Dixville Notch: Tiny US city the place complete inhabitants forged their votes at midnight

Voting and counting for the US election is over, and in a shock result Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are equally tied…

At least among the tiny population of Dixville Notch, traditionally the first community in the US to declare its votes.

For decades, in-person voting for presidential elections has started at midnight in the tiny New Hampshire community, in the far northeast of the country.

And at midnight today, the town’s six registered voters turned up to cast their ballots, with three for Harris and three for Trump.

It sets the scene for one of the closest-run presidential elections ever, with both candidates neck-and-neck.

Just 20 miles from the Canadian border, Dixville Notch in Coos County is a ski resort named after a nearby mountain pass. But on Election Day, all eyes are on the remote mountain town – at least for the three minutes it takes for everyone to vote and the result announced.

The tradition of voting at midnight for the state’s political party primaries and general elections began in the 1960 election. It is believed to have started to accommodate rail workers who could not cast their ballots during normal voting hours.

Although most New Hampshire polling stations open around sunrise and close in the early evening, Dixville Notch takes advantage of a state law that allows a precinct to close if all registered voters in that precinct have cast ballots.

The tradition was first organized by prominent resident Neil Tillotson, who was traditionally the first voter and would hold his ballot over the ballot box while watching his wristwatch, dropping it at the stroke of midnight. Since Tillotson’s death from pneumonia in 2001 at the age of 102, the first voter has been chosen by random ballot beforehand.

For decades reporters descended on the town’s The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel for the midnight vote, searching for early signals as to how the national poll might look. Since the hotel closed, the vote has been held in other locations. This year’s ballots were cast in the living room of the resort’s Tillotson House – after the national anthem was played on an accordion.

But what happens in Dixville Notch isn’t always reflected nationwide. In January, all six registered voters cast their ballots for Republican Nikki Haley, in a clean sweep over former president Donald Trump and the other candidates.

However, Trump went on to win the state, taking control of the Republican race. In 2016, four of the town’s seven voters selected then Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who despite winning the popular vote sending up losing to Trump, who got more Electoral College votes.

But in the 2020 presidential election, all five votes went to Democrat Joe Biden, who went on to beat Trump for the White House.