BOSTON--Voters in New Hampshire and Iowa--two states with early tests for presidential candidates--would choose Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.) by overwhelming margins, two newspaper polls published yesterday showed.

If Kennedy were declared a candidate in New Hampshire's primary, he could win 65 per cent of the vote, compared to 20 per cent for Carter, a Boston Globe poll showed. If Kennedy were only a write-in candidate, he would still receive 58 per cent of the vote, compared to 28 per cent for Carter and 11 per cent for California Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., the survey showed.

The Chosen

The Globe conducted the telephone survey of 2017 people who said they were registered New Hampshire voters between Aug. 15 and 18, before Kennedy said his family had dropped objections to his possible candidacy.

Forty-nine per cent of the Iowa Democrats questioned favored Kennedy among eight possible candidates, a survey by the Des Moines Register showed. Carter had the support of 26 per cent of those surveyed, the Register said.

Sixty-four per cent said Kennedy had the best chance to beat any Republican candidate in 1980, the poll showed. Iowa holds its presidential caucuses in January.

Confide in Me

Kennedy, in an interview last week with the Associated Press, said a major factor in his decision whether to run for the 1980 Democratic nomination is Carter's ability to regain the confidence of the American people.

"It's back to whether the people have the sense of confidence that he can deal with the issues. I think that's a matter of deepening concern as we come to the 1980s," Kennedy said.

He said that he has no timetable for a decision, but added he would plan, if he runs, to enter the earliest primaries and contest for delegates in the Democratic caucuses in Iowa.

Asked if he thought Carter might withdraw, Kennedy said, "I would expect he would be in for the duration."

Crisis, What?

Kennedy said he disagreed with Carter's description of a "crisis of confidence" affecting the American people.

"I think it is very difficult for people to have a great deal of confidence in their own future when they are wondering whether they can afford the mortgage on their house, the food bill or home heating bill," Kennedy said. "So, I don't feel it's a failure of the spirit among the American people," he added.