Mitt Romney is poised to take a big step toward the Republican US presidential nomination today by capturing New Hampshire, hoping to ride out last-minute attacks from his rivals and recover from a self-inflicted wound.
Voting is underway and is reported to be brisk.
The former governor of neighbouring Massachusetts carried a sizeable lead in polls into voting day, a sufficient cushion that should force rivals Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum into a battle for second place.
Mr Romney (63), would be the first Republican who is not an incumbent president to win the first two early voting states, after his slim eight-vote victory over former Pennsylvania Senator Santorum a week ago in the Iowa caucuses.
A more resounding win today would give him momentum going into South Carolina on January 21st and Florida on January 31st. He leads in both states and victories there could all but sew up his nomination to face Democratic president Barack Obama in the November 6th election.
A Suffolk University/7 News tracking poll today showed Mr Romney with 37 per cent support among New Hampshire voters, versus 18 per cent for Mr Paul, 16 percent for Huntsman, 11 per cent for Mr Santorum, 9 per cent for Mr Gingrich and 1 percent for Texas Governor Rick Perry.
Seven per cent of voters were undecided in the telephone survey on Sunday and yesterday, which had an error margin of 4.4 percentage points. The same poll yesterday had Mr Romney at 33 per cent and Mr Paul at 20 per cent.
"You're going to make a big statement tomorrow, let's take it to the next step, give me the boost I need, I hope," said Mr Romney in Bedford last night at his final rally of the day.
It was unclear how much damage had been done by a mess of his own making in which Mr Romney declared "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me," in discussing the need for greater competition between health insurance companies.
Mr Romney's opponents seized on the comment as evidence that the former venture capitalist is an out-of-touch politician and coupled it with attacks over his record at Bain Capital, a firm that bought companies and restructured them.
"Governor Romney enjoys firing people. I enjoy creating jobs," Mr Huntsman said.
In a sharp departure for a party known as friendly to business, Republicans seeking to slow Mr Romney sounded more like populists as they bashed his work as a venture capitalist.
Former House Speaker Gingrich, brooding over negative attacks from Mr Romney and his backers that knocked him out of the front-runner position, has launched the toughest onslaught.
"Mitt Romney was not a capitalist during his reign at Bain. He was a predatory corporate raider," a video produced by a pro-Gingrich group said.
New Hampshire voting stations close at midnight. About 250,000 people are expected to vote in the Republican primary while 75,000 are likely to vote to endorse Mr Obama's re-election.
Since victory looked out of reach for Mr Romney's rivals, they were waging a fierce battle to sway undecided voters their way in the final hours and win second place.
Both libertarian Representative Mr Paul and Mr Huntsman, a former US ambassador to China, have been on the rise in recent days. "It could be a bonanza," Mr Huntsman told CNN.
Former Pennsylvania Senator Santorum, who nearly won Iowa by appealing to social conservatives, has found that his message in New Hampshire is not attracting the same surge of support.
He and Texas Governor Rick Perry, along with Mr Gingrich, are looking to South Carolina to challenge Mr Romney as his conservative alternative.
Mr Romney leads there for now but Mr Gingrich backers have launched $3.4 million worth of ads in South Carolina to try to slow him down in the conservative state.
Reuters