The first local result for the US election has been called, as always, by the six-person community Dixville Notch.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump tied in the tiny New Hampshire town with three votes each.
The US always kicks off election day in Dixville Notch at midnight, with the town being one of the first places in the country to report its election results.
Here’s all you need to know about the township and its long-standing practice of calling results so early.
Where is Dixville Notch?
Dixville Notch is an unincorporated township near the US-Canada border in northern New Hampshire, within Coös County and the White Mountains region. It is situated at an elevation of approximately 1,800 feet.
Known for its scenic location in a mountain pass (or “notch”) between Dixville Peak and Sanguinary Mountain, it’s also famous for its unique role in US presidential elections.
How does Dixville Notch announce a US election result so early?
Since 1960, Dixville Notch has held the longest continuous record for midnight voting, where residents gather to cast their ballots as soon as the polls open at midnight. The tradition was initiated by resident Neil Tillotson, who would drop his ballot in at exactly midnight. Following Tillotson’s death in 2001 at the age of 102, the first voter is now chosen at random ahead of time.
Once every ballot is cast— often in less than a minute — votes are counted on the spot, allowing Dixville Notch to announce its results hours before any other location in the country. The small population of the town makes this rapid process feasible.
While Dixville Notch is particularly well-known for its midnight voting, other nearby towns, including Millsfield in Coös County, Hart's Location in Carroll County, and Ellsworth and Waterville Valley in Grafton County, have also participated in midnight voting and competed to be the first to report results.
Dixville Notch additionally holds the record for the highest number of midnight presidential primaries, reporting on 13 consecutive primaries as of 2008. This distinctive tradition has made the township a symbolic location in American elections, often marking the start of election-day coverage. As a result, it has become a national moment, attracting reporters who flock to the town to report the first results and sometimes extrapolate predictions for the wider election outcomes.
Can Dixville Notch predict the final result of the US election?
While Dixville Notch is known for being one of the first places to report US presidential election results, its outcomes do not always predict the final results. The town's voting trends can vary significantly from the national outcome, although they occasionally align.
For instance, in 2008, Senator Barack Obama became the first Democrat to win Dixville Notch’s vote since 1968. He received 15 votes to six for his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain. However, the following election in 2012 marked a unique moment when Dixville Notch reported a tie for the first time in its history, with both Mr Obama and Mitt Romney receiving five votes each.
In 2016, Dixville Notch again leaned Democratic, with Hillary Clinton winning the community’s vote over Mr Trump by a margin of four to two.
Despite its small population and early reporting, the results from Dixville Notch are often seen as symbolic rather than predictive of the final national outcome. It reflects local sentiments that can differ from broader countrywide electoral trends.
