New Hampshire Primaries Presidential Elections Republican Democrat

New Hampshire primaries constitute the first of the political party primary elections carried out in the run up to the presidential elections in the United States. In 2008, the primaries are scheduled for Tuesday 8 January. It is held in the small New England state of New Hampshire and traditionally marks the opening of the quadrennial U.S presidential elections.

The New Hampshire primary is crucial because it takes place before other primaries in the country and allows independents to cast their ballots for either Republicans or Democrats. The 2008 New Hampshire primaries would decide the fate of a number of important presidential candidates like Hillary Clinton and John McCain. It is especially a make-or-break event for Hillary Clinton, the wife of former U.S President Bill Clinton, who was defeated by the astonishing victory of Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

New Hampshire primaries are held every four years in the United States as part of the process of selecting Republican and Democrat nominees for the subsequent presidential elections. The primaries were originally held in March but in recent years, its date has been shifted up again and again so that it continues to remain the countrys earliest primaries. In 1977, a law was passed in the state in accordance with which that its primary aim was to be the first in the state even though it is continued since 1920 conventionally.

Usually a week before the New Hampshire primaries, the party caucus of the state of Iowa is held. These two events are given prominent coverage by the media in which the political fate of a number of presidential candidates is decided. Candidates who perform poorly are dropped while those who are lesser known and with lesser funding suddenly become the center of political and media attention.

The media gives the New Hampshire primaries and the preceding Iowa party caucus almost half of all the attention paid to all the other states in the primary process. This has led to a magnification of the New Hampshires decision-making power, thus prompting other states to repeatedly move up their dates in the primary elections. In fact in 2007, both the Republican and Democrat National Committees move to give more populous states a bigger influence in the presidential race.

The New Hampshire primaries do not fall into the category of a closed primary in which votes can be cast in a party primary only by people registered with that party. In New Hampshire, people not registered with any party constitute the Independents who can vote in either party primary. At the same time, however, it is not an entirely open primary since people registered as Republican or Democrat on voting day cannot cast ballots in the primary of the other party. New Hampshire primary