Turnout Low for Primary Election

A slow trickle of voters headed into Londonderry High School on Tuesday morning to vote in the State Primary Election.

As of 11:30, only 915 of the town's 17,000 or so registered voters had cast ballots. Town Clerk Meg Seymour said she's anticipating around 2,000 people will have voted by the time the polls close at 8 p.m., putting turnout between 10 and 15 percent.

"It's a typical primary town election," Seymour said, noting that there aren't many contested races . Republicans have contested races for governor, Congress, Executive Council, state representative and Rockingham County Commissioner, while Democrats have only a contested governor's race.

Most of those exiting the polls Tuesday morning said they were drawn there more by a sense of civic duty than because of any real interest in any of the races on the ballot.

"I just felt like I needed to," said Tom Olsen.

"I just feel like it's my duty to come and do this," added Janice Forester.

Autumn Eustis also said no one race helped bring her to the polls. But she did say she voted for Ovide Lamontagne in the Republican gubernatorial primary.

"I like his ed reform a lot," she said. "It matters to me because I'm a college student."

Seymour said the Voter ID law expected to take effect later this year has caused little to no confusion at the polls so far, although she has heard from some people who are adamant that they don't want to be forced to provide identification in order to vote.