Bernie Sanders Pulls Away in Final New Hampshire Polls as State’s First Votes Are Cast | Eastern North Carolina Now

Publisher's note: This informational nugget was sent to me by Ben Shapiro, who represents the Daily Wire, and since this is one of the most topical news events, it should be published on BCN.

The author of this post is Emily Zanotti.

    Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has pulled away from the pack according to the last polls taken before the New Hampshire primary, extending his lead over former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg, who has been on a steady, downward trend since winning the Iowa caucus last week.

    The WBZ-Boston Globe-Suffolk University poll - widely believed to be the best tracking poll for the New Hampshire Primary - shows Sanders with "breathing room" Tuesday morning, as the first votes were being cast in the first-in-the-nation direct ballot primary.

    "The poll shows Sanders with an 8-point lead in the Granite State, receiving the backing of 27 percent of respondents," The Hill reports. "Buttigieg was second in the poll with 19 percent of the vote and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) surged to third place with 14 percent."

    That's excellent news for Klobuchar, but bad news for Buttigieg, who had hoped for a first or strong second place finish in New Hampshire to cement his position among the top contenders for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. On Monday, Buttigieg was certified as the "winner" of the Iowa caucus, taking 14 of the state's delegates with him to the Democratic National Convention, but losing Iowa's popular vote to Sanders by just 0.1%.

    Former Vice President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren are now far behind the leaders, at 11.8% and 11.6%. The two are now battling it out for fourth place. Biden, who was once considered the most likely nominee, will be lucky if he doesn't come in fifth in New Hampshire after a very disappointing fourth place showing in Iowa. Biden has never been expected to do well in New Hampshire, given how distant he was from the state across his political career, but Warren, who hails from the state just next door, was once predicted to win this primary. If she doesn't poll well tonight, she may be out of the race.

    Sanders' jump is coming at the expense of Warren, according to David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center.

    "This is the first time all of the survey is post-debate. Whether Klobuchar's spike is temporary remains to be seen," he told the Hill. "Sanders's improvement comes in two areas: the West/North region - the four counties that know him best - and people torn between him and Warren. If Klobuchar were to finish third or fourth, she's going to knock someone into that fifth spot, a real dire place to be for Biden or Warren."

    New Hampshire's delegates are not winner-take-all, according to political tracking site, FiveThirtyEight, so there's room for some candidates (most likely Buttigieg) to claim a partial victory Tuesday night.

    "Of the Granite State's 24 pledged delegates, eight are divvied up among candidates based on their statewide vote shares, eight are allotted based on their vote shares in the 1st Congressional District and eight are allocated based on their vote shares in the 2nd Congressional District."

    Tuesday morning, some districts were already reporting results. Dixville Notch, the very first town in the United States to cast ballots for president, gave its one vote to Bernie Sanders. Hart's Location and Millsfield, the second towns to vote, handed Amy Klobuchar her first wins, giving her a grand total of eight votes and putting her in the - likely very temporary - lead.