Overview and Live Results: New Hampshire Presidential Primary

For over 100 years, New Hampshire has had the first presidential primary.  That tradition continues this year, although things are a little convoluted on the Democratic side.

Polls close at either 7:00 PM or 8:00 PM Eastern Time. Generally, polling places in larger cities and towns are open until the later time. For a full statewide list, click here.

While first results are expected in the 7:00 PM hour, no race calls will be made until after the final polls close.

Republican Party

Overview

Sunday's withdrawal by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis means that Nikki Haley is the last major candidate standing between Donald Trump and his third consecutive Republican nomination. 

Trump will look for a commanding victory in New Hampshire with the goal of getting Haley to withdraw before the February 24 primary in South Carolina, where she served two terms as governor.

Polling has shown this as Haley's best chance to slow the former president's march to the nomination. This is at least in part due to the fact that registered independents, who comprise nearly 40% of the electorate, can vote in either primary.

However, momentum appears to be with Trump. Since Iowa, he has received endorsements from former rivals Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott, and DeSantis. Trump has led by more than 20% over Haley in each public poll since DeSantis left the race.

Live Results

There are 24 Republicans on the ballot, including other notable candidates that have dropped out of the race. The three listed by name are expected to get the vast majority of the vote. 

Delegates

22 delegates are allocated proportionately to those candidates receiving 10% or more of the statewide vote. 

Bookmark our aggregate delegate count map to keep track through the primary and caucus season as candidates accumulate delegates toward the 1,215 needed to win the Republican nomination.

Democratic Party

Overview

As with Iowa last week, the Democratic party's effort to reorder the calendar of early states ran into real world obstacles. In the case of New Hampshire, it is a law that requires the state to hold the first primary in the nation.

While the primary will go on, it is noncompliant with the Democratic National Committee and has been largely relegated to a beauty contest.

• President Biden is not on the ballot, but will receive votes via write-in
• As a penalty, the pledged delegate count has been reduced from 23 to ten
• Nine automatic delegates remain in addition to the pledged, but have lost voting rights
• No delegates can be won by anyone that has campaigned in the state

The bottom line: No delegates will be allocated Tuesday. It is possible the state and national parties will come to some sort of agreement on the disposition of the ten delegates at or before the national convention this summer. 

Live Results

There are 21 Democrats on the ballot. In the results presentation below, the two listed by name (Phillips and Williamson), along with Joe Biden, are expected to get the vast majority of the vote. The remaining candidates have been grouped into 'Other'. There is also a 'Write-In' row. 

Important:  Many - perhaps a majority - of Democratic voters will write-in Joe Biden. Interspersed will be other write-ins. While the count of a write-in vote can be electronically tabulated, the actual name written may take longer to evaluate. How this is handled will vary by location. In some locations, initial reporting may aggregate all write-ins, before splitting those out for Joe Biden. 

For the live results below, the 'Write-In' count and percentage may bounce around (up and down) during the evening, but will ultimately decrease to near zero as most of those votes get recategorized to the Joe Biden line.