PIERMONT — Debra McKean made her usual election day walk Tuesday morning to polls at the Piermont Village School, planning to vote in-person in New Hampshire’s primary.
Wearing a face mask, she checked in with ballot clerks — who were wearing masks and seated behind plastic dividers — and filled in her ballot in a socially distanced polling booth with a pencil that was hers to keep.
She then walked her ballot over to Town Moderator Joyce Tompkins, who accepted it with a smile only visible in her eyes.
“All set?” McKean asked, to which Tompkins cheerily replied, “No, you get a sticker.”
At polls across the Upper Valley, similar interactions were taking place as election officials and voters attempted to create a sense of normalcy in unusual times caused by COVID-19.
Face masks, shields and plenty of hand sanitizer were the norm, but neighbors who were willing to accept some risk by coming out to the polls still took time to gather and chitchat.
At the ballot box, Tompkins heard from voters who complained about the shortage of kayaks in northern New England, worried about ever-worsening drought conditions and marveled at rising home prices.
While the process appeared to go smoothly, Tuesday’s primary was only successful because election officials spent hours ahead of time getting guidance from the Secretary of State’s Office, securing personal protective equipment and setting up two polling places — one inside for those wearing masks and one outside for those who declined to wear them.
Tompkins said being able to use the Piermont Village School, a much larger gathering space than the Old Church Building usually used in elections, was also a “huge relief.”
“It’s so much responsibility, you know?” she said. “I just know how lucky I am to be in a really small community where we basically all know each other and can be comfortable.”
Voters said they opted to visit the polls for a variety of reasons. Some don’t trust a Postal Service beset by budget cuts to deliver absentee ballots, while others said they trusted local officials to take precautions that would reduce the risk of transmission.
McKean was in the first camp.
“There’s been a lot of negativity about mail-in voting and with the new postmaster general, we’ve been a little bit antsy about that decision,” she said. “And we have always voted in-person.”
Piermont residents Janet and David Reinhardt also voted in person on Tuesday.
“I like to come and see faces,” said Janet Reinhardt, who wore a Live Free or Die hat but no mask.
She went on to assert that mail-in ballots are “definitely corrupt” and insinuated that Democrats would attempt to use the pandemic to sway elections.
Election officials said Tuesday they had received record numbers of absentee ballots after Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed into law a measure expanding mail-in voting during the pandemic.
Lebanon Town Clerk Kristin Kenniston expected to process about 3,000 absentee ballots, up from about 100 normally. And Tompkins said she had 41 ballots from Piermont residents, “way more” than the single digits of past elections.
“This is the first election that I’ve ever participated in where the majority of ballots were cast absentee,” Hanover Town Clerk Betsy McClain said while standing at the polls at the Leverone Field House.
Officials announced in July that voting in Hanover would move from the high school to the Dartmouth-owned field house, which offers more space and better air circulation.
McClain said more than 1,600 absentee ballots were counted in Hanover, with about 100 more coming in the mail on Tuesday.
“The turnout I would expect would be bumping up right over 2,000, which for us at a primary is pretty high,” she said.
With the primary taking place on the same day as Dartmouth College’s move-in, in-person voting appeared slower than usual. Those hoping to enter the Field House had their temperatures checked and were asked to use sanitizer before seeking ballot clerks spaced throughout the facility.
McClain said a tent outside served as a polling place for those who declined to don a mask, but it wasn’t needed by noon.
In Orford, residents stepping into the town offices were first greeted by a table offering up disposable masks, hand sanitizer and gloves.
Just past that, ballot clerks sat behind plastic barriers, checking in voters and wiping down voting booths as the day progressed.
The primary day layout was designed so that voters and election officials had as little contact as possible, according to Town Clerk Debbie Hadlock. Traffic moved one way and, whenever possible, voters were encouraged to maintain six feet of spacing.
Hadlock said the town was only asking that people wear masks to the polls, not requiring them. But, she said, nearly everyone complied with the request. By 9:30 a.m., only one person out of more than two dozen voters refused to put one on.
“We kept everybody else out, he went in and we sanitized the whole place right after he left,” Hadlock said.
The safety precautions pleased resident Harold Taylor, who mulled voting absentee before deciding to put his faith in the new voting procedures.
“I think it’s set up pretty good here,” he said after leaving the polls. “I feel good about it. It’s nice to be able to vote in person.”
Lebanon, which requires masks indoors, had similar procedures, with election clerks behind plastic dividers and a one-way route through the polls. Tents were also available outside polling places to anyone who declined to put on a mask.
“Everybody’s been very pleasant and everything’s gone pretty smoothly,” Ward 2 Moderator Crystallee Newton said while on duty at the United Methodist Church, adding that the tent outside her polling place wasn’t needed once by Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re a pretty easygoing crowd in Lebanon,” she said.
Newton said an influx of volunteers, including City Manager Shaun Mulholland, also helped the process along. The city had feared that poll workers, who are usually older and more susceptible to the coronavirus, might be afraid to work their usual posts.
“I think that one of the bigger problems is that a lot of the people that volunteer are teachers or work in the schools, and today is the first day of school in Lebanon,” she said. “So, I think we lost a couple of people who will be here later in the afternoon and possibly some people who weren’t comfortable working the election.”
However, she added, new volunteers quickly filled those spots.
Traffic to the Methodist Church appeared to be steady by mid-afternoon. Resident Alexis Craig opted to vote in-person after missing earlier opportunities to request an absentee ballot.
“I also didn’t mind coming out today,” she said. “I think they set up everything in there well and was nice.”
Lebanon resident Michelle Bliss also considered voting absentee but decided to come down to the polls as a tryout for the November general election.
“I guess this was a dry run,” she said. “It’ll help make up my mind whether I want to vote absentee for the November election.”
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.