Merrimack is a town of roughly 27,000 people in southeastern New Hampshire, and during Tuesday's primary, there was just one polling place for all residents: Merrimack High School.
So in the hours before the polls closed at 7 p.m., the roads leading to the voting booths became snarled in traffic so congested that the Merrimack Police Department warned commuters to expect "major delays."
Merrimack resident Jacqui Lantagne, 30, told BuzzFeed News that she, along with dozens of other frustrated voters, had parked their cars in the lots of businesses along the side of Daniel Webster Highway and were plodding through the snowy terrain on foot. There were cars as far as the eye could see, she said.
"It is insane traffic. It’s not like this at all normally in New Hampshire, especially in Merrimack," Lantagne said by phone, shivering and huffing in the 21-degree evening air. Despite purposely leaving her job at a local college for the day early, around 4:30 p.m., she'd given up on driving and parked at a children's playground a half-mile from the school. "The one voting location they have is a little bit landlocked and tough to get to, so it's creating a really big bottleneck."
Lantagne did manage to reach the high school just before 7 p.m. She said she was still torn between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.
The gridlock began building up early in the day, leading commuters to post pictures and grumble.
Traffic doesn't normally get bumper-to-bumper in Merrimack.
And traffic apps were warning drivers to stay clear.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/23VIRbJ
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