Merrimack's 2016 Sept. 13 Primary Election Guide

MERRIMACK, NH — On Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016, primary voters in New Hampshire go to the polls to choose nominees for governor, U.S. Senate, Congress, Executive Council, state Senate, state Representative, and county seats. New Hampshire has competitive primaries for all the major races including governor and Congress and many of the lower races. Gov. Maggie Hassan, who is running for Senate, is not contested in her Democratic primary but incumbent U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte is being challenged by Jim Rubens for the Republican nomination.

While primary elections tend to have lower turnout, they are important because voters choose the nominees of the major parties, who will then face independent candidates in November.

Secretary of State Bill Gardner told WMUR-TV last week that he expects turnout to be about 23 percent with around 126,000 selecting the GOP primary ballot and another 86,000 voting for a Democrat.

Who can vote?

If you are registered as a Democrat or Republican, you can participate in that party’s primary; if you are undeclared, you can participate in either party’s primary by choosing that party’s ballot. If you no longer want to be registered in either major political party after voting, voters can unregister and back to undeclared before leaving the polling location.

If you don’t know your party registration, you can look it up online at the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s Office here.

Where to vote?

Voters in Merrimack have new polling locations:

• James Mastricola Upper Elementary School
• Merrimack Middle School
• St. John Neumann Church

To find out your polling location, click here.

The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Sample ballots

Merrimack Democrat ballot

Merrimack Republican ballot

Patch coverage

Here are some of the stories that Patch featured this election cycle:

• Illegal Campaign Coordination Election Complaint Filed with NH AG
• ‘Scheduling Conflicts’ Force Cancelation of NH Gubernatorial Forum
• Forrester Gets Big Boost from NH Veterans
• Sanborn Launches Bid for House Speakership
• Long List of House Members Endorse GOP's Edelblut
• State Employees’ Union Backs Van Ostern
• NH Firefighters’ Union Endorses Connolly
• Marijuana Policy Project Endorses Two for Governor
• NH Congressional Candidate Under Fire for Doctoring Photo
• Edelblut Easily Wins Taxpayer Picnic Straw Poll
• Conservative Org ‘Favors’ Rubens Over Ayotte in 2016 GOP Primary
• Van Ostern Wins Democrat’s Straw Poll

• Vets Rally Around Ashooh
• Jarvis Launches Indie Bid for Governor of NH
• Van Ostern Endorsed by Democracy for America
• Forrester: I Will be a Governor for the People of NH
• Gatsas Announces Run for NH Governor
• Rubens Launches Primary Bid to Challenge Ayotte
• Democrat Connolly Launches Bid for Governor
• Businessman, GOP State Rep May Run for Congress
• Van Ostern Launches Gubernatorial Bid
• Ayotte Welcomes Hassan to 2016 NH Senate Race
• In Launching Senate Run, Hassan Says, 'We Can Do Better'
• Guinta Launches 2016 Re-Election Effort
• Sununu Launches Campaign for NH Governor

Debates

Both WMUR-TV and NH1 News held primary debates. Here are the links if you missed them:

• NH1.com primary debates
• WMUR Granite State Debates

Voter ID
New Hampshire has a Voter ID law. This document explains the rule of the law and what you’ll need to vote.