Voters said they wanted an alternative candidate. Biden won anyway.

MANCHESTER- For all the rumblings that Democratic voters wanted an alternative candidate to President Joe Biden, he won the New Hampshire primary even without appearing on the ballot.

Author Marianne Williamson and Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips were the most well-known of the 21 names on the Democratic ballot. Others included Brooklyn's Paperboy Joy Prince, a non-binary activist who centered their campaign around love, and Vermin Supreme, a performer who wears a large black boot on his head.

But on primary night, there were no surprises, and the election was soon called for Biden after the polls closed.

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With 94 % of the vote in, the Democratic incumbent was leading with 55% compared to Phillips' 19.5% and Williamson's 4.7 %. Over 12,000 write-in votes remained to be processed, most of them likely to be for the president.

“There’s no clear alternative to Biden right now,” said Andrew Smith, the Director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. “You can’t beat somebody with nobody.”

Voters didn't have a clear alternative in mind

Young voters, ages 18 to 35, in particular have expressed their disapproval of Biden. Smith said there are two problems with young voters: they don't generally vote and don't understand the electability factor of a political process.

“They [voters] say they want somebody else, but you ask them, and they don’t have a clear idea,” said Smith. “There's no one else that the party really wants."

The latest poll from the UNH Survey Center reveals that 39% of Democratic primary voters think the Democratic Party has a better chance of winning the election with a nominee other than Biden. But they couldn’t agree on who: 28% said Phillips, 7% said Bernie Sanders, and 6% said Gavin Newsom. Over 30% said "other" or "unsure."

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Phillips and Williamson struggled to get support

Phillips, a moderate Democrat representing the western suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul, aimed most of his campaign at voters seeking an alternative to Biden.

“I want to say the quiet part out loud, and that is, Americans want to turn the page from Donald Trump and Joe Biden,” the congressman said at a Democratic debate in Manchester in early January. He claimed he would win against either Trump or Nikki Haley, the two Republican candidates, but the latest vote tallies prove otherwise.

A recent UNH poll found that Biden was the first choice of 63%of likely Democratic primary voters. In comparison, Phillips and Williamson had only 10% and 9% respectively—numbers that hadn’t changed since November despite spending significant time in the state.

Tim Hoheneder, 27, cast his vote for Williamson on Tuesday because she was the furthest left candidate. But he wasn’t excited about it.

“It’s just a matter of process of who’s left for New Hampshire,” said Hoheneder, a PhD student at UNH. “Better to vote for someone who aligns with my interests rather than voting for someone who’s abundantly corporatist like Dean Phillips or voting for someone down ballot who has absolutely no shot.” He said he would be more excited to vote for someone like Nina Turner from Ohio or California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Philips and Williamson got votes based on protests versus popularity, Smith said.

Voters aren’t all excited about Biden, but they voted for him

A USA TODAY/Boston Globe/Suffolk University Poll in January found that the most important issue facing the United States, according to Democratic and independent voters in New Hampshire, was the future of democracy.

“We like to criticize. We wish this, wish that, and so on. It's a tough world we live in right now with the Middle East and still uncertainty about the economy," said New Hampshire State Sen. David Watters of Dover about voters' feelings towards Biden. But he said Biden's win "shows that people feel democracy is threatened."

Biden’s win in New Hampshire proved that, despite public wishes for an alternative, most New Hampshire Democratic primary voters ultimately agreed.

Said Watters, "I've always thought the Democrats would come home to Biden."

Jacob Baldy, 24, wrote in Biden’s name at his polling place in Durham to reflect this opinion.

“I’m not a big fan of really any of the candidates, but I can’t risk Trump,” said Baldy.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Voters wanted an alternative candidate, but ended up choosing Biden.