in public policy.
Jared Gonzalez Arce '29 is a news reporter from California majoring in history. Out of The D, Jared is in surf club and loves music.
