New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary began well before sunrise on Tuesday US time, with residents in Dixville Notch casting their traditional first ballots just after midnight.
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On Monday, Chris Christie got down on one knee at a town hall in Hudson, New Hampshire, to convince one undecided voter to vote for him based on his answer about Social Security.
The first few votes out of these rural Granite State towns don’t tend to accurately predict the state’s overall winners, but they do give their choice candidates an early boost, albeit briefly, while results in the rest of the state are still being counted. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders received all four votes cast in the Democratic primary. Sanders swept the Democratic rate with four votes.
State law allows towns, or unincorporated communities like Dixville Notch and Millsfield, to open their polls at midnight and close them shortly after only if they can prove that everyone who wanted to vote was able to.
One of Hillary Clinton’s morning stops put her face-to-face with Frank Fiorina, the husband of Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina. Cruz ruled the Republican field with nine votes – runner-up Trump only got three.
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush also hopes to do well in New Hampshire. While this happened in three locations, Dixville usually steals the show due to its strategic media set up at the Balsams Grand Resort Hotel.
Still open, though, is the resort’s wood-paneled Ballot Room, which is decorated with political articles and cartoons dating back to its first-ever midnight vote: the 1960 general election, when Dixville Notch went 9-0 for Richard Nixon over John F. Kennedy.
“This is an example of American democracy where 100% of the voters come out and vote”, Tom Tillotson, the 71-year-old town moderator of the event for decades, told the network. Join us in a conversation about world events, the newsgathering process or whatever aspect of the news universe you find interesting or important.
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A former U.S House Budget Committee chairman, Kasich is campaigning as a pragmatic centrist in a crowded field of nine conservative Republicans. “I’m for any candidate who loves America, wants to make it better, and wants to make it better for all Americans”. John McCain’s 2000 victory with independent voters has somewhat obscured the fact that he also beat George W. Bush among registered Republicans, albeit by a lower margin.
