2012 Election Snapshot: New Hampshire

Article February 6, 2014 Read time:

Projects: Election Initiatives

2012 Election Snapshots

Over the past several months, Pew collected data about the 2012 presidential election from nearly every state and the District of Columbia. We used the findings to create a snapshot of each jurisdiction, focusing on how many people voted, how long they waited to cast their ballots, how they cast them, and how many ballots were not counted. These snapshots will be released over the coming months, five at a time, and the Election Data Dispatches will take a closer look at the latest snapshots each week.

2012 Election Snapshot—New Hampshire

In 2012, New Hampshire was again among the states with the highest voter turnout in the nation. Snapshots_generic Nearly 71 percent of the voting-eligible population cast a ballot, compared with a national rate of 62 percent. In 2008, New Hampshire’s turnout was just under 73 percent, compared with a nationwide turnout of 59 percent.

New Hampshire has allowed Election Day registration for nearly two decades. According to the secretary of state’s office, 99,319 voters statewide registered at the polls on Election Day in 2012. These Election Day registrants accounted for 14 percent of all voters. The number of Election Day registrations statewide had increased 23 percent from 2008, when 76,755 voters registered on Election Day, 11 percent of all voters. In 2012, in Manchester, the state’s largest city, 10,300 people registered on Election Day, 18 percent of all voters. In Nashua, the second-largest city, 7,300 people registered on Election Day, also 18 percent of the turnout.