ONCORD, N.H. - There were voters of every persuasion at Boutwells Bowling Alley on Sunday afternoon: Bush fans, Gore devotees, Nader rebels, undecideds, and they're-all-bums cynics. But they all agreed on this one thing: Please. Just let it be over.
Ordinarily, New Hampshire turns into a pumpkin after its first-in-the-nation primary. Candidates fall at Granite State voters' feet in the winter, hoping they will catapult them to the nomination. Presidential hopefuls fete these voters as if they were royalty, spending frigid weeks in this little state, lavishing praise on their obvious and overwhelming political acumen.
But afterward, it's off to the Californias and Michigans of the world. New Hampshire, with just four electoral votes, is small again.
Not this year. In this tight election, New Hampshire voters are being courted again. Having decided that those four electoral votes could make the difference, the candidates, and plenty of their surrogates, have come back here. As late as yesterday, New Hampshire had visits from Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph I. Lieberman and the Green Party's Ralph Nader. The airwaves are thick with political advertisements. Candidates and their supporters keep calling residents' homes to remind them to vote. Mailboxes are clogged with last-minute leaflets. It's everywhere.
''We're being flushed with propaganda from both parties,'' said Preston Trombley, before picking up a spare. It used to be you voted for somebody because of who they were, Trombley said sadly, not because of what they put in your mailbox.
''Back when Eisenhower was running, he was a hero,'' said Trombley, 60, of Penacook. ''And that's why they made him president.''
Maine, also oft-overlooked, is similarly coveted this year, and the race remains very close there. Maine, like Nebraska, can split its four electoral votes according to the results in each of its two congressional districts, so Vice President Al Gore, Governor George W. Bush of Texas, their surrogates, and their advertisements have been regular visitors. Both Nader and Lieberman were to visit the state last night. Nader's supporters in Maine are among his strongest nationally, so he was headed to liberal Portland to shore up his vote. Lieberman was to visit Bangor, in a section of the state where Gore is considered more vulnerable.
The latest University of New Hampshire survey shows Bush leading Gore in the Granite State. A few weeks ago, Gore held a narrow lead, but UNH Survey Center director Andrew E. Smith said he expects the state to end up in Bush's column tonight, with Nader garnering about 4 percent of the votes.
New Hampshire, hit extremely hard by the recession of the late 1980s, voted for Bill Clinton twice, narrowly in 1992, then more convincingly in 1996. But in good economic times, voters here are more likely to favor Bush, Smith said.
''Republicans here and nationwide are getting a little more enthusiastic about their candidates,'' he said. ''Plus, New Hampshire is still a Republican state. It's not conservative, but there are more Republicans than Democrats here, and people are coming back to their parties.''
Republicans have been running far more TV spots than Democrats: Bush, congressmen John Sununu and Charlie Bass, and gubernatorial candidate Gordon Humphrey - locked in a bitter battle with Governor Jeanne Shaheen - have been whipping up enthusiasm and motivation among GOP voters, who were expected to turn out in large numbers today.
In Maine, analysts said that Gore would more likely carry the liberal southern part of the state, but that neither candidate could take anything for granted.
Maine voters have a maverick streak: In 1992, they voted for Clinton, but in second place was Ross Perot. President George Bush, who has a home in Kennebunkport, finished third.
Political scientists said yesterday that Nader's support in the state is strong, composed of not just those who might otherwise vote Democratic, but devoted environmentalists and former Perot voters. Nader might stand in Gore's way in the southern part of the state, they said.
Despite the barrage of last minute appeals, few of the candlepin enthusiasts at Boutwells on Sunday were thrilled with their choices.
When pushed, Jeff Sherick, a 49-year-old importer, said he favored Bush because he seems to be better for businesses, and more able to build consensus in Washington.
Gore is too ''pro-union, and he's made so many antibusiness comments,'' Sherick said. ''This is not the old economy, union vs. management. High-tech has changed that. Gore has his feet in the past.''
Lisa Caron, 37, holds a different view.
''If anybody called Bush gets into the White House, it'll be a very scary thing,'' she said. She was amazed that the race was close at all, but said she knew why: President Clinton's sins.
''People are too busy worrying about other people's private lives,'' Caron said. ''If they stopped and looked at how this country is being run now, compared to under Bush, there'd be no contest.''
And since Clinton's mistakes should be off-limits, she said, so should Bush's. She said his 24-year-old drunken driving arrest is irrelevant.
As did just about everybody at the bowling alley on this rainy afternoon. Except Shawn LaFrance, a program manager at a health care nonprofit.
''They talk about the indiscretions of his youth, but he was 30!'' said LaFrance, 43. ''He didn't do anything with his life. They talk about his business dealings, but he was just trading on his family name. I know people who work in health care clinics in New Hampshire who put in a lot harder day's work than him, and who solve more important problems.''
''Bush is a likable guy,'' said Dave Metzger, a 46-year-old optician from Bow. ''I'd have a beer with him, but I don't want him to run the country. Frankly, I don't like Gore, either. I like Ralph Nader, but he hasn't got a chance of winning.''
Metzger will vote for Gore, but he hopes one candidate wins the popular vote and the other wins the Electoral College, ''just for sport.''
That's what it's come to for him. He's seen more than his fill of politics for the year.
''I'm thanking God that it's ending,'' he said.
