Early ballots a Notch above the rest as New Hampshire hamlet goes to polls

Voters in the US hamlet of Dixville Notch launched election day in the first minutes of Tuesday with a tied vote, mirroring the close national polls in the White House race.

Ballots are counted at midnight in the living room of the Balsams Grand Resort, marking the first votes in the US election, in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire. Picture: AFP

Voters in the US hamlet of Dixville Notch launched election day in the first minutes of Tuesday with a tied vote, mirroring the close national polls in the White House race.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump each got three ballots in the community in northeastern New Hampshire, which for decades has kicked off election day at the stroke of midnight on Monday, hours before the rest of the ­nation’s polling stations open.

The Vice-President and former president have been battling in a tense and exceptionally close race, with opinion polls largely tied. To a gathered crowd of journalists, the vote opened with a rendition of the national anthem performed on an accordion.

Electoral laws in New Hampshire allow municipalities with fewer than 100 residents to open their polling stations at midnight and to close them when all ­registered voters have fulfilled their civic duty. Dixville Notch’s residents voted unanimously for Joe Biden in 2020, reportedly only the second presidential hopeful to get all the votes since the midnight voting tradition began in 1960.

Most polling stations on the east coast open at 6am or 7am on Tuesday.

Dixville Notch voters handed a surprise unanimous victory to ­Republican White House hopeful Nikki Haley in New Hampshire’s primary in January.

Ms Haley ultimately quit the race due to an insurmountable Trump lead, but Tuesday’s vote shows that three voters opted not to back the billionaire in the general election.

AFP