Primary Turnout Sets A Record
2/21/96
By The Associated Press
   
   CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - More than 200,000 people voted in the Republican
   primary in New Hampshire, shattering the record turnout of four years
   earlier.
   
   The unofficial total of more than 205,748 Republican ballots cast,
   with one percent of precincts still unreported, meant at least 27,000
   more Republicans and independents voted in the GOP primary than in
   1992.
   
   The percentage turnout won't be known until Wednesday, when recent
   registrants are counted, but Secretary of State Bill Gardner estimated
   it might top 75 percent. Gardner had predicted 192,000 votes in the
   hotly contested Republican primary.
   
   Tuesday was the first presidential primary with same-day registration,
   and Gardner said thousands of people apparently registered. Some towns
   reported people lined up to register.
   
   Most polling places closed at 7 p.m., but so many people were lined up
   at some Manchester precincts that voting continued afterward. Anyone
   inside the door by 7 was allowed to vote, City Clerk Leo Bernier said.
   
   
   Turnout was helped because there was little of the freezing rain some
   forecasters had predicted, and the close race apparently motivated
   people to vote.
   
   About 82,000 people voted in the Democratic primary.
   
   AP-DS-02-21-96 0741EST