By JONATHAN E. KAPLAN

MaineToday Media, Inc.

DOVER, N.H. -- Mainers drove across the border to New Hampshire on Monday to get a taste of presidential politics as Democratic and Republican candidates raced across the state making last-minute appeals for support.

The interest of Maine voters in today's first-in-the-nation primary reflects the competitive nature of the races. New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner predicted a record half million Granite Staters could cast ballots today, compared to the 400,000 voters -- about 44 percent of the total -- who cast ballots in 2000, the last primary without an incumbent president in the race.

The latest polls show Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., leading in the Democratic primary, and Sen. John McCain, Ariz., leading former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney in the Republican field.

"To be right next door is really fortunate," said Elizabeth Frazier of Scarborough, who came to watch Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., speak at a rally here. "The tension, the sense of urgency is really high on all sides."

Obama and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani made one-day campaign and fundraising stops in Portland last fall, but so far, many candidates have not visited Maine because of the tight primary schedule. Just five days separated the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

Maine's Republican caucus will take place on Feb. 2, but South Carolina, Michigan and Nevada hold primaries and caucuses before then. The Maine Democratic Party's caucus is Feb. 10 -- five days after "Super Tuesday" on Feb. 5, when 22 states hold primaries and caucuses, which could make it an afterthought in the battle to win the nomination.

Some Mainers were in New Hampshire to lend support to their favorite candidate while others showed up just to experience the campaign.

Frazier, a 21-year-old student at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., attended the Clinton rally with her mother, Helen, and friend, Lindsay Baldwin, a 22-year-old senior at the University of Southern Maine.

Elizabeth Frazier distributed campaign literature for Clinton last weekend in Rochester, N.H. Helen Frazier said she "chaperoned" her daughter and Baldwin to the event, but said she planned to support McCain at Maine's GOP caucus.

Jack and Joyce Tracksler of Kittery Point are supporting Romney. They have planted signs, made phone calls. Joyce Tracksler has volunteered in Romney's office in Portsmouth.

They drove to meet Romney and his family at 3:30 a.m. Friday, shortly after Romney landed in New Hampshire from Iowa. Hours before, Romney had finished second in the Iowa Republican Caucus.

"I haven't been up that late since college. I was exhausted," Tracksler wrote in an e-mail. "I've never volunteered for a candidate before. It's been interesting and hard work, but it's also been a lot of fun."

Twenty-three-year-old Graham Bennett of Wells took a class on the 2008 election at Rhode Island College in Providence, R.I. He and his professors drove to Henniker, N.H., to catch former Ark. Gov. Mike Huckabee make his first public appearance in the state on Friday after winning the Iowa caucus less than 24 hours earlier.

Bennett also attended events with former President Bill Clinton, Obama, and former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.

Some Maine observers and potential voters found their way to Dover by luck, others were surprised once they were there.

Diane Denk of Kennebunk stopped at a rest stop and overheard two other women talking about Clinton's event in Dover. On Sunday, she went to see Obama and Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M.

"Nobody comes to Maine ... It makes such a difference when you feel and experience the person, you can get a sense of their personality," Denk said. "Seeing the person on the news and in person can be so different."

At Clinton's event in Dover, an aide picked Kylie Whitmore, a seventh grader from Lebanon, Maine, to join him on stage to hand out T-shirts to the crowd if they correctly answered trivia questions.

The campaign needed to fill time because Clinton arrived late and spent several minutes shaking hands with about 100 people who could not get into the gymnasium at the McConnell Center.

Kylie attended the event with her grandmother, Sarah Barrows, a registered nurse, who is a Democratic activist in Lebanon, and her mother, Dierdre.

Kylie, 12, wanted to see the campaign first hand after her social studies class held a mock caucus, which Obama won. She said she was the lone supporter in her class of Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio.