This blog has now finished for the day – Tom McCarthy will be picking up the reins and taking you through every twist and turn of primary night over here.

Who are you voting for?

Alison Croughwell, 28, from Salem, a farmer and student

Voted for: Bernie Sanders

“I voted for Bernie – I think he’d do a wonderful job. It’s nice to know he has been a leader but he’s also a person like us – he’s not on the same pedestal as other candidates are.”

Do we need a revolution? “Yes, I think we have forgotten where we came from and Bernie reminds us of that. I think people my age can relate to Bernie. It’s the first time at my school where I have heard a lot of kids talking about wanting to vote, and that made me excited.”

Jennifer McKenzie, 61, of Salem

“I voted for Hillary, I was undecided coming in but I thought she was probably the best candidate. I was really torn as there are not many promising candidates. But I think with the knowledge that she has Hillary can really do something. I was choosing between Hillary and Sanders but I wanted a woman. It’s time for a woman.”

Tom Parsons, 68, a retired veteran from Salem

“I voted for Donald Trump, I think he’ll bring the country back in the right direction and he’s pro-veteran. I like three or four more of the current Republican field but I decided on Trump after the first debate. We’ve had eight years of a lousy leader and we really need a shake-up.”

Here’s the view from the polls:

Who are you voting for?

Gail Schuman, a 68-year-old widow from Manchester, New Hampshire

Voted for: Hillary Clinton (decided “after the last debate”)

“I don’t think she and Bernie are as far apart as they pretend to be. Too bad they’re not running together, as running mates … I don’t think they [younger voters] grasp the importance of experience. And she has so much experience.”

Curtis Page, a 44-year-old engineer from Manchester

Voted for: Donald Trump (decided “a long time ago”)

Does America need a revolution? Yes. “I want no established politicians. I want a complete outsider. I like what he says about immigration.”

It’s interesting how many of these voters react positively to the idea America needs a “revolution” – whether they support Sanders, Clinton, Trump, Cruz …

Perhaps Sanders’s use of that word – much-derided by TV pundits when he first sprang it on them – was not such a big risk after all.

Who are you voting for?

Jim DiCarlo, a teacher from Exeter

Voted for: Bernie Sanders

Decided: “about a week ago”

Excited about a President Sanders on a scale of one to 10: 7

Excited about a President Clinton: 7

Does American need a revolution? “No, I think it’s more that I like Hillary less than I like Senator Sanders. There’s something about her I just don’t like. I know I ought to, but you don’t always get the whole story from her. Sure, I worry that Bernie can’t get elected against one of the Republicans in November, but I’ll vote for anybody that isn’t one of them. I wish there was a third choice.”

Kathleen, 52, from Exeter

Voted for: Ted Cruz. She decided late yesterday

Excited about Cruz, on a scale 1-10: 7

Rest of field: “crazy”

Does American need a revolution? “I did vote for him for a revolution, yes. I believe in his views and he showed this week that they’re consistent.”

Who are you voting for?

Carol Brewitt, of Exeter, was “very ticked off” because a registration snafu had prevented her from casting a vote for her preferred candidate – “Hillary, of course.”

“I love to travel, I love the world,” she said. “[Clinton is] very professional and she’ll keep the country right in the eyes of the world … She’s a substantial woman with a brain and she can handle all of that.”

Diane Wright, 72, of Exeter decided to support Bernie Sanders when she walked into the polling station at the Tuck Learning Campus gym in Exeter. “I love Hillary and I always wanted a woman president,” Wright said. “But I don’t really trust her. She reminds me too much of Bill.”

Wright took an online questionnaire to match her views to the best candidate, and Sanders came out on top. “He seems to care about the people,” Wright said.

Bonnie Maney, a senior citizen of Exeter, said she had switched from Clinton to Sanders two weeks ago, when her daughter, who is in her early 30s, finally convinced her.

“Every time I turned around, [my daughter] had another argument” for Sanders, Maney said. “She doesn’t know if she can even afford a house.” Maney said she was impressed when she saw Clinton speak last November, but her daughter “pretty much talked me out of it”.

Richard Pang, also of Exeter, voted for Jeb Bush. He gave Trump a mark of zero out of 10. “He talks a lot of nonsense.” Pang had supported Marco Rubio until the last debate, on Saturday, when he thought Rubio stumbled – and Bush effectively attacked Trump. “He really drew the blood of Donald Trump,” Pang said of Bush.

Who are you voting for?

Mark O’Dowd, 55, from Manchester, NH

Party: Democrat

Voted for: Hillary Clinton

Made up mind: over a month ago

Opinion on Clinton on a scale of 1-10: 6

Should there be a revolution, like Bernie Sanders has suggested? “Yes, but I don’t know that it is going happen.”

Who are you voting for?

Chris Comfort, 50, from Rochester, voted for Trump this morning.

“I really believe he can make America great again,” said Comfort, a retired pharmacist. “I really believe he’s not owned by anyone and that’s a big thing in politics today.”

Comfort said he also liked Bernie Sanders.

“He is like Donald Trump in the fact that he’s a man of principle. He doesn’t waver,” he said. “Mr Sanders has always been for what he believes in and I respect that.”

Comfort was relaxing in Mel Flanagan’s Irish pub and restaurant. I was in there eating a beef stew.

“If you want to see the value of a man look at his children,” Comfort said of Trump. Comfort is quite taken with Ivanka Trump in particular. He described her as “the American Diana”, referring to the deceased ex-wife of Prince Charles. “She’s a class act.”

Who are you voting for?

Names: Shane and Susie Stevens

Age: 45 and 47

Party: Republican

From: Rochester, New Hampshire

Voted for: Both Trump

When did you decide? Shane: “I didn’t really make up my mind until I stood in the box.” Susie: “This morning.”

Why Trump? Shane: “He has really no reason to run for president. He’s not corrupt he’s just doing it to help the country.”

How excited are you about Trump, on a scale of 1 to 10? “8.” “8.”

How excited for the rest of the GOP field? “8.” “8.”

Do you think we need a revolution? Shane: “Yes. I do. There’s too much corruption.”

Here’s what we know at this point, writes Jeb Lund: nothing. Here’s what everyone else knows: nothing.

Hillary Clinton needs to win among people to win New Hampshire, but if Bernie Sanders does better among people he will prevail, especially considering his lead among people. This could really shape our understanding of how Clinton or Sanders do amongst people.

Trump leads the Republican pack, but his voters still might not be real, which could be a problem for him, because that could mean that fewer people will vote for him than another person. That other person? He could be Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, John Kasich or Jeb Bush. It’s neck and neck between what could happen and another thing that could happen.

Not knowing anything isn’t going to stop 24-hour news from packing the day with the on-air nutritive equivalent of packing peanuts. MSNBC is, by far, the least intolerable of the big three cable networks, and even watching it for a few hours is enough to send you to an animal shelter full of rabies in a hamburger suit.

John Heilemann and Mark Halperin are there to ad lib the sequel to their seminal book, Double Change: Game Down. You could turn the TV off and simulate the process of listening to them by saying: “When it’s warm out, you don’t need to wear a sweater,” then shoving a bill down a whirring garbage disposal. If Michael Bloomberg decides to run for president, his campaign should be dragged into the street and shot merely for the fact that he pays this pair six figures, at a minimum. Rich people know how to fix things!

Helming this cruise off the edge of the world are chair-warmer Mika Brzezinski and sometime legal representative of an abortion-doctor murderer Joe Scarborough, potentially the most luminous mind to ever talk loudly on the streets of Mossy Head, Florida. That he was never locked in a Port-O-Let at the Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival and dragged into a barren stretch of scrub oak in 1994 tarnishes Okaloosa County’s legacy of being a place of good folk.

For depth, they’re periodically throwing it to Mike Barnicle, whose every good line should send you to Google just to make sure Mike Royko didn’t say it first. This is programming that makes you yearn for a Jublia ad just to see a more human toenail fungus.

Periodically leavening the broadcast are appearances by campaign strategists. Their candidates are doing very well! Their candidates’ opponents are going to be in trouble, especially if they don’t do well among people, unlike the candidates who are polling well among people. This outcome is going to surprise you, unless it doesn’t, which you shouldn’t have counted out, unless you should have expected it.

This klatsch of well-fed vampires is being filmed in front of a restaurant of New Hampshire residents, in case you were wondering where the real meat is. If you held a mirror up to it, the only people you’d see would be diners sitting behind a stack of empty, well-lit chairs.

This is Paul Owen taking over the blog from a polling place in Salem, New Hampshire.

The Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui files from Derry, New Hampshire, where Marco Rubio is attempting to contain the damage of a disastrous debate performance:

In the wake of the last Republican presidential debate, Marco Rubio has found himself combating an emerging narrative that he is too scripted – if not incapable of straying from talking points. But the Florida senator on Tuesday showed a more personal side when approached by a New Hampshire voter plagued by a family history of cancer.

It was meant to be a simple drive-by for Rubio, who visited multiple polling centers here as New Hampshire residents cast their votes for the first-in-the-nation primary. Standing outside a middle school, Rubio seamlessly worked his way through a group of volunteers and voters lined up on the sidewalk – shaking their hands and posing for pictures.

It was there that Stephanie Tsepas, a registered independent of Derry, awaited an opportunity to press the senator on cancer research.

Tsepas had met Rubio just a few nights earlier at a rally he held in the same school, but he was ushered away at the time without being able to offer her a response in full

Reintroducing herself, Tsepas spoke of how her husband had been diagnosed with colon cancer as a teenager and now her 12-year-old son was found to have a precursor of the same disease.

Rubio, to her surprise, remembered their previous encounter and this time engaged in a detailed – and deeply personal – conversation about cancer and its toll on society.

“My dad had lung cancer,” Rubio said. “He was 84. He smoked his whole life. It took him pretty quickly.”

There were also two aunts who died of pancreatic cancer, he added, and the diagnosis of his nephew with leukemia.

“He’s done well from it, but it’s tough,” Rubio said of his nephew, now 9 years old. “Every year it’s something different. It’s not just cancer, it’s all the stuff that comes with it. It’s the infections, it’s the chemo, and it’s tough to see in a little boy.”

The tale of Rubio’s father is a staple on the campaign trail – the senator has long captivated crowds with the inspirational tale of his immigrant parents, who worked as a bartender and a maid to leave their children better off. But he has seldom opened up about his father’s passing just two months before Rubio was elected to the US Senate in 2010.

Rubio also discussed with Tsepas his support for more federal funding toward cancer research. Citing the initiative Barack Obama announced in last month’s State of the Union, to be led by vice president Joe Biden, who lost his son Beau to cancer last year, Rubio said he would favor boosting investment in developing and expanding targeted cancer therapies.

He also showed interest in the specific problems Tsepas was facing, ranging from where her son would be treated to whether a procedure to remove the boy’s colon as a preventive measure would be covered by their insurance.

“I’m sorry for what you’re facing,” Rubio said, placing his arm on her shoulder as he wrapped up the conversation.

Tsepas said she walked away more impressed than she had been before. When attending Rubio’s rally on Friday, she said, “I felt like I was in one of his commercials.”

“But today, I loved the honesty. It was definitely more personal for him,” Tsepas added.

Although heading into the polls still undecided, she ultimately chose not to vote for Rubio moments later. It was not that the senator wasn’t personable, she said, adding that it was a tough decision.

In the end, Tsepas simply concluded she was seeking a candidate with more experience.

“I just don’t think now is his time,” she said. “Maybe in four years.”

Illustrator Sophie Yanow drove to West Lebanon and in New Hampshire to meet voters and sketch them – they told her who they voted for, and why:

Who are you voting for?

Andrew J Stollar

Age: 74

Party: Republican

Profession: Retired

From: Exeter, New Hampshire

Voting for: Donald Trump

Made up his mind: This morning.

Support for Trump, 1-10: 10

“I like Trump’s positions. I was going to vote for Carson on principles, and because he’s more intellectual than Trump, but really I would vote for any of the Republican field except Bush. I’m a solid conservative, and I really like Trump.”

“There doesn’t need to be a revolution in poltics, but there needs to be a revolution in Washington DC and for the distribution of power to come back to the states.”

The tiny hamlet of Dixville Notch was the first to close voting in the New Hampshire primary today, with all nine eligible residents having cast their ballots by 20 seconds past midnight. Counting the votes took just three minutes, continuing the town’s tradition of being the first to report results, a title it has held since 1964.

Ohio governor John Kasich was declared the Republican winner, beating Donald Trump by three votes to two, while Bernie Sanders won all four of the Democratic votes.

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Comedy Central’s attempt at a cure for our Jon Stewart-less late-night comedy doldrums, has tasked its “foreign exchange producer” – Bee is Canadian – with figuring out why Jeb(!) Bush has failed to catch fire with American voters.

The answer: Bush is like milk.

“We’ve come to New Hampshire because we have questions for this question mark of a Jeb with an exclamation point. This candidate who should be winning, but instead is totally getting his ass handed to him by an oddly tinted compilation of psychiatric symptoms [Donald Trump] and by a man who seems like he would lecture a starving kitten on personal responsibility, and then deport that kitten and his family [Ted Cruz].

If Jeb were a drink, according to one supporter, he would be milk, because “milk is just a normal thing that wouldn’t be fantastic if you could choose any drink, but it’s a solid drink to have.”

Bush is currently in a tight race for second place in the New Hampshire primaries, with Cruz, Marco Rubio and John Kasich all jostling for the single non-Trump ticket out of New Hampshire.

Who would you vote for?

Who are you voting for?

Robert Goeman

Age: 66

Party: Republican

Profession: Retired three weeks ago

From: Exeter, New Hampshire

Voted for: Donald Trump

Made up his mind: About a month ago

Opinion on Donald Trump, scale 1-10: 9

Do we need a revolution? “Well, yes and no. We need to find the person who will change the way things are done and I don’t think there is anyone else who will be able to do that apart from Trump. We need an outsider to be able to achieve that.”

Like Taylor Swift, Ted Cruz’s response to Donald Trump repeating the vulgar insult of a primary voter was to “shake it off.”

Speaking briefly to reporters at the Red Arrow Diner in Manchester, New Hampshire, Cruz said that Trump’s repetition of a criticism that labeled him “a pussy” was typical Trump behavior. “He didn’t like that he lost in Iowa and his response is to simply yell and insult and engage in profanity,” Cruz said. “My approach is not respond in kind. From the beginning of campaign when he and others have chosen to insult, to go to the gutter I don’t respond in kind.”

Cruz then pivoted to claim “a vote for Donald Trump is a vote for Obamacare” and to claim “if you vote for Donald Trump, you vote for Bernie Sanders style socialized medicine.”

The Texas senator defeated Trump in the Iowa caucuses by a margin of 27.6% to 24.3%.

The Democratic and/or Republican candidate selected by the town of Rochester has ultimately won the New Hampshire primary every election since 1972. (Apart from 1992. That year Rochester voted for Bill Clinton. Paul Tsongas ended up winning in New Hampshire.)

So Rochester should serve as a good indicator of who will be crowned Premier of the Primaries this evening. And according to the twenty minutes I just spent at Rochester’s Voting Ward 2, Donald Trump is going to win. And win big!!

Christine Draper

Age: 47

Party: Republican

From: Rochester, New Hampshire

Voting for: Jeb Bush

Made up her mind: Last week

Opinion on Donald Trump, scale of 1 -10: 4

“I would have preferred to vote for Bernie Sanders, but I’m a declared Republican so I couldn’t.” By the time Draper decided on Sanders it was too late to switch her affiliation. “I knew what Bernie’s message was – it was once I heard his plan to put it in place [that I decided I would have voted for him].”

“I believe Donald Trump, when he spouts his stuff, he doesn’t necessarily mean it the way it comes out. But that’s not good.”

Do you think we need a revolution? “I do, I absolutely do. I don’t believe the political system as it is represents what the people want.”

Who are you voting for?

Glenn Klink

Age: 55

Party: Independent

Profession: Unemployed, on disability

From: Exeter, New Hampshire

Voting for: Dr. Ben Carson, the “most reasonable, kind-hearted man in the field.”

Do we need a revolution? “Should be, yeah – and what I tweeted out to all my independent friends is that if you’re gonna vote Democrat, vote for Bernie … Don’t forget, you gotta vote ABC: anybody but Clinton. That woman cannot be trusted.”

Less than a month after Donald Trump began his improbable presidential campaign that has brought him to the cusp of victory in the New Hampshire primaries, the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs (a latter-day Cassandra who prefers to be known as a latter-day Jeremiah) pointed out that the “loudmouth who has never spent a day in public office” was resonating with voters in a way seldom seen before.

Seven months later, his initial instincts about Trump’s candidacy are eerily prescient:

Donald Trump is a loudmouth who has never spent a day in public office. And that is why his supporters want him to be president.

The controversial billionaire’s rise in polls regarding the Republican field has been met by the chattering classes with a sense of shock and disgust. Trump has been tabloid fodder for decades, for a colorful personal life, a propensity foroutlandish statements and, of course, his hair.

But as Republican candidates back away from him over his remarks about Mexico and immigrants, and corporate partners cut business ties, Trump has rocketed in the polls. The very qualities that earn the former host of The Celebrity Apprentice the scorn of media and political elites cause many everyday voters to embrace him.

Presidential hopefuls from the Republican and the Democratic parties are making a final push in New Hampshire as voting begins in earnest in the state’s “first in the nation” primary election. Hillary Clinton was joined by daughter Chelsea as she visited a polling station in Manchester on Tuesday morning, while Marco Rubio greeted supporters at another location in the same town.

Who are you voting for?

Christine Telge

Age: 48

Party: Republican

Profession: Works for a non-profit

From: Manchester, New Hampshire

Voting for: John Kasich

Made up her mind: “In the last hour”

Support for Trump, 1-10: 8

Support for Rest of Field: 1

Telge was going to vote Democratic but read about alleged anti-police remarks by
Bernie and changed her mind. “I’m in for mood for change and Hillary’s
part of the same problem: too many corporate dollars these days. I
like the way Kasich’s run his campaign. He’s been positive and a
breath of fresh air.”

The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs reports from the most important diner in New Hampshire:

The Red Arrow Diner in a Manchester institution, serving up coffee, bacon and burgers for decades. The result is that it has also become an absolute mob scene as presidential candidates flock for photo opportunities. The zoo-like atmosphere today has been amplified because Sirius radio is hosting a talk show here today with the result that candidates even more incentive to show up for a meet and greet. The Guardian showed up early to see senator Ted Cruz. However, the place was already packed because of the presence of fellow presidential candidate Ben Carson.

To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, the campaign to come in first out of all the losers is heating up.

“Democracy in action!” is more than just an empty aphorism muttered by shrugging cable news correspondents when confronted with evidence of how strange and poorly organized the electoral process is – it’s also a real action!

Reuters has a live video feed from a New Hampshire voting station, where Granite Staters are exercising their not-entirely-fair prerogative as citizens of the “first in the nation” primary state to select the likely presidential nominees for each party. (Hey, it’s better than a smoke-filled room.)

It’s like “The Room Where It Happens,” except Aaron Burr might have been a little disappointed.

Opinion: Candidates avoid the aid in dying debate, but it’s time to start talking about it

Since physiological support like respirators and defibrillators made it possible to prolong life, prolonging death has fueled a more subtle conversation, writes Ann Neumann:

Several factors have made politicians, particularly at the national level, reluctant to wade into the aid-in-dying conversation. Catholic leaders and their evangelical “pro-life” allies have eviscerated any politician willing to discuss aid in dying, shutting down dialogue and branding advocates as “pro-death”. By claiming to represent American religions, these vocal opponents have bifurcated the issue along political lines, all but silencing those who are religious but disagree.

Yet a conversation is taking place, with or without the presidential candidates. Since the 1970s, when physiological support, like respirators and defibrillators, made it possible to prolong life, prolonging death has fueled a more subtle conversation about what medical decisions patients and their families can make. Aid in dying is now approved by 68% of Americans, a number that rose by a striking 10 points in the course of a year, according to a Gallup poll conducted in May 2015. It’s now legal in five states with at least a dozen more considering bills or legislation.

Still, the issue was absent from the presidential race until a terminal cancer patient finally asked a question last week. Jim Kinhan, an 81-year-old with a face as rosy as his sweater, asked Hillary Clinton at a New Hampshire town hall meeting on 3 February about her position on the legalization of aid in dying.

“I wonder what leadership you could offer within an executive role that might help advance the respectful conversation that is needed around this personal choice that people may make, as we age and deal with health issues or be the caregivers of those people, to help enhance and – their end of life with dignity.” His voice was raspy, his question respectful. The Washington Post reported that Clinton “looked a bit nervous”. After a slight pause and some careful word selection, Clinton failed to take a position.

Who are you voting for?

Dan Gaulin

Age: 47

Party: Republican

Profession: Beer vendor at the Verizon Center

From: Bedford, New Hampshire

Spotted at: Donald Trump rally in Manchester, Monday, 7.25pm

Voting for: Donald Trump

Made up his mind: “A few days ago”

Support for Trump, 1-10: 8

Support for Rest of Field: 5-6

“I’m a vet, so what he’s gonna try to do for us. And I like the idea of him getting out the illegal aliens now – we have to get ahead of the game. So, yeah.”

Reporting from New Hampshire, the Guardian’s DC bureau chief Dan Roberts asked a few young Granite State voters why they’re supporting Bernie Sanders. The consensus: His progressivism seems legit.

The son of Republican presidential candidate and real estate billionaire Donald Trump declared on Fox News last night that his father’s endorsement of waterboarding is more than defensible, comparing the practice to “what happens on college campuses in frant houses.”

“You see these terrorists that are flying planes into buildings,” said Eric Trump on Fox News’s On the Record. “You see our cities getting shot up in California. You see Paris getting shot up.”

“And then somebody complains when a terrorist gets waterboarded, which quite frankly is no different than what happens on college campuses in frat houses everyday,” Trump continued. “You know the man will keep this country safe.”

On Saturday, the elder Trump declared that he would “bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding”, or simulated drowning, at the Republican debate in Manchester, New Hampshire.

If the polls can’t predict the election, maybe the planets can.

“Whoever does well in New Hampshire, it looks like this might be who is president in November,” astrologer Christopher Renstrom said.

Renstrom isn’t #FeelingTheBern or the #Marcomentum. Instead, he’s going off the alignment of the planets during the 2016 presidential campaign and comparing them to the alignment of planets when candidates were born to see who’s got astrology in their favor.

Last week in Iowa, polls pointed to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both galloping home with wins. However, Trump scraped by with second place and Clinton barely held on to beat Bernie Sanders by the tiniest of margins.

So with all eyes on New Hampshire’s primary on Tuesday night where Trump and Sanders are expected to win, Renstrom, a Salt Lake City-based astrologer who writes daily horoscopes, did the candidate’s charts.

Bernie Sanders was once a Democratic underdog who barely registered in the polls – now the senator has thousands of New Hampshire supporters buckled into his “political revolution” bandwagon leading up to a primary that could catapult him over Hillary Clinton. Dan Roberts reports from Manchester on how Sanders became a force to be reckoned with:

If the revolution rolls on much longer, Bernie Sanders will no longer need to finish his speeches at all. He may simply be able to rely on the audience to supply the punchlines.

“Who is the biggest welfare recipient in America?” he asked a rally in Rindge on Saturday. “Walmart,” they booed in unison, eagerly anticipating his now familiar critique of the retailer’s low pay.

“What happened to the banks?” he mused in Manchester two days later. “They stole the country, the assholes,” shouted a voice from the crowd, with only minor embellishment of the intended homily on Wall Street greed.

Though the content has changed little since he first challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic party nomination in May last year, what began as a set of lectures full of rhetorical questions have evolved into call-and-response pantomime.

But despite the angry message at these trademark rallies, young crowds and an anarchic music soundtrack have brought a carnival atmosphere to the campaign trail unlike that of any other candidate in 2016.

Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are on opposite ends of the political spectrum – well, unless you consider their stances on single-payer health care – but their supporters have some surprising similarities. Half of Trump’s supporters say they are angry at Washington, and a third of Sanders’ supporters agree. Meanwhile, 43% of Trump’s supporters are registered Democrats who are fed up with the status quo.

Can you tell the difference?

Clinton’s struggle with young women in spotlight as New Hampshire votes

Hillary Clinton’s struggle to attract young female voters as she aims for the “highest, hardest glass ceiling” is facing renewed scrutiny as she tried to make an impact in the New Hampshire primary.

As voters started turning out on a snowy election day in New England, polls showed dwindling support for the former secretary of state among women of all ages, at the same time that a substantial share of young Democrats say they support Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. The state is expected to hand him a decisive victory.

Clinton’s problems in galvanising young women were starkly exposed when a feminist icon and a female trailblazer made separate comments admonishingthem for flocking to Sanders.

Gloria Steinem, the author and activist, told HBO’s Bill Maher that women “get more activist as they grow older. And when you’re younger, you think: ‘Where are the boys? The boys are with Bernie.’” Madeleine Albright, the country’s first female secretary of state, told Clinton supporters: “There’s a special place in hellfor women who don’t help each other.”

Steinem apologized on her Facebook page while Clinton defended Albright’s remark as “light-hearted but very pointed”.

But the backlash underscored a generational rift among women and self-described feminists that the Clinton campaign has struggled to bridge.

Donald Trump has an explanation for calling fellow presidential candidate and Iowa caucus victor Ted Cruz a “pussy” yesterday:

This morning’s woodcut from the New York Daily News, the second-most popular tabloid among Gotham’s straphangers:

The Clinton campaign, apparently unpreoccupied by the New Hampshire primary, is putting a few Hollywood celebrities on blast.

Nick Nerrill, Clinton’s traveling press secretary, declared that a news article questioning the relationship between the candidate’s foundation and nations that benefitted from arms deals facilitated by the state department was a “baseless smear.” Merrill, not one to sub-tweet, called out actors Susan Sarandon and Mark Ruffalo by name for sharing the article as “a new low.”

Said celebrities are not taking this lying down (or maybe they are – it’s Twitter, you can do it from bed).

With the nine residents casting their votes by 20 seconds past midnight, a few tiny towns continue a New Hampshire tradition and gives candidates an early boost. Adam Gabbatt reports from North Hampton:

John Kasich and Bernie Sanders received early boosts in New Hampshire early on Tuesday morning, when each was declared the primary winner in the tiny town of Dixville Notch.

Nine people cast their votes in the northern New Hampshire town just after midnight. The voting was over by around 20 seconds past 12. When the votes were counted, around three minutes later, Ohio governor Kasich was declared the Republican winner, beating Donald Trump by three votes to two.

On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders won Dixville Notch by a landslide. He received four votes compared with Hillary Clinton’s zero.

Dixville Notch has been known since 1964 as the first New Hampshire town to vote. It has become a tradition for nation’s media to descend on the town to cover the results of the ballot.

On the eve of the primary, Donald Trump repeated an offensive remark from a member of the crowd about Ted Cruz’s position on waterboarding. Ben Jacobs reports from Manchester:

Donald Trump used his final rally before Tuesday’s New Hampshire presidential primary to sling a litany of insults at his rivals, raising eyebrows when he repeated an offensive remark from a member in the crowd who shouted that Ted Cruz’s position on waterboarding made him “a pussy”.

As voters began to brave the New England snow, the echo from a rumbustious Trump rally was still rippling across the state.

Voting began shortly after midnight in a handful of remote New Hampshire hamlets and was due to end at 8pm. If the polls are correct, in the Democratic race, senator Bernie Sanders, from neighbouring Vermont, is expected to comfortably hold off Hillary Clinton, while presidential ambitions hang in the balance for many in a crowded Republican field.

Trump, who seeks to put a chastening defeat in Iowa behind him, is a clear favorite in what appears to be a Republican battle for second place. There is no evangelical wave here to lift the Iowa victor Ted Cruz and the so-called establishment candidates are struggling to break out.

New Hampshire: It’s home to America’s first astronaut, its first potato and its first primary. Tonight’s vote could determine the fate of this year’s slew of presidential candidates, from Donald Trump’s out-of-left-field campaign to Bernie Sanders’ way-out-of-literal-left-field campaign.

For the curious or confused, a quick explainer on the New Hampshire primary and what’s at stake in the Granite State: