The New Hampshire town of Dixville Notch, near the US-Canada border, became the first place in the country to cast a ballot for the 2024 US Presidential elections on November 5 ‘Election Day’.
As the voting kicked off in the tiny community in the northeastern state of New Hampshire, the early outcome in the US presidential polls mirrored the incredibly close White House race.
There was a tie between the two US presidential candidates, Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump. They each got three ballots in New Hampshire’s Dixville Notch – which for decades has kicked off Election Day at the stroke of midnight on Monday, hours before the rest of the country’s polling stations open.
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are neck-and-neck in the 2024 US election. Opinion polls have largely predicted a close battle between the two. The two leaders are facing cut-throat competition in the swing states too. While millions have already cast their ballots in early voting, the final round of voting took place on Tuesday, November 5.
The township opened and closed its poll just after midnight ET in a tradition that dates back to 1960, CNN reported.
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 had voted unanimously for then candidate Joe Biden in 2020, reportedly only the second presidential hopeful to get all the votes since the midnight voting tradition began in 1960, news agency AP reported.