Thursday, March 9, 2000 Older Editions

Andover backs the insurgents

Andover voters are unlikely to see either of their preferences for president in the White House next January.

The town's voters backed the underdogs in Tuesday's presidential primary, giving former New Jersey senator and basketball star Bill Bradley the nod over Vice President Al Gore by 136 votes, 1,487 to 1,351.

On the Republican side, Arizona Senator John McCain trounced Texas Gov. (and Phillips Academy alumnus) George W. Bush by 2,620 to 1,170.

Some of that margin may have come from unenrolled or Democratic voters who took Republican ballots. Town Clerk Randy Hanson said 235 voters changed their party affiliation before the deadline Feb. 16.

While there is no data to show how many people have changed their party affiliation before past elections, Hanson says this year was notably busier with party changes, and turnout was also unusually high.

Hanson says 34 percent of Andover's 20,786 voters turned out for Tuesday's presidential primary, twice the percentage of those who voted in 1996.

In the 1994 presidential primary, 24 percent of voters came to the polls, Hanson says.

Also on the Democrat ballot, Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. received 10 votes.

On the Republican side, former ambassador Alan Keyes received 105 votes, Gary Bauer 3, and Steve Forbes 13.

As of Tuesday, 5,174 Andoverites were registered Democrats, 4,042 Republican, and 9,942 unenrolled, totaling 19,203 active voters, Hanson says.

Andover is also home to one conservative voter, two Green Party USA members, 28 Libertarians and four Reform Party voters.