Despite few uncontested races on the ballot, many Monadnock region polling places saw a higher-than-expected turnout for last week’s primaries, with one town even running out of ballots before the end of the day.
Most towns in the region had around 30% voter turnout, with Hancock racking up the highest percentage of registered voters coming to the polls at 47%. Peterborough was the next highest, with 43% of registered voters casting ballots. Sharon saw the third-highest turnout at 39%.
Peterborough Town Clerk Linda Guyette said the state underestimated voter turnout by a significant percentage.
“I am so grateful we had the absentee ballots left over for people to use, because we had to use around 80 absentee ballots,” Guyette said Monday. “If we had run out of absentee ballots, I would have started photocopying ballots for people to use, and I would have had to sign each one individually to certify it is an original, which is time-consuming.”
Peterborough and Sharon were the site of one of the region’s few competitive primaries, where Amanda Allen launched a write-in campaign to unseat incumbent Democratic state Rep. Jonah Wheeler. Wheeler won by a 19-vote margin, subject to a recount Allen requested.
Guyette said she can remember at least one other instance in which Peterborough ran out of ballots.
“It was a long time ago, and we did not have a lot of absentee ballots, so we had to start photocopying ballots, and then we had to hand count all of those,” Guyette said.
Guyette said another factor in Peterborough’s ballot shortage was the significant number of “spoiled” ballots handed in by voters, which are ballots rejected by the voting machine because a voter made unclear markings.
“If people start to color in the bubble and then they do an ‘X’, the machine will see that as an overvote, and then it will spit it out. The machine rejected those, so those voters would have to come over to get a new ballot. We have to void the one with the overvote, and then we can’t use them,” Guyette said. “We really encourage people to try to pay attention and be a lot more careful when they are voting.”
Peterborough saw 43.2% of its registered voters, with 36% of Democrats and 8% of Republicans, turn out to vote — more than double the turnout in town elections in May, when only 16% of registered voters cast a ballot.
Guyette said the difference by party was probably because there were no contested races on the Republican primary ballot.
In most of the state, more Democrats than Republicans voted in the primaries. That’s not unusual in a midterm election year, when the party that does not hold the White House tends to see higher voter turnout.
The Monadnock region saw some exceptions. In New Ipswich, 549 people voted on the Republican ballot, and 299 voted on the Democratic ballot. New Ipswich had the lowest voter turnout in the region, with just 24.2% of the town’s 3,475 registered voters casting ballots either at the polls or by absentee ballot.
In Rindge, 994 of the town’s 4,026 registered voters, or 24.7% of the total registered voters, took part in the primaries, with 513 Republicans casting ballots and 481 Democrats.
Jaffrey had a high turnout, with 42.8% of 3,403 registered voters handing in ballots: 843 Republican and 615 Democratic. In Mason, 162 Republicans and 154 Democrats cast ballots.
Antrim, which had no uncontested local races, saw 32.4% of the town’s 1,797 registered voters, including 318 Democrats and 164 Republicans, vote. In Greenville, 26.6% of the town’s 1,071 registered voters cast ballots, with 151 Democrats and 134 Republicans voting.
The numbers were nearly even in Lyndeborough, with 213 Democratic and 204 Republican ballots cast, for 34.2% of 1,218 registered voters. In Temple, 348 people voted, including 207 Democrats and 141 Republicans.
Francestown, which had no contested races and no Democratic candidate for state representative on the ballot, had a turnout of 29% of 1,561 registered voters. In Dublin, 35.3% of 1,214 registered voters cast ballots, including 295 Democrats and 134 Republicans.
In Wilton, 31.7% of the town’s 2,655 registered voters cast ballots, with 494 Democrats and 348 Republicans casting ballots.
For a complete list of New Hampshire’s primary results, go to https://www.sos.nh.gov/2026-state-primary-election-results.
