MANCHESTER, N.H. -- New Hampshire primary voters are finally going to the polls on Tuesday, and presidential hopefuls are following them there.
Ahead of a jumbled primary in a state where surprises are common, candidates are making their final push by visiting polling sites around the state. And though winning over voters moments before they cast their ballots may be unlikely, each of the White House hopefuls is getting plenty of media attention doing it.
A poll worker at Webster Elementary School here had to tell Jeb Bush and the crush of media surrounding him to get out of the way so that Granite State voters could get to the ballot box. Bush and his wife, Columba, hopped over a brick divider and into the snow to clear a path.
“One of us is going to fall,” the former Florida governor told his wife. (They didn’t.)
Bush is one of a handful of candidates in need of a boost from the first-in-the-nation primary. Polls show Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders with comfortable leads in that state, but how the race shakes out after that is anyone’s guess.
“This is a long, long process. A lot of things can happen in a very volatile year,” Bush told reporters.
Shortly before Bush’s visit, Chris Christie made a stop at the same school. The New Jersey governor sits sixth in most polls and is in desperate need of a surprise surge. He told NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell he was optimistic and that internal polls show him faring better than public surveys suggest.
"We've seen a real surge since Saturday night. And so we expect ... to do very well," he said. "It's an amazing moment."
And, in a sign of just how small this state can feel at times, Hillary Clinton ran into Carly Fiorina’s husband, Frank, when she visited a middle school in Derry, N.H. The two exchanged small talk before parting ways.
Carly Fiorina, meanwhile, made a number of stops at polling places around the greater Manchester area. The former Hewlett-Packard executive, whose sluggish poll numbers prevented her from making the final debate before the primary, is another candidate in need of a strong showing.
She made no predictions about Tuesday night’s outcome.
Marco Rubio, who was surging after a strong finish in Iowa, dismissed the notion that Saturday's debate could hurt his upshot candidacy. "We will leave here with more delegates than we came with and we feel good about that," he said, according to a pool report.
And for voters here who unwittingly showed up to a polling place when candidates and a crush of media were there, they at least have some solace.
“At least it will be over soon,” said a voter leaving a Manchester polling place.