Some voters are ready for the campaigning to end

While those who volunteer for the candidates stumping through New Hampshire in advance of today’s primary were excited about the process, some voters are glad to see the brouhaha die down.

“We probably get 15 to 20 mails every day and they just go directly in the trash or recycling or burn for heat,” Joshua Tessier, 36, said outside his polling station in Manchester. “We don’t look at them.”

Sue O’Shaughnessy, 72, considers the tactics to reach out voters too excessive.

“This has been going on for months. All I can say is that today is the last day, and thank the Lord that we don’t have to listen to them anymore,” she said.

O’Shaughnessy said the best way for a voter to be persuaded is to listen directly to a candidate at an event. She regrets the long campaign season and that the cycle is repeated every four years.

“It’s months and months and constant phone calls, and I don’t even answer them,” she said.

New Hampshire residents have a unique opportunity to meet candidates personally at the hundreds of events in schools, churches and diners. They have a vote before the rest of the country, except for the Iowa Caucuses, to decide on a presidential candidates. But that means volunteers are doing a lot of reaching out to potential voters.

Joe Ruggerio said he doesn’t like phone calls or people knocking on his door.

“I like to make up my own mind,” he said.

The ability of Independents to participate on the primaries of either party as well as the number of undecided voters give incentives to the campaigns to keep looking for one more vote until the last minute.

“I actually didn’t make up my mind until I got to the voting poll,” Ruggerio said after voting Tuesday. “That’s when I picked.”