Many towns plow ahead with elections
Mar. 14—Downed wires closed roads and dozens of vehicles ended up stuck in snowbanks in Londonderry, but the polls remained open.
At noon, the Londonderry Department of Public Works reported "tough conditions" on the roads even after crews had been at work for eight straight hours. Officials closed Town Hall "due to the worsening weather and driving conditions," which prompted some criticism online.
"They canceled services out of safety for themselves, but it's OK for you to go and vote, even if you end up off the road with your vehicle on the town common," one person wrote on the town's Facebook page.
"We have several trees down and limbs hanging over roadways (that) we're either clearing or swerving around for the moment," the DPW wrote on Facebook. "Wires are hanging low and we even have a primary down on High Range Road just north of Shasta Drive closing the road."
Most of the vehicles off the road were SUVs, the DPW's post said, "which leads us to believe that speed is a factor."
The DPW lost power, which created challenges in repairing equipment, and one truck broke down and needed to be abandoned on Devonshire Lane.
More than 70 town and school meetings were postponed across the state due to the late-winter nor'easter, but some stuck to the schedule.
In Weare, town officials deployed an emergency generator once the storm had knocked out power at its polling place.
In Kingston, local police offered to drive to the polls any residents who did not feel safe enough to use their own transportation.
In Auburn
In what typically would be a lunchtime rush at the polls, a few people trickled through the polls at the Auburn Village School in Auburn. A Bobcat was being used to make frequent plowing laps around the parking lot.
Amy Magnan lives a few minutes from the school on Cricket Lane, but was already out on the roads when she stopped at the polls.
"It is kind of the norm here in Auburn. I wasn't surprised by it at all," she said. "I hope there is an absentee option for those folks who don't want to come out today, because I completely understand if somebody doesn't want to come. I've been out on the roads today, and it wasn't a good time out there."
As a mother, she said, the schools are her voting priority.
"I have kids in the schools so I want to make sure our school system has everything it needs," she said. "I have one here and one at Pinkerton."
Dan Carpenter brushed the snow off his red flannel jacket and stomped the snow off his boots as he entered the school.
"The village looks good," he told another voter. "They are keeping up with it."
He hoped for a halfway decent turnout given the weather conditions.
Just before noon, Moderator Thomas Lacroix said a collective decision was made to keep the polls open because of the school's schedule — students already had the day off for voting.
About 200 had voted by lunchtime. Typically about 600 residents would vote in a town election.
"The consensus was there was no reason not to do it. There was no concern from any department," he said. "At the end of the day it is New Hampshire, and it snows."
He said Auburn plow crews always do a great job keeping up with the roads.
Lacroix said the 2018 election had a snowstorm that dumped about a foot and half of snow and the election went on back then.
"The voting turnout is down, but it is not catastrophic," Lacroix said. "I haven't had anybody complain."
Meredith votes
While town and school elections in the Belknap County communities of Alton, Gilford, and Gilmanton were postponed until March 28, elections went as scheduled in Meredith, although voter turnout was decidedly light.
The nor'easter was supposed to bring as much as a foot of heavy, wet snow to Belknap County and central New Hampshire, but as of 2 p.m., it had delivered only 2 inches to much of Meredith.
Main roads were plowed down to the blacktop and there were no delays getting to and from the polls at the Meredith Community Center.
As of noon, however, only 91 of the town's 5,029 registered voters had cast a ballot, said Kerri Parker, who has been Meredith's town clerk since 2008.
"The last time we had a big snowstorm, two years ago, we didn't cancel either," said Parker. There was a bump on Monday in the number of voters who came to Town Hall to cast an absentee ballot.
A total of 34 voters cast absentee ballots, she said, with most coming in on Monday.
Stephen Nedeau, 78, who has been Meredith's town moderator for a decade and who ultimately decides whether elections should be postponed, said neither he nor his predecessors, as best that he can recall, have ever done so.
"We've always believed that this is the opportunity people have to have a say in their government. We know that the second Tuesday in March is Election Day and we go and vote," he said.
Staff reporter Kevin Landrigan and correspondent John Koziol contributed to this story.