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How did Durham vote in the primary?

At the time of the writing of this article, with 98 percent of all New Hampshire precincts reporting, CNN has Bernie Sanders in first place at 25.8 percent of New Hampshire votes, followed closely by Pete Buttigieg at 24.5 percent, Amy Klobuchar at 19.8 percent, Elizabeth Warren at 9.3 percent, and Joe Biden at 8.4 percent. No other democratic candidate surpassed 5 percent, but there were 3,896 write-in candidates, which came out to be 1.4 percent of the vote. Sanders and Buttigieg are projected to net nine delegates each, with the remaining six going to Klobuchar. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) both suspended their campaigns Tuesday night. Deval Patrick suspended his on Wednesday afternoon.  

On the Republican side, with 97 percent of precincts reporting, President Donald Trump leads with 85.7 percent of the vote, followed by Bill Weld at 9.1 percent. There were 3,556 write-in candidates for the Republican side, amounting to 2.5 percent of the total vote. Trump is projected to net all 22 of New Hampshire’s Republican delegates, according to the Associated Press. 

It’s no secret that New Hampshire takes its role as the first-in-the-nation primary very seriously. Durham is no exception, with 5,583 votes cast yesterday. In an email to Durham residents late last night, Town Administrator Todd Selig shared some “New Hampshire Presidential Primary Election Results (Unofficial).”  

In Durham, voting took place from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Oyster River High School. In all of New Hampshire, registered Democrats and Republicans had to vote within their party, but Independents were able to choose either ballot. 

As stated above, 5,583 Durham residents came out to vote yesterday, which is the second most in recent history, second only to 2016, the last presidential primary, in which 5,930 votes were cast. It is worth noting that 2016 was an open primary, with no incumbent president running for reelection.  

There were a total of 4,909 Democratic ballots cast yesterday in Durham. CNN reported that with an estimated 100 percent of results in in Durham, Sanders led with 33.8 percent, followed by Buttigieg at 22.8 percent, Klobuchar at 15.4 percent, Warren at 12.4 percent, and Biden at 5.7 percent of total votes cast for Democratic nominees. 

Selig reported that in Durham, among the contending Democratic candidates, Sanders led with 1,658 Democratic primary votes, followed by Buttigieg at 1,115, Klobuchar at 754, Warren at 606, Biden at 277, Yang at 228, Tom Steyer at 101, Tulsi Gabbard at 57, Deval Patrick at 22, and Michael Bennet at 16 votes. No other candidate received more than ten votes. 

In comparison, with 4,047 Durham residents voting in the 2016 Democratic primary, Sanders won by over 40 percent. Clinton received 29.0 percent of votes from Democratic Durham voters, while Sanders received 70.7 percent. Ultimately, Sanders won New Hampshire in 2016 by a margin of 22.4 percent.  

On the Republican side, the incumbent Donald Trump received the majority of the votes from Durham Republican voters. CNN reported that with 100 percent of Durham results in, Trump received 71.7 percent of the vote, trailed by Weld at 18.7 percent.  

Selig reported that in Durham, among the Republican contenders, 478 votes were cast for Trump and 125 were cast for Bill Weld. There were a total of 674 Republican ballots cast in Durham with no candidate besides Trump or Weld receiving more than 10 votes. 

“The election ran very smoothly on Feb. 11 in Durham,” Selig wrote in an email to The New Hampshire. “I anticipate there will be tremendous focus and turnout for the upcoming 2020 General Election in November. The same day registration process yesterday ran smoothly. The standard rule of thumb for acceptable registration wait time established by the NH Department of Justice is around 20 minutes. We timed wait times yesterday at the polls in Durham for same day registration averaging around 4 min. 15 sec. Not bad given the approx. 1,450 same day registrations processed. Finally, we sincerely appreciate all of the volunteer turnout and efforts of our local election officials, without whom the polls in Durham simply would not be able to operate. Processing around 6,000 votes at our polling place is a significant undertaking, and our team does so with diligence, efficiency, and grace.” 

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