HANOVER — Worries that the COVID-19 pandemic and new voting laws might limit the student vote in Hanover may have been borne out Tuesday as turnout was projected to fall to levels not seen since 2004.
Town Moderator Jeremy Eggleton said Tuesday night that he expected to receive just over 7,000 ballots, far below the 7,726 cast during the 2016 general election.
If his prediction is correct, it would mark the first time in 16 years that Hanover saw its tally dip below 7,300 during a presidential election. The turnout in the 2004 election was 6,681.
Officials earlier in the day had predicted a strong turnout, made possible by a record number of absentee ballots cast.
Student turnout initially appeared “consistent” with past elections, even though Dartmouth brought back only 2,300 students — nearly half its undergraduate population — for the fall term, according to Eggleton.
“There’s a lot of college students here and they definitely show up,” he had said around noon.
This was the first presidential election since Republicans pushed through a state law that amended the definition of term “resident” so that anyone who registers to vote in the state automatically becomes a New Hampshire resident and has to comply with its motor vehicle laws. Even so, hundreds of Dartmouth students turned out at the polls and others voted by absentee ballot.
Dressed in Dartmouth-branded hoodies and beanies, students walked and hitched rides to the Leverone Field House, the town’s temporary polling place, on Tuesday.
Some, like sophomore Ray Tiersky, voted for the first time.
“I didn’t expect it to go as quickly as it did, so I’m very pleased,” said Tiersky, who hails from New Jersey and voted for Democrat Joe Biden in the presidential race. “I think it’s really ironic that our testing facility got converted to our polling place.”
Hanover’s lower turnout could spell trouble for Democrats who rely on college students as a key voting bloc on in purple-state New Hampshire.
Four years ago, Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump by just 0.3% — less than 3,000 votes — in New Hampshire, thanks in large part to the 23,100 votes she won in the college towns of Hanover, Durham, Keene and Plymouth, to just 8,600 there for Trump. In Hanover, Clinton received 6,561 votes to Trump’s 926 votes.
Rep. Annie Kuster, D-.N.H., who made a stop outside the polls in Hanover Tuesday afternoon, said the student vote becomes more important every year, especially since more young people become involved in politics. Many were influenced by the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 people dead in 2018 and vote for candidates based on their stances on gun control or climate change, she said.
“Every cycle, the pundits talk about young voters, but this generation is actually showing up and voting in record numbers,” Kuster said.
While Hanover saw a steady stream of voters, lines proved to be shorter than in New Hampshire’s southern communities, where they stretched around parking lots and backed up traffic.
Eggleton said the line was longest when the polls opened at 7 a.m., stretching north on South Park Street to East Wheelock Street. However, he said, there was never more than a 20-minute wait.
Hayden Smith, a Hanover High School graduate who was volunteering at the polls, said there was a “consistent flow of people coming in” but few lines.
“We are able to get people turned around pretty quickly,” said Smith, a junior at George Washington University. He said voters made the process easier by wearing masks, bringing their ID and being “very polite.”
“I was a little bit nervous that we might have to (turn people away) in case they didn’t bring their proper ID or documentation, but everyone did a pretty good job,” he said.
Like the Sept. 8 primary, the Leverone Field House was set up to provide adequate social distancing. Voters got their temperatures checked at the front door and were encouraged to use hand sanitizer before speaking to a ballot clerk.
Eggleton said the whole operation was made easier by absentee ballots, which relieved pressure at the polls. Last week, he reported that 4,280 people returned absentee ballots, 3,030 more than the town received four years ago. Of those, only two were rejected. “It’s a stunning number,” he said.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com o r 603-727-3223.