New research from the University of New Hampshire has found that the state's voting population doesn’t look the same as it did in 2020.
Kenneth Johnson, who led the study, said when people think of New Hampshire they might think of an aging population with deep roots in the state.
They might think of the television show, The West Wing, and its fictional U.S. President, Jed Bartlet, a Granite Stater whose ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence.
But when it comes to today's voting population, Johnson says that image doesn’t hold up.
“When I tell them that only a third of the adults of the over 25 population were born in the state, they're like, really?” Johnson said.
In fact, Johnson and his team say the state's voting population has shifted a lot even since 2020. More than 200,000 new voters could be heading to the polls. That includes lots of people who moved to the state and young people voting for the first time.
In addition, Johnson’s study finds a little more than 200,000 longtime residents have either died or moved out of the state.
“It's a very mobile state and [people’s] picture of New England is that everybody's been here forever,” Johnson said.
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Johnson said young voters tend to lean left politically while new residents are more politically diverse — so what happened at the polls in 2020 might not predict what happens in the 2024 primary and the general election.
