MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris.
ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
Soon, it will all be over in New Hampshire. Votes will have been counted, winners announced, speeches made and the Granite State residents will once again eat at their local diners without encountering a presidential candidate or two. But today, the state's famously quirky primary voters are enjoying their moment in the sun politically and meteorologically.
NORRIS: Melissa, you've been visiting the town of Milford, New Hampshire repeatedly over the past 10 months, and you went back there today. What did you find?
MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
Well, first of all, Michele, it is hot today.
NORRIS: Hot?
BLOCK: It's positively tropical in New Hampshire, T-shirt weather, which is pretty much unheard of. In Milford, there is a very steady, a heavy turnout; a lot of voters filing into the Milford Middle School. They were expecting a possible record turnout today there and elsewhere in the state. And I talked with a number of voters after they voted in Milford. Let's take a listen to one of them. This is Stephen Shaheen, a Democrat. He voted for Hillary Clinton.
NORRIS: I just feel like the country needs a woman to run this country. I think it needs like a Mother Earth. It needs a mother to take care of the country.
BLOCK: Mother Earth?
NORRIS: That's how I feel, I mean, personally. She struck me as the person with more experience. She seems very, you know, with a lot of intelligence, a lot of education. And it's a gut feeling inside me. I can't really put words to that.
BLOCK: That was Stephen Shaheen in Milford. I also met Republican Carmen Gilbert there. She said she wants a business person to run the country. And she said she voted for Mitt Romney.
NORRIS: Somebody that could take charge and turn things around. Like they said, he has taken small businesses that were in shambles and turned them around and done good things. He has turned over the Olympics.
NORRIS: So that was one voter who was impressed with Mitt Romney, you spoke to a couple of voters there in Milford. Where else did you head today?
BLOCK: Well, we went to a great town, it's the town of Antrim, much smaller than Milford. People there voting in the town hall. If Milford has about 10,000 registered voters, Antrim has about 1,800. And Michele, how is this for small town politics? After you vote in Antrim, you can help yourself to a homemade peanut butter cookie made by the chair of the supervisors of elections, Diane Chauncey.
NORRIS: I have a reputation.
BLOCK: What's the reputation?
NORRIS: That they're very good - it's like a reward, but unfortunately, I think they're going to be going very soon. And usually they're here for most of the day.
BLOCK: Well, see, this is maybe the best indicator of turnout then because the cookies are almost gone.
NORRIS: Yeah.
BLOCK: It's only what? 11:30 in the morning. Three cookies left on her plate. I also should say the third grade classes from Antrim had painted signs in the hallway. They're great. Make your best choice; think for yourself. And then on the way out, you see a poster that says, good job voting. I did meet a voter, Edward LeMay, as he was leaving town hall. He is retired. He voted for John McCain, but he said he almost voted for Rudy Giuliani. And here's when he made up his mind.
NORRIS: Right in the booth. I've been tossing it around for quite a while. It's a hard decision to make to try to pick the right man to do the right job. And it was when I got in the booth that I finally decided it would be McCain.
NORRIS: So one of those last-minute deciders, quite literally.
BLOCK: You bet. Although most of the people we met had made up their minds well before today. We also went to the town of Hillsborough. You'll remember that New Hampshire has an open primary. You can go in an independent or undeclared voter, switch to a party to vote and then reclaim your fierce independence when you leave. Here's how that transaction sounds.
NORRIS: Now, you're undeclared, how would you like to vote?
U: Democrat, please.
NORRIS: Okay. And you know you can reregister on the way out?
BLOCK: That's ballot clerk Gail Johnson in Hillsborough. And here's a key thing, Michele. Everybody has been wondering about how these independent voters who are so strong in New Hampshire, how they will vote. Well, about 52 percent of registered voters in Hillsborough are independents. And when I was there today, the tally of those independents was breaking solidly for the Democrats, about 60 percent of independents picking up a Democratic ballot, 40 percent picking up a Republican ballot.
NORRIS: Clear trend there.
BLOCK: That's right. And I want to leave you with one last voter. This is Gil Shattuck in Hillsborough. I met him just after he voted. He's a state rep in the New Hampshire House. He says he has managed to meet most of the candidates. And he was very proudly wearing a Barack Obama button.
NORRIS: He represents the hope of a real change in Washington and that many of us have not felt since Kennedy.
BLOCK: Michele, this was such a surprising moment for me. Mr. Shattuck getting so emotional there, remembering his hopes from the election of JFK and, of course, remembering the tragedy that followed, but he said this country, he thinks, is in a mess. He thinks Hillary Clinton is too much the same old, same old, and he said it's time to move on with Barack Obama.
NORRIS: Melissa, thank you very much. Good work in New Hampshire.
BLOCK: Thanks, Michele.
NORRIS: That was our co-host Melissa Block talking to us today about voters in New Hampshire.