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Obama off to a strong start
08/01/2008 08:50 - (SA)
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| Rick Erwin finishes writing the totals for the first voters for the Dixville Notch, New Hampshire presidential primary. (Jim Cole, AP) |
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Washington - Democrat Barack Obama was off to a strong start in the New Hampshire presidential primary early on Tuesday, nabbing seven of the 17 votes cast in the tiny northern town of Dixville Notch shortly after midnight local time.
Senator Obama, 46, who is seeking to become the first African American in the White House, took seven of the 10 Democratic votes cast, leaving his chief rival, Senator Hillary Clinton, 60, empty-handed.
Former senator John Edwards received two votes, and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson received one vote, according to broadcasts of the voting.
McCain leads Republicans
On the Republican side, Senator John McCain, 71, took four votes, leaving two for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and one vote for former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Commentators were surprised at Obama's strong showing in this Republican stronghold near the Canadian border, where the community started the tradition of voting promptly after midnight (05:00 GMT) in 1960.
Other communities have followed suit, but Dixville Notch grabs media attention as the originator of the tradition.
Many of the 17 voters work for the Balsams resort, which has a "ballot room" where voters filled out simple paper ballots and stuffed them in a wooden box. The room is filled with memorabilia and photos of past presidential hopefuls who have made it that far north.
Election officials were able to close the voting session immediately and count the ballots because they could account for each and every registered voter. Under state law, independents can also cast votes in the party primaries.
Obama in the lead
The rest of the state is set to start voting at around 07:00 in the crucial first round of formal voting for presidential candidates. Only days ago, New Hampshire appeared to be in the corner of former first lady Clinton, but she suffered a disappointing third-place finish on Thursday in the Iowa caucuses, where Obama achieved a decisive victory.
Two polls on Monday gave Obama double-digit leads over Clinton.
On the Republican side, polls pointed to a win for McCain, the independent-minded US senator who called for more troops in Iraq long before President George W Bush. McCain also achieved a victory in the state eight years ago when he was running against Bush.
Candidates had only five days after the opening Iowa caucuses to reshape their strategies and launch a massive final campaign blitz in New Hampshire.
The next major votes in the series of state-by-state contests to choose the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates are in South Carolina on January 26 and Florida on January 29. Nearly two dozen states hold primaries on February 5, a crucial nationwide test dubbed Mega Tuesday. - Sapa-dpa
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