Biden wins New Hampshire Democratic primary despite not being on the ballot
Voters had to write in the president’s name, which made the counting process more complicated as these votes had to be tallied manually
Incumbent presidents have a huge advantage over the other presidential hopefuls when it comes to winning the primaries. Even Joe Biden, one of the presidents with the lowest approval ratings in modern times, easily won the New Hampshire primary, where he came in fifth in 2020. He achieved this feat without holding a single rally in the state and without even appearing on the ballot. U.S. media projections proclaimed him the winner as soon as the last polls closed, even though the count was far from finished.
Biden was not disqualified, nor had his eligibility been questioned — as is the case for Donald Trump, who is set to be left off the ballot in Colorado and Maine for his role in the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol. The president simply missed the deadlines to register as part of the effort to push back the New Hampshire vote.
Although his name did not appear pre-printed on the ballots, registered Democrats could vote for him by writing his name in the blank box reserved for this purpose. Biden did not campaign in the state, but his supporters mobilized to make sure voters knew how to cast a write-in vote. The vote counting in the Democratic primary was somewhat complicated by the write-in votes, as the machines are unable to detect the name, only that the ballot has been cast for an alternative candidate and must be processed manually.
“I’m here to show my support for Joe Biden and encourage my friends and neighbors to vote for him,” said Colin Van Ostern, a 44-year-old tech executive and prominent Democratic activist, at the doors of a polling station in Concord, the state capital. “He’s not on the ballot because of a political dispute within the party, but I’m not going to let the party bureaucrats decide who I vote for, whether I’m going to vote for him or not. Joe Biden is the only person who has beaten Donald Trump, and he will do it again.”
While Donald Trump and Nikki Haley went to polling stations in New Hampshire and held their election after-parties in the state, Biden held a rally Tuesday in Manassas, Virginia, where reproductive rights were the central theme. Democrats think that access to abortion will be one of the biggest issues that mobilizes voters. Tuesday’s rally, however, was disrupted by pro-Palestinian activists who heckled Biden for supporting Israel in the Gaza war. These protests haunt him at every campaign event, and it is an issue that is threatening his re-election.
In 2020, Biden won the Democratic presidential nomination despite coming in fifth in the New Hampshire primary, with only 8.4% of the vote. As president, Biden urged the Democratic National Committee (DNC) last year to change the order of the primaries, shifting the kickoff from the Iowa caucuses (a white, conservative, religious state) to the South Carolina primary. The goal was to give more power to Black and other minority voters, who are crucial to the party’s rank and file.
In February, the Democratic Party approved a new calendar starting with the South Carolina primary on February 3, followed three days later by the New Hampshire and Nevada primaries. Iowa Democrats agreed not to hold the vote last week, but New Hampshire rebelled. State law gives New Hampshire Secretary of State, Republican David Scanlan, the exclusive authority to set the date of the 2024 primary. As has been the case for 40 years, he set it for the Tuesday of the week following the Iowa caucuses. State law also states that primaries must be held at least seven days before any other primary.
As a result of the dispute, Biden was left off the ballot, and it was decided that the winner of the primary would not be awarded any delegates.
Twenty-one names were on the Democratic ballot, including one president — but in name only — President R. Boddie, of Atlanta. Also on the ballot was Vermin Supreme, an eccentric activist known for wearing a rubber boot as a hat and carrying a giant toothbrush. Of all of them, the only ones with some political weight are Congressman Dean Phillips and self-help book writer Marianne Williamson, who ran in 2020, but withdrew before voting began.
Turnout in the Democratic primaries on Tuesday was much lower than in the Republican primaries, mainly because the outcome seemed like a foregone conclusion. It was taken for granted that Biden would win, even though the president’s name was not on the ballot. Congressman Dean Phillips had been attracting more and more people to his events, but he was still very much in the minority.
The end of the campaign in New Hampshire was marked by an apparent robocall that used artificial intelligence to mimic Biden’s voice and discourage voters in the state from coming to the polls during Tuesday’s primary election. The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office announced Monday that it was opening an investigation into the case. Experts have repeatedly warned that deepfakes threaten to become a problem in future elections.
“These messages appear to be an unlawful attempt to disrupt the New Hampshire presidential primary election and to suppress New Hampshire voters,” said the statement from the Attorney General’s Office. “New Hampshire voters should disregard the content of this message entirely. Voting in the New Hampshire presidential primary election does not preclude a voter from additionally voting in the November general election,” it added.
This advice appears to have been followed: citizens went to the polls on Tuesday and voted for Biden.
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