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#1105 – Dick Bernard: The New Hampshire Primary…and us.

After the Iowa caucuses I posted, here, an unconventional look at the data.
Every state has different procedures for selecting their delegates to the national political conventions, so New Hampshire’s Primary processes are different, though you could hardly tell from the endless (and conflicting) analyses about what the results from each state meant. Each party in every state has their own procedures for electing delegates and deciding on priorities from the first citizen gatherings till the end of the State Conventions.
Below, best as I can tell, are the vote totals by candidate in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Feb 9. Here they are, beginning with the total number of registered voters in New Hampshire. I do not list party designation of the candidates. If you are reading this, you know who’s who.
882,959 New Hampshire Registered Voters as of Feb. 5, 2016
151,584 Bernie Sanders (15 delegates)
100,406 Donald Trump (10 delegates)
95,252 Hillary Clinton (9 delegates)
44,909 John Kasich (11 delegates)
33,189 Ted Cruz
31,310 Jeb Bush
30,032 Marco Rubio
21,069 Chris Christie (withdrew after Feb 10)
11,706 Carly Fiorina (withdrew after Feb 10)
6,509 Ben Carson
1,900 Rand Paul (withdrew earlier)
643 Martin O’Malley
215 Mike Huckabee (withdrew earlier)
155 Rick Santorum (withdrew earlier)
133 Jim Gilmore
353,947 (40 % of potential voters didn’t vote.)
And the New Hampshire Primary turnout was reported as huge.
*
As the New Hampshire State Data (link above) reports: “Registered Voters as of February 5, 2016 | 231,376 Democratic | 262,111 Republican | 389,472 Undeclared | TOTAL 882,959”
Whatever your bias; whoever your “favorite”, these numbers tell a story, especially for the persons – perhaps a majority – whose preference for this candidate or that is absolute, as are his or her demands of that candidate.
And this is for only a single office, President of the United States, whose election is still nine months, and an infinite number of variables, away.
What about your Congressperson; your Senator? These are, as we know, crucial actors on the national stage.
Do you know who represents you at all levels, local and state? Do they know you exist? If you support them, how have you shown that support?
As to the Presidency, one of those nine remaining candidates MAY win in November, and will be expected to represent everyone. Our Republic, our Democracy, is not “winner take all”, regardless of how much some of us would wish that to be so…if our candidate were to win.
Each of us is one of 323,000,000. And lest we forget, we are only part of a much larger world.
What will you do between now and election day, November 8?