Voters in a New Hampshire hamlet, Dixville Notch have kicked off voting in the US presidential election.
Residents of the hamlet cast their votes at midnight. Out of the six votes cast, Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump four votes to two, a result that may foreshadow voting trends hours later in the rest of polling stations across America.
Libertarian Gary Johnson received one vote, and Mitt Romney received a surprise write-in ballot, USA Today reported.
According to New Hampshire law, communities with fewer than 100 voters can open their polls at midnight and close them as soon as all registered voters have cast their ballots.
The best known of these three towns, Dixville Notch has been voting at midnight every election since 1960. Neil Tillotson, the former owner of the Balsams Grant Resort Hotel, which closed in 2011, started midnight voting in Dixville in 1960 to stir up publicity for the resort. Almost all of the Dixville voters are employees of the resort.
This could be Dixville’s last year in the election spotlight, however.
Les Otten, a New England businessman, bought the Balsams and plans to redevelop it into a massive ski resort. That could bring the population in Dixville over 100 people, thereby ending its midnight voting tradition.
Millsfield, located just over 12 miles down the road from Dixville Notch, is the newest town to get in on the act. Millsfield began midnight voting as early as 1952 (no one seems certain exactly when) and stopped the practice in the 1960s (again, no one seems certain exactly when). The town was invited to take the tradition back up last year by New Hampshire’s secretary of State, in honour of the 100th anniversary of the New Hampshire primary. (NAN)