Dixville Notch, New Hampshire: Harris and Trump tie in midnight vote to kick off Election Day

CNN
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Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have tied with three votes every within the tiny New Hampshire township of Dixville Notch, kicking off Election Day in one of many first locations within the nation to report its presidential choice.

The unincorporated township, positioned alongside the US-Canada border in New Hampshire’s northern tip, opened and closed its ballot simply after midnight ET in a convention that dates again to 1960. 4 Republicans and two undeclared voters participated.

Whereas Dixville Notch isn’t all the time predictive of the eventual winner – and even the state’s choose – its annual manufacturing, regardless of a dwindling inhabitants, is successful story for native leaders and a cause to smile for political junkies looking forward to an early style of the day’s occasions.

By custom, all eligible voters collect on the now-dormant Balsams Lodge in Dixville Notch to cast their secret ballots as soon as polls open at midnight. As soon as each poll is solid, votes are tallied and outcomes introduced – hours earlier than anyplace else, making it a vacation spot for nationwide reporters, who typically outnumber the voters.

Les Otten, one of many township’s voters and the lead developer for the Balsams, referred to as the early launch of the outcomes “a civics lesson for the nation,” including that “if we may help individuals get out and perceive that voting is a crucial a part of their proper as an American citizen, that’s maybe the important thing to what we’re doing.”

Otten stated he expects to interrupt floor on the redevelopment undertaking subsequent summer season. Within the meantime, he stated, “so long as we’re right here and we’re property house owners and we now have, you understand, our toothbrush in our loos, we would as effectively train our proper to vote.”

Close by Millsfield and Hart’s Location, which is tucked within the White Mountains, first supplied midnight voting earlier than Dixville Notch however haven’t participated constantly and aren’t conducting it this 12 months. A fictionalized model of the three neighbors was featured in an episode of Aaron Sorkin’s “West Wing” dubbed “Hartsfield’s Touchdown.”

Dixville Notch voters have supported the Democratic nominee the final two presidential elections, with the township in 2020 unanimously casting 5 votes for President Joe Biden and with Hillary Clinton in 2016 profitable 4 of seven votes — two went to Trump and one to Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.

In January, 4 registered Republican voters and two independents participated within the GOP major, casting six unanimous votes for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

The 75-year-old Otten, who stated he has been “a Republican ever since I used to be seven years outdated,” instructed CNN earlier than Tuesday’s vote that he would solid his poll for Harris.

“Nowhere within the Pledge of Allegiance does it say something about pledging your allegiance to an individual,” Otten stated. “And I believe on the finish of the day, Trump has made it clear that you must pledge allegiance to him, and he alone can repair this, and that’s as anti-democratic as I can perceive.”

The voters additionally solid their votes within the nation’s best governor’s race between former one-term Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Democratic nominee Joyce Craig, the previous mayor of Manchester, to succeed retiring Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.

CNN’s Gary Tuchman, Eva McKend, Ethan Cohen, Molly English, Gregory Krieg and Eric Bradner contributed to this report.