2024 New Hampshire primary has a twist — it doesn’t matter for Democrats. Wait, what?

In one week, New Hampshire residents will head to the polls to vote in the state’s Democratic primary. But, according to the Democratic National Committee, the ballot box may as well be a garbage bin.

Because the DNC has stripped the Granite State of delegates, its primary — scheduled for Jan. 23 — is effectively “meaningless,” according to the DNC.

This effort to neutralize the state’s role in the nominating contest has been condemned by some voters, state officials and President Joe Biden’s challengers, who have called it an attempt to subvert the democratic process.

“The DNC is certainly doing its best to annoy voters in New Hampshire, who take great pride in our first-in-the-nation status,” Kurk Dorsey, a professor at the University of New Hampshire who researches elections, told McClatchy News.

‘Meaningless’ primary

For decades, New Hampshire has held the nation’s first presidential primary, which is mandated by state law, giving it an outsize role in selecting presidential candidates.

But, in February, at the request of President Joe Biden, the DNC reshuffled the primary schedule, moving South Carolina to first in the line-up.

The move, the DNC said, reflected an effort to diversify the early primary states, which have historically been composed of states with mostly white electorates.

South Carolina is also seen as a stronghold for Biden, who won the state’s primary in 2020, revitalizing his campaign, which had suffered losses in both New Hampshire and Iowa.

But, New Hampshire officials refused to comply with the new schedule, forging ahead with plans to again host its first-in-the-nation primary on Jan. 23.

As a result, the DNC announced New Hampshire will not receive delegates or alternates — who choose the party’s nominee at the Democratic convention — effectively nullifying the state’s primary results.

The Granite State’s Democratic primary is “non-binding” and “meaningless,” and “presidential candidates should take all steps possible not to participate,” the DNC said in a Jan. 5 letter.

Biden, complying with the DNC’s guidelines, elected not to place his name on the ballot in New Hampshire. However, some voters are expected to write his name in.

“There is a low-level campaign to write in Joe Biden on Tuesday, and I think that will give him a margin of victory that will not be newsworthy,” Dorsey said.

Biden holds a double-digit lead over Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson, his longshot challengers, according to a Jan. 11 Emerson College poll. The poll, which sampled 590 voters in the state, had a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

‘Bullying of New Hampshire’

Following the DNC’s labeling of the primary as “meaningless,” the New Hampshire attorney general issued a cease-and-desist order to the DNC on Jan. 8, arguing it is interfering with the state’s democratic process.

“Regardless of whether the DNC refuses to award delegates to the party’s national convention,” the attorney general said, “this New Hampshire election is not ‘meaningless.’”

Both Phillips and Williamson, who have campaigned throughout the state, have criticized the DNC’s plan to nullify the primary.

“It is wrong of Joe Biden’s DNC to punish New Hampshire,” Phillips said in a Jan. 11 statement.

“How can we criticize Trump for carrying out political vendettas when Joe Biden’s allies are punishing New Hampshire because he came in 5th place in the Granite State?” Phillips added. “This bullying of New Hampshire has got to stop.”

Williamson, in a statement provided to McClatchy News, denounced the “masters of the universe at the DNC.”

“Offering the American people nothing more inspiring than a rerun of 2020 is strategically disastrous,” Williamson said. “It’s like we’re watching a car crash in slow motion, the DNC actively suppressing any candidacy but Biden’s with the smug conviction that their political calculations are somehow superior to robust democratic debate.”

Some voters, too, have castigated the DNC’s schedule shakeup and subsequent removal of the state’s delegates, according to WMUR.

“The DNC promotes free and fair and open elections,” Daniel Day, an undecided voter, told the outlet. “So why are they depriving New Hampshire of having a fair, free and open election?”

The DNC, though, has said it is New Hampshire officials — and their failure to comply with the new primary calendar — who should be blamed for disenfranchising and confusing voters in the state.

This story was originally published January 16, 2024 at 10:20 AM with the headline "2024 New Hampshire primary has a twist — it doesn’t matter for Democrats. Wait, what?."