2 Tiny New Hampshire Towns, Where Voting Started After Midnight, Announce First Election Day Results

2 Tiny New Hampshire Towns, Where Voting Started After Midnight, Announce First Election Day Results

Joe Biden unanimously won the race in the township of Dixville Notch, while voters in Millsfield backed incumbent Donald Trump

The very first results of the 2020 presidential election are in.

Hours before polling places opened around the rest of the country, two tiny towns in New Hampshire — which had some 25 ballots to count total — announced whether President Donald Trump or Democratic nominee Joe Biden had won their local races.

Voting began in Dixville Notch — located near the Canadian border — as well as nearby township Millsfield shortly after midnight. In Dixville Notch, Biden won all of the town’s five votes while Millsfield went to Trump, 16 to five.

The results in Dixville Notch, which marked the 60th anniversary of the early voting tradition, made Biden the first candidate to earn a sweeping victory there — such as it was — since 1960, according to Forbes.

That year, Richard Nixon unanimously beat John F. Kennedy, though Nixon of course went on to lose to the Democrat in the general election, underscoring how the New Hampshire results matter more as a curio than a preview of Election Day.

JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP/Getty Voters in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire

This year’s results were in line with how the two towns voted in 2016, with then-nominee Hillary Clinton taking Dixville Notch, while Millsfield backed Trump.

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Les Otten, a lifetime Republican who chose to vote against Trump, was the first to cast his vote in Dixville Notch.

“I’m a lifelong Republican voting for Joe Biden,” he explained in a viral video that has been watched more than 1 million times. “I don’t agree with him on a lot of issues but I believe it’s time to find what unites us, not to divide us.”

“It’s time to rebuild the heart of what makes us a great country. That starts with electing leaders of character who are truthful and will put the country’s welfare ahead of all else — and who will show respect for all people, regardless of their gender, their race, their religion or their political beliefs,” Otten added. “My vote today is meant to send a message to my fellow Republicans that our party can find its way back.”

Although the novel coronavirus pandemic didn’t put a stop to in-person voting in Dixville Notch, the town wasn’t able to hold a big celebration to honor the 60th anniversary of their local tradition.

“Sixty years — and unfortunately, we can’t celebrate it,” said town moderator Tom Tillotson, according to TIME.

However, the pandemic did put a stop to midnight voting in another small New Hampshire town. Out of a concern for public safety, Hart’s Location, which has a total population of 43, decided to open its polls at 11 a.m. this year.