[EARLIER REPORTS BELOW]

9:22PM EST: Rick Perry was not impressed by Mitt Romney’s win in the New Hampshire presidential primary.

The Texas governor, who left New Hampshire after last weekend’s debates, said in a statement shortly after Romney’s victory was projected that conservative voters were still looking for their candidate.

“Tonight’s results in New Hampshire show the race for ‘conservative alternative’ to Mitt Romney remains wide open,” Perry’s statement read. “I skipped New Hampshire and aimed my campaign right at conservative South Carolina, where we’ve been campaigning hard and receiving an enthusiastic welcome.”

After a fifth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, Perry will likely finish the New Hampshire primary with around 1 percent support.

“South Carolina is the next stop,” Perry said in his statement. “I have a head start here, and it’s friendly territory for a Texas governor and veteran with solid outsider credentials, the nation’s best record of job creation, and solid fiscal, social and Tea Party conservatism.”

8:25PM EST: CNN projects that Texas Rep. Ron Paul will finish in second place and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman third in the New Hampshire Republican primary, based on exit polls and early returns.

Jon Huntsman tells NBC News he will stay in the race despite a likely 3rd-place finish in New Hampshire

With 18% of precincts reporting, projected first-place finisher Mitt Romney leads the field with 36% of the vote.

8:03PM EST: The polls closed in New Hampshire only moments ago, and the cable networks have already called the primary here for Mitt Romney.

His projected first-place finish is no surprise, but with second and third place (and even fourth!) carrying heavy symbolic weight for the rest of the field, we could still have a long night ahead of us. (Politico)

6:30PM EST: Actual results won’t begin to trickle in from New Hampshire for a couple hours, but with less than an hour until many polls close in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary, early exit poll data show that nearly seven out of 10 Republican voters in the state are very worried about the economy and their personal financial situation.

One in four said the deficit was the most important issue. Also, more than three-quarters of respondents said the series of Republican debates was important to their final decision, while less than half said television ads were important.

Most polls close in New Hampshire at 7:00PM EST.

CHECK BACK AS YWN CONTINUES BRINGING YOU THE LATEST RESULTS FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE