What is a primary?

By Bill Fonda, Monadnock Ledger-Transcript


Primary elections determine who the parties’ candidates are for state and national offices.

One feature of New Hampshire’s primary system is that undeclared voters, or those who do not belong to a political party, are allowed to vote in primaries. A voter must choose either a Democratic or Republican ballot when they go to vote, and must fill out a card or sign a list to return to undeclared status with the supervisors of the checklist before leaving the polling place.

Voters can also change their party status prior to a primary, but only for a limited time. The deadline to change your status for this year’s primary was June 4.

For example, the New Hampshire Bulletin reported that the Secretary of State’s office announced before this year’s presidential primary that, 3,542 registered Democrats switched their registration to undeclared and an additional 408 Democrats switched their registration to Republican between Sept. 14 and Oct. 7, 2023, when they were allowed to switch parties in time for the presidential primary, 

This year’s primary elections are being held on Tuesday, Sept. 10. To find out where you can cast your ballot click here


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