by ANGELA SANSON
Observer staff

MANCHESTER, N.H. — New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary has the power to thrust a candidate past his or her competition or it can effectively end a candidacy. New Hampshire has a history of shaking up the status quo. In the state where unaffiliated voters are permitted to cast ballots in either party’s contest, the outcome is often as unpredictable as the weather.

Today, voters across the state woke up to unusually warm voting weather.

“Manchester, N.H., will reach the low 50s today, a drastic difference from the 2004 primary election, when the high was 23 degrees and the low was 4 above,” says Art Lester, meteorological technician at the National Weather Service.

Today’s weather will be good news for candidates.

“New Hampshire voters are not like voters down in Virginia, where if they get an inch of snow they get all panicky,” says Dante J. Scala, associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire. “New Hampshire voters will turn out as long as there isn’t a bad snow storm,” he adds. “Tomorrow is supposed to be decent weather, so I think voter turnout will be very high.”