23:04

A voter carries his ballot from a voting booth while voting in the New Hampshire. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

Like many New Hampshire voters, Shalimar, who works as an interpreter in Manchester and who was reluctant to give her last name, confessed that she was still undecided as she entered her local polling place this afternoon, in the third ward of the city. She was wavering between a vote for Bernie Sanders and former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick.

How would she choose between them? “Ask God to guide my hand,” she said, laughing.

She added that she’d also found Amy Klobuchar impressive but feared the senator’s gender would prove an obstacle. “I don’t think America’s ready for that, for a woman being in that office. I think we’ve gone backwards.” She said that she worried about Sanders’ “age and health” but above all she was anxious at what Donald Trump would do if elected to a second term. “I’m very scared,” she said.

Jeannie Peschier, aged 57 and a carer for her elderly father, had suffered no last-minute hesitation. She was all in for Sanders. “We’ve got to get rid of that bozo,” she said of Trump. “Bernie is the one with the integrity, the consistency - he’s bold like FDR. He’s for us regular people who run out of money at the end of the month.”

Did she share the much-discussed fears over Sanders’ electability? “No. He’s a populist like Trump. He’ll know what to do. Bernie will kick his butt. Trump will be in the corner crying after Bernie gets done with him.”



