Posted on 01/07/2008 10:21:58 PM PST by freespirited
Residents of two tiny towns stayed up late to give Barack Obama and John McCain early victories in the New Hampshire presidential primary.
Voters in two small New Hampshire villages, Dixville Notch and Hart's Location, cast the initial ballots just after midnight Tuesday.
In Hart's Location, Democrat Obama received nine votes, Hillary Rodham Clinton received three and John Edwards received one. On the Republican side, McCain received six, Mike Huckabee received five, Ron Paul received four and Mitt Romney one.
In Dixville Notch, on the Republican side, McCain received four votes, Mitt Romney two and Rudy Giuliani one. On the Democratic side, Obama received seven votes, John Edwards two votes and Bill Richardson one vote.
Donna Kaye Erwin cast the first ballot in Dixville Notch and voted for McCain.
"I think he's somebody we can look at as president and be proud of," she said.
Tanner Tillotson voted for Obama in Dixville Notch.
"All the candidates can make promises, but I think he has the drive to get them done," Tillotson said.
Long-shot GOP hopeful Rep. Duncan Hunter attended the vote in Dixville Notch, where results were announced before 12:06 a.m.
"It epitomizes people-to-people politicking," Hunter said minutes before the votes were cast.
Hunter received no votes in either town.
State law allows towns with fewer than 100 people to open at midnight and to close as soon as all registered voters have cast ballots.
While most New Hampshire residents have to wait until around daybreak to vote, those in the two far northern towns have been going to the polls at midnight for decades. The Balsams, located about 20 miles from the Canadian border, has been holding its early bird voting since 1960. That's when former owner Neil Tillotson, who died in 2001, arranged for early elections by having Dixville incorporated solely for voting purposes. Hart's Location began midnight voting in 1948 because most residents were railroad workers who had to be on the job during normal polling hours. Townspeople, weary of the media attention and the late hours, did away with it after the 1964 election but revived the practice in 1996.
In Dixville this year, there were three registered Republicans, two Democrats — which included one who registered Monday — and 12 who were undeclared. Hart's Location had eight Democrats, eight Republicans and 13 undeclared.
With more candidates on the ballot — 42 — than voters in town, longtime Hart's Location town clerk Marion Varney, 86, wouldn't venture a guess Monday on how the voting would turn out. In 2004, Wesley Clark got the most Democratic primary votes in Hart's Location and Dixville.
"I don't even know for sure who I'm going to vote for," said Varney. "I think I might just close my eyes and mark the ballot."
The two places have a friendly competition about which is first to cast its ballots.
New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner recalls getting phone calls in years past from people claiming that Neil Tillotson had illegally cast the first ballot at The Balsams before midnight — that they had seen it on C-SPAN.
"I'd say it was done on 'Tillotson time,'" Gardner said. "If he said it was midnight, then it was midnight."
I hope he stays in forever. He's entertaining and he doesn't take any votes away from serious candidates
-—Donna Kaye Erwin cast the first ballot in Dixville Notch and voted for McCain.
“I think he’s somebody we can look at as president and be proud of,” she said.-—
Good Lord! Has the electricity been out up there the last seven years?
Same thing can be said about Mitt my friend.
I am not sure what side of each and every issue Mitt would come down on if he became President and had to deal with a situation that meant he could not stick his finger in the wind to figure out how he should react.
He is the most unstable candidate in the campaign.
Okay. Enough fun and frivolity. On to the real primaries.
to give Barack Obama and John McCain early victories in the New Hampshire presidential primary.....victories?????
Polls arent even open in most of state.
Except in this case it's "Little Town In Little State Syndrome".
Mitt will employ a brigade of attorneys to decide what side he should decide to be on, if he decides.
You know, double speak.
In Hart’s Location,
Democrat Obama 9 Hillary 3, Edwards 1
Republican McCain 6, Huckabee 5,Paul 4, Romney 1
In Dixville Notch,
Democrat Obama 7, Edwards 2, Richardson 1
Republican McCain 4,Romney 2, Giuliani 1
Hart’s Location is into self preservation...they gave Hillary a few votes so she would not put a hex on them...
I wondser how drained the town coffers are????????????
LOL
I think Obama is going to win by a much bigger margin than what the pollsters are predicting. Utes, Obama’s core, usually don’t have phone numbers/lines that pollsters can readily access.
>> In Hart’s Location <<
Famous in 1984? (Gary, is that you?)
Those “Utes” are back at college now...
We’ll see what happens.
Interesting point, tcrlaf.
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