Historically, New Hampshire always held the first primary voting for each party. It set the tone, if you will. Within just the last year though, several other States have set Primaries even earlier. In the National Presidential elections, a small hamlet in New Hampshire, Dixville Notch, always opened their polls earlier than anyone else and that event always seemed to affect, at least in a small way, people's thinking on how the general election would go... Not always accurate though...