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Joe Biden scored a symbolic early victory this morning in the small New Hampshire village of Dixville Notch, where voters backed him five to zero over Donald Trump.
The community near the Canadian border has cast their votes at midnight on Election Day for decades. Biden’s clean sweep could be seen as an omen of things to come, if it weren’t for the fact that in 2016 Dixville Notch endorsed Hillary Clinton.
There was less good news for the former vice president from the neighboring city of Millsfield, 12 miles away. There, Trump got 16 votes, compared to five for Biden. A third village with a midnight vote, Hart’s Location, suspended the tradition due to Covid concerns.
“It’s kind of positive proof that every vote counts and that every vote is part of the system. It’s a privilege to be able to do that, ”resident Les Otten told CNN. “It’s just a demonstration to the rest of the country that democracy works,” added Joe Casey, another local.
“I’m a Republican and tonight I’m going to break ranks and vote for Joe Biden,” explained one of the five voters, his mask hanging from one ear.
With so few people on the electoral roll, social distancing measures were easy to apply. The vote took place in a former cooking school decorated with political memorabilia taken from an earlier location with wood paneling.
Dixville Notch, in the White Mountains, began early voting in 1948 to accommodate railroad workers who had to be at work before normal voting hours. The tradition stopped in 1964 but returned in 1996.
Communities also vote shortly after midnight in New Hampshire’s first presidential primary. The February 11 primaries hardly happened this year in Dixville Notch, when one person moved out, leaving the remaining four residents one less than the minimum necessary to handle various voting responsibilities. That was fixed when a developer who was working on renovating the now-closed Balsams complex moved in, where the tradition of voting began.
