Manchester has seen the flood of media during the final days of the New Hampshire primary season before, but the circus of reporters, photographers and cameramen from across the globe got out of hand on Tuesday at the Ward 1 polling station.

The ward traditionally has the highest voter turnout and was the epicenter of media coverage in Manchester Tuesday morning. After seeing the number of supporters and press, Moderator Diane Beaton and the one police officer posted at the school decided about 8:15 a.m. to bring in additional help. Eight officers and two mounted police were called in to manage the “frenzy” of media traffic outside Webster Elementary School, she said. About an hour later, more help was called in from the City Clerk’s Office.

“The voters had a very difficult time coming in,” Beaton said. “Typically, the city Highway Department will provide us with barricades. They did provide us with some, but not nearly enough.”

The real trouble started when Newt Gingrich arrived.

“All of a sudden he came off the bus and the press rushed him. A woman and two men fell, these were reporters, and they were just stepped on,” said Beaton. “I had never seen this amount of press, and I’ve lived in Ward 1 for 17 years.

“A voter could have been hurt,” she added. “That was my concern all day.”

Besides the gaggle of reporters on foot, traffic and parking was a problem, as well. Beaton said an illegally parked vehicle with out-of-state plates was eventually towed when the owner could not be found.

Beaton will use this experience to make sure there are enough barricades and people outside the polls in November and in future presidential primaries.

The experience also lends credence to City Clerk Matt Normand’s argument that the polling places at city schools — especially Ward 1 — cannot be open on election days. The Board of School Committee argued earlier this year for holding school during elections as a learning experience for students and to cut down on vacation days. Normand argued doing so would be a traffic and safety concern.

Beaton agreed.

“I would be against any type of school being held on Election Day,” she said.

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WARD 1 AGAIN took the record for highest voter turnout, with 2,792 voters casting ballots, or about 47 percent. The lowest turnout did not go to Ward 3, as it usually does, but instead to Ward 5, with 1,086 voters.

These numbers are based on the city’s unofficial elections results released last week and do not include write-in votes, blank ballots or hand-counted ballots.

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MITT ROMNEY easily won the city, but fell short in three wards. In Wards 4, 5 and 11, Ron Paul earned first place and Romney took second. Jon Huntsman was proud of his third-place showing, but should also be proud of second place in Ward 1, his best showing in the city. Rick Perry struggled to even register in the Granite State, including in Manchester, where he garnered 98 votes. To put that in perspective, performance artist Vermin Supreme — the guy who wears a boot on his head — got 89 votes.

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ALTHOUGH LITTLE attention has been paid to the efforts Obama for America put into its organizational team this primary, credit should be given for drawing a respectable showing in what was essentially a symbolic primary. After Romney, President Obama had the next highest number of votes, with 3,872. Paul, who arguably had the most enthusiastic supporters, received 3,813 votes.

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WHILE MSNBC and the Washington Post seem to think Manchester is mired deep in the economic downturn, business before the Board of Aldermen indicates otherwise.

Keith Martel of Sterling Realty will give the aldermen more details on his 80- to 100-home development on Wellington Hill on Tuesday, and Richard Danais of Danais Realty Group has been holding private meetings with the aldermen about a possible prison on Hackett Hill.

While the former has the aldermen asking for more information, the latter proposal is not very popular. Alderman Patrick Arnold, who serves Ward 12, where the prison would be located, came out early against the project.

Since then, Lands and Buildings Committee Chairman Ed Osborne has said he is against a prison in Manchester, as are Aldermen Garth Corriveau and Joyce Craig.

“Given the vision the city had for that property for a technology area and given the state of the economy, it makes sense to be patient and explore all our opportunities,” said Corriveau. “The city can’t afford to get this wrong. This is a lot of land in the largest city north of Boston. Once it’s gone, we don’t get a do-over.”

Alderman Jim Roy and Alderman At-Large Joe Kelly Levasseur both said they’d like to hear more.

“We’ve had that property for 12 years and nothing’s been done with it,” said Roy. A potential $2.1 million in additional revenue for the city is something to consider, he said. “You’ve got to ask what’s best for the taxpayers.”

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THE SCHOOL BOARD will get its first glimpse of a school budget this week. Superintendent of Schools Thomas Brennan will present three budgets, one that meets the tax-cap requirements, one that includes all staff and programs in place today and one that includes items he says are necessary to move the district forward.

“The second budget is what I consider the bare-bones number, with all our legal obligations and what is needed to survive the day,” said Brennan. “(The third budget) is not a wish list. It’s what’s needed to maintain the growth we have.”

That third budget — which has little hope of ever being adopted — includes items such as lowering class sizes and providing what is needed for more technology-based education, online classes and virtual learning.

Read Beth LaMontange Hall’s coverage of Manchester City Hall daily in the New Hampshire Union Leader. Email her at bhall@unionleader.com.