It's vote day in New Hampshire. Obviously, the big stories are who will win, who will lose, who will underperform their arbitrary targets and who will blow past -- all the way to third place! -- their assumed limits. But, particularly after the turnout in Iowa, watch for the actual vote totals to prove meaningful as well. How many voters turn out? What's the age distribution? Was Obama able to repeat the remarkable feat of amping young voter turnout to match senior citizen totals? What's the ratio of participation in the Democratic primary to the Republican primary? For now, no one knows. But here are some baseline estimate to compare against later:
"[New Hampshire] Secretary of State William Gardner is projecting a turnout of 500,000, up from the record of 396,000 set in 2000. Officials expect 260,000 Democratic ballots and 240,000 Republican ballots to be cast, a reflection in part of shifts of Republican voters to independent status and of independent voters toward Democratic candidates in recent elections. In addition, it's the first contest since 1928 that neither party has had a sitting president or vice-president seeking the nomination."
