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Final results: Summary results | Town resultsThe BasicsThe New Hampshire primary is a mainstay in American electoral politics. Every four years, voters gather to help determine the Republican and/or Democratic nominee for President. While the state only has 12 electoral votes in 2012 (normally it’s 24, but the Republican National Committee penalized the state party for moving up the event date), the primary’s position as one of the earliest contests gives the state out-sized influence over the nomination process.Only the Iowa caucuses come before New Hampshire’s primary. Traditionally, New Hampshire’s broad-based primary contest has been seen as a counter-weight to Iowa’s more drawn-out caucus process, which tends to draw a smaller core of party faithful. In the case of the 2012 Republican race, New Hampshire’s electorate is seen to represent the more libertarian-leaning, fiscally conservative wing of the party, while Iowa voters are seen as representing the socially conservative wing of the GOP base.N.H. Primary summary provided by StateImpact - NH reporter, Amanda Loder

Close Race for District 4 Executive Council Seat

NH GOP

An Executive Council race in the Manchester area turned out to be one of the state's closest primary races. According to the initial returns, Bob Burns eked out a slim victory over former state senator Tom Deblois and Manchester businessman Chuck Rolecek.

Burns, the Hillsborough County Treasurer, courted conservative and Tea Party voters in the district.

All three candidates garnered at least a third of all votes cast, with Burns edging out out Deblois by just 99 votes.

With such close results, the returns are slated for an automatic recount. But Burns doesn't anticipate a change in the final outcome:

"We've never seen here in New Hampshire, that I'm aware of, where you've had a huge discrepancy in the vote counts, so it's very unlikely that you'll see a different winner come out of the election at this point."

If he wins, Burns will face Democrat Chris Pappas in November.

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