Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump tied with three votes each in the small town of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, the first place to vote and from which results were announced. hampshire , polls opened and closed just after midnight ET in a tradition that dates back to 1960.
By tradition, all eligible voters gather at the now-dormant Balsams Hotel in Dixville Notch to cast a secret ballot after the polls open at midnight. After each vote, the votes are tallied and the results announced, hours before anywhere else, making it a destination for national reporters, who often outnumber voters.
Les Otten, one of the city’s pollsters and lead development program for Balsams, called the early release of the results “a civil rights lesson for the country,” adding that “if we can help people get out and understand that voting is an important part of their rights as American citizens, that may be the key to what we do.”
Otten said he expects the renovation project to begin next summer. In the meantime, he said, “as long as we’re here and we’re property owners and we have, you know, our toothbrush in our groups, we might as well exercise our right to vote.”
Dixville Notch voters have supported the Democratic candidate in the last two presidential elections, with the borough unanimously casting five votes for President Joe Biden in 2020 and Hillary Clinton in 2016 — two going to Trump and one to Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.
In January, four registered Republican voters and two independents participated in the GOP primary, casting six unanimous votes for former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
The 75-year-old Otten, who said he has been a Republican since he was seven, told CNN earlier Tuesday’s vote to vote for Harris.
“Nowhere in the Pledge of Allegiance does it say anything about pledging allegiance to a person. I think at the end of the day, Trump made it clear that you have to pledge allegiance to him and that he can fix it himself, and that “is as undemocratic as I can understand,” Otten said.
Voters also cast their ballots in the most competitive gubernatorial race in the country between former one-term Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte and Democratic candidate Joyce Craig, the former mayor of Manchester, to succeed Republican Governor Chris A retired Sununu, Klix.ba writes.
