Right Pundits

January 10 is the New Hampshire primary and we will cover New Hampshire exit polls and election results here at RightPundits with a live blog. We will also provide links to any live streaming video if available. The 2012 Republican presidential race is now getting very real with actual ballots being cast. With the Iowa Caucus behind them, the candidates are now battling in the Granite State for the first open primary election. RightPundits will be watching all night until a winner emerges.

Updates below. Open the Live blog window at the bottom of this article for live stream and vote counter.

Updates:
(coming frequently, bookmark and return)

5pm ET
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– First 19 votes are in from midnight voting: Romney 7, Paul 5, Huntsman 4, Gingrich 2, Perry 1.

6pm ET
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– turnout is reported as heavy.
– weather is partly overcast but no rain, 40 degrees.
– New Hampshire exit poll data coming soon.
– Gingrich taking fire today from conservatives.

6.30pm ET First exit poll data:
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– half of the voters in the GOP primary were independents and half were Republicans.
– 54% call themselves conservative, 34% moderate, and 12% liberal.
– more fiscal conservatives than social conservatives, by about 2-1.
– compared to Iowa, fewer evangelicals and fewer tea-party affiliated.
– 90% are worried about the direction of our economy.
– far more want to control federal spending than spend on job growth.

6.45pm Based on the exit poll data, RightPundits calls the New Hampshire primary for Mitt Romney, winner in New Hampshire as suggested by pre-voting polls.

7pm ET (more exit polls)
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– two-thirds are satisfied with the candidates (dont misread — all Ron Paul voters are satisfied which skews everything).
– Romney candidate with best chance of beating Obama.
– 75% of voters over 45 years old.

Sure, the easy money is on Mitt Romney to walk away with a big win in New Hampshire. There is little doubt of that. How big a win will be one question answered Tuesday night. Perhaps more important will be how the rest of the field shapes up? Will there be any future for Jon Huntsman, Jr.? Will Rick Santorum get any sort of a significant bounce out of Iowa? Will Ron Paul have anything to smile about once the ballots are counted? Will Newt Gingrich still have any support or organization to fight on past January?

The New Hampshire primary is an open one, so we can expect to see plenty of Democrat cross-over voters to muddle the results. Most likely helping Ron Paul. There is a strong Libertarian voting block which should help the Texas Congressman to finish in second place without too much concern.

Find out January 10 as the 2012 New Hampshire primary takes place. We at RightPundits will cover the all of the available New Hampshire exit polls and election results with our live blog, starting at 8pm EST. We will also post any live streaming video that becomes available. RightPundits is the place to be for all of your 2012 election news.