CONCORD--New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner said that the recently concluded election cycle demonstrated how the Granite State was able to maintain its first-in-the-nation primary status despite threats from other states.

"I said during the past year that I wanted to make sure that we preserved our status," Gardner told PolitickerNH.com. "We've come out of this stronger and in the last primary, New Hampshire had a record number of voters in the primaries."

State law dictates that it holds its presidential primary 7 days before any similar contests, but in 2007 Michigan and Florida attempted to hold primaries near New Hampshire's.

Gardner compared the challenge to New Hampshire's primacy to the 1984 presidential campaign.

"This past cycle looking back was very similar to the 1984 primary when he faced a similar challenge from Michigan. In that year we didn't know if our convention delegates would get seated until two weeks before the [Democratic] convention but we prevailed then and we prevailed this time around time," he said.

Gardner added that looking into future cycles, New Hampshire is in a strong position to maintain its unique political role.

"We held our ground," Gardner said. "As long as the people in the state continue to participate in the process and treasure the primary, we will continue to have the first primary."

Summing up the long campaign and election process, Gardner simply shrugged his shoulders and said, "This is the end."

Earlier today New Hampshire's presidential electors met and officially casted four votes for President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden which marks the end of the 2008 presidential campaign.