A town of 10 (maybe in the Northeast) that holds the very first Presidential vote of the season at 12:01am (or something like that, my recall is fuzzy)

Politics & Elections
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Does any of this ring a bell? I seem to recall it being like a cute and folksy “production” (and if I remember right, it’s an annual thing for this small town) where they’re allowed to hold the country’s very first Presidential Election, at 12:01am on Election Day.

The 10 - 12 citizens line up, drop their written ballot in the box, then the administrator (or whatever the word is) dumps the box, counts the votes, and that’s it. It probably doesn’t last more than five minutes.

I feel like this was maybe broadcast on CNN (and I don’t even know if it was for either of the last two heated elections - maybe this was something I saw during one of President Obama’s elections). And whether or not this was supposed to be a “bellweather” for how the overall US election was gonna go, I don’t remember.

It was just one of those “personal interest” stories that was kinda interesting, at least to me. Anyone remember what town this was, and how this became a “thing”? Is it a tradition that goes back decades? I suppose if I knew what I was talking about, I could find the Wikipedia page and read all about it.

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That’s exactly it. Thanks!

Dixville Notch voters cast first ballots of 2020 New Hampshire Primary - YouTube

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The key to this is that, under New Hampshire law, a polling place is allowed to declare its results after the polls close, or once everyone in that place has voted. In most real-world cases, the latter is completely irrelevant, because you’re not going to get 100% turnout anywhere, but when you have as small a population as Dixville Notch, it’s actually feasible.

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As mentioned, you’re likely thinking of Dixville Notch although there are a couple of other tiny New Hampshire towns that also have midnight voting. And nobody seriously treats the outcome as a bellwether or indicative of the likely outcome in New Hampshire or the nation at large. It’s just a novelty.