Grafton, NH is a small town with a population of just under 4,000 people. It has a government that consists of three elected Selectmen, an elected Town Clerk and Treasurer, and five appointed Planning Board members. The Board of Selectmen handle much of the town’s major decisions including budgeting for public works projects and roads, deciding on local ordinances, and overseeing the town's many departments. The Town Clerk and Treasurer manage the municipality's financial operations, while the Planning Board is responsible for approving development proposals. All these positions are filled through elections held every two years. There is no political party affiliation in Grafton so all candidates run as independents. In addition to local elections, residents also participate in county, state and national elections.
The political climate in Grafton, NH is leaning liberal.
Grafton County, NH is strongly liberal. In Grafton County, NH 61.3% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 36.8% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.9% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Grafton county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 61.3% to 36.8%.
Grafton county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Grafton, NH is leaning liberal.
Grafton County, New Hampshire is strongly liberal.
New Hampshire is leaning liberal.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Grafton, New Hampshire: d D D D D D
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D if the Democratic Party candidate won and I if the Independent Party candidate won. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Grafton, NH
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 89 contributions totaling $3,733 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $42 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 9 contributions totaling $373 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $41 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)