At last, the state renowned for its first-in-the-nation primary gets to finish what it started.

Polls opened across the Granite State this morning, and as the day got going, voters were waiting.

Turnout in the Monadnock Region and around New Hampshire is expected to top 80 percent. That, election officials say, will translate into a busy day at the ballot box.

“We’re thinking that it’s going to be sustained and then just absolutely crazy for a few hours,” Keene City Clerk Patricia A. Little said shortly after 8 a.m as the first wave of Ward 2 voters poured into the Keene Recreation Center on Washington Street.

“It’ll be like this all day, and then when people get out of work, it’ll be even busier,” she said.

The parking lot was full. Cars sat alongside the road. And inside, a long line of people snaked through the halls.

The first one there was Marianne Parisi, who said she arrived at about 7:20 a.m. Half an hour later, at least 76 people were already set to follow.

“I knew the lines were going to be horrendous,” said Parisi, 59. “I do think the polls should open at six, like they do in New York City.

“This is a crucial election, and I think there are some people who are not going to be able to vote because of the time, from 8 to 7,” she said. “I’m here. That’s the important thing.”

And she was out by 8:02, with several others standing behind, ready to turn in their ballots.

Only one town in the Monadnock Region opened its doors at 7 a.m. And those election staffers in Rindge saw a large group enter the room.

Moderator David M. Tower said 189 voters had cast ballots in the first 25 minutes. Typically, he said, about 75 voters come through in the first hour.

Back in Keene, the anticipated high turnout led city officials to move Ward 5 voting from its usual spot at the Trinity Lutheran Church to the more spacious confines of Keene High School.

By about 8:40 a.m., Moderator Anne D. Moyle said the “busy” crowd had already numbered about 350 and she was estimating 2,800 people would cast ballots.

Among them was 52-year-old Democrat Sandra M. Van de Kauter, who clutched an American flag as she spoke to The Sentinel about her support for Barack Obama.

“I think that if he was (elected), it will represent my country turning a corner on a number of levels,” she said, describing Obama as capable of being a strong, thoughtful and fiscally responsible leader. “I think he represents the future of America in terms of where we should head as a people.”

Republican Robert E. Hamlin, 66, who stood outside the Swanzey polls at the Christian Life Fellowship church, said Obama is a candidate that, if elected, Americans would later regret.

“He’s worse than a socialist,” Hamlin said. “He’s really a communist.”

Republican Paul Loves, 85, of Keene — who was headed to vote for John McCain — said he doesn’t think Obama is experienced enough for the job, whereas 51-year-old Swanzey Democrat Lynn M. Baker said, “Sarah Palin scares me absolutely to death.”

But regardless of their differing politics, poll-goers seemed in agreement this morning about the significance of this election.

Given the “terrible” state of the economy, Loves said, “It’s going to really make a big difference, whoever gets (elected).”

Twenty-seven-year old Democrat and Obama supporter Patrick A. Brown of Swanzey called this election “one of the most important elections in history” and noted that, regardless of who sits in the Oval Office, the country will either have its first African-American president or first female vice president.

“The problems that we face right now are tremendous,” he said. But, he added, the opportunity voters have today to change the course of history is tremendous, too.

Sentinel staff writer Amanda Borozinski contributed to this report.

David Greisman can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1439, or dgreisman@keenesentinel.com

Anika Clark can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1432, or aclark@keenesentinel.com

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