2% of N.H. Democrats Send a Sign to McCain

Al Gore and Bill Bradley stole the headlines in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary, but let’s not overlook the third-place finisher: John McCain.

Wait, is that the same John McCain who handily won the Republican primary?

Indeed it is. Thanks to 3,320 write-in votes, McCain grabbed 2% of his opposing party’s primary Tuesday. For comparison, Gary Bauer, who quit the Republican race Friday, drew only 1% in his party’s primary. (To Bauer’s credit, 44 voters wrote in his name in the Democratic primary.)

In the Republican primary, Democratic winner Gore finished sixth, not so far behind Bauer, with 1,155 write-in votes, according to New Hampshire’s secretary of state, and Democratic runner-up Bradley was a close seventh with 1,025.

New Hampshire voters have a history of ignoring party identification. Patrick J. Buchanan, who narrowly won the Republican primary in 1996, also won 4% of the Democratic vote through write-ins. In 1984, Democratic winner Gary Hart won 5% of the Republican vote, while Republican winner Ronald Reagan got the same share among Democrats.

New Hampshirites don’t have to declare their party affiliation when they register to vote, but if they do, they are handed only that party’s ballot on primary day. Thus, those Republicans who voted for Gore and Bradley and those Democrats who supported McCain, plus the 998 who voted for Republican Steve Forbes, the 827 who voted for George W. Bush and the 424 who voted for Alan Keyes, simply liked a guy in the other party, or they were confused.

New Hampshire’s deputy secretary of state, Bob Ambrose, dismissed the latter hypothesis, at least in McCain’s case. “There’s no question in my mind that people who wrote him in knew exactly who they were voting for.”

Write-in support by another party’s voters, no matter how strong, doesn’t earn candidates any extra delegates to their nominating convention. It is simply a sign, Ambrose said, that they have broad appeal.