Mechanical Failures Slow N.H. Voting

MANCHESTER, N.H.--It was a warm and sunny primary day, with none of Monday's cold weather, but voting in New Hampshire's largest city was slowed by other factors--confusion over the ballotting procedure and mechanical failures at the polls.

Long lines and waits of up to an hour greeted many Manchester voters in this industrial city's 12 wards.

A ballot featuring both a record number of presidential candidates and amendments to the state constitution, voting machine breakdowns, and a heavier-than-expected turnout in some wards contributed to the slowdown.

On the Democratic ballot alone, there were 91 choices for nine delegate slots, 60 for alternate delegates, 14 presidential candidates and even two vice presidential candidates.

"Half of them don't understand," Edward Grandmaison, a moderator for Ward four said. "They look for the presidential candidates, and then the delegates, and then the amendments, and get confused."

In ward 11, across the Merrimac River from Manchester's downtown, there was a waiting line of about 100 voters, 45 minutes before the polls closed at 6 p.m.

"I've never seen anything like it in my 30 years here," moderator Albert Boutin said.

Machine Politics

Richard Gamache, a Democrat, complained as he left the basement of the Alpine Club--polling place for Ward 11, that there weren't enough Democratic machines. Ward 11 is predominantly democratic.

Gamache said he waited a half-hour before voting.

Earlier in the day, at 2 p.m., voters waited for more than an hour at the Brookside Congregational Church in ward one, the only heavily Republican ward in the city. Margaret Lessard, a Democrat, said she waited an hour and 15 minutes to vote. She attributed the wait to the lack of Democratic voting machines--only three were available, as opposed to seven Republican booths.

"I waited an hour," Evelyn Kane, a teacher, said. "This whole thing is stacked against the Democrats."

Rudolph Makara, Ward one moderator, said voters jamming the polls caused mechanical failures by trying to vote for the constitutional amendments before the presidential candidates.

Ultima MacDonald said she thinks the delay was cuased by "the long, complicated ballot."

Two women at the Brookside Church said the long lines had discouraged them from voting when they first came.

"I came at 10:30 a.m., but the line was huge," Lorraine Otis said, "so I came back this afternoon."

Ward even, where Sen. Birch Bayh (D-Ind.) appeared to campaign, didn't see long delays. At Our Lady of Perpetual Health on Cypress St., the Democratic line was backed up at 4:30 p.m. but the Republican line was moving quickly.

Russell Taber, moderator for ward seven, attributed the lines to a "late-afternoon surge."

James White, a Republican, was waiting for his wife to cast her ballot. He said he felt the ballot was confusing. "It's really complicated with all those levers staring you in the face," he said.

Outside many of the polling places, volunteers carrying placards stood handing out literature for their candidates.

Ellen Barry, a Harris supporter from Somerville and a student at New York University Law School, said several members of the Kennedy family campaigned for Sargent Shriver outside the Ward 11 polls yesterday, but she said they were "flaky kids."

Outside ward three's Franklin St. polls, John Lally carried a "Write-in for Jackson" sign. He said he was paid $2.50 per hour for his services, but a Jackson spokesman denied paying anyone for campaign work.

C. Edward Barassa, a former state senator and Jackson coordinator, said all his workers were volunteers.