The tenants of the White House have a huge advantage over the rest of the candidates when it comes to winning the primaries.
Even Joe Biden, one of the presidents with the lowest popularity, has easily won the New Hampshire primary, where he came fifth in 2020. He has also done so without getting off the bus: without participating in a single campaign event and without even appearing on the ballots.
The projections of the American media show him as the winner although the scrutiny still has a long way to go.
Biden is not disqualified nor has his eligibility been questioned, as has happened with Donald Trump in Colorado and Maine for his role in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The president simply missed the deadlines to register as a result of a fight of the Democratic Party to move the New Hampshire vote back into the primary calendar.
Although his name did not appear pre-printed on the ballots, citizens could vote for him by writing their name in the blank box reserved for this purpose.
Biden has not campaigned in the State, but his allies have made an effort to make it clear to voters how to do so.
“I am here to show my support for Joe Biden and encourage my friends and neighbors to vote for him,” Colin Van Ostern, a 44-year-old technology executive and prominent Democratic activist, said this Tuesday at the doors of a polling station in Concord, The state capital.
“He's not on the ballot because of a political dispute within the party, but I'm not going to let the party bureaucrats decide who I vote for, whether I'm going to vote for him or not.
“Joe Biden is the only person who has defeated Donald Trump and will do it again,” he added.
The counting of the Democratic primaries is somewhat complicated with this type of voting, since the machines do not detect the name, only that the vote goes to another candidate and must be processed manually.
In 2020, Biden achieved the Democratic nomination despite placing fifth in New Hampshire with only 8.4% of the vote.
Then, as president, Biden promoted a change in the primary calendar in the Democratic Party last year.
He urged the Democratic National Committee to change the order, removing the starting signal from the Iowa
caucuses
(a white, conservative and religious state) and giving it to the South Carolina primaries.
The goal was to give more power to black and other minority voters, crucial to the party's base.
In February, the Democratic Party approved a new schedule beginning with the South Carolina primary on February 3, followed three days later by New Hampshire and Nevada.
Iowa disciplinedly agreed to no voting in last week's Democratic
caucuses
, but New Hampshire rebelled.
State law gives New Hampshire Secretary of State, Republican David Scanlan, the exclusive authority to set the date of the 2024 primary. As has been the case for 40 years, he has set it for the Tuesday of the week following the Iowa
caucus
. The rule also establishes that the primaries must be held at least seven days before any other primaries.
The ensuing scuffle has left Biden off the ballot and prevented the winner from winning delegates to the convention that nominates the president.
21 names appeared on the Democratic ballot, including a
president,
but not by office, but by name: President R. Boddie.
Also featured is Vermin Supreme, an eccentric activist known for wearing a rubber boot on his head as a hat.
Of all of them, the only ones with some political weight are Congressman Dean Phillips and self-help book writer Marianne Williamson, who already tried in 2020, but withdrew before voting began.
[Breaking news.
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