Decision Day in America! Long Lines at Polls as First Ballots Have Trump in the Lead (35 Votes to 22)
After months of intense, divisive campaigning, Election Day 2016 is finally here.
In a yearly tradition, voters in three small New Hampshire towns cast the first votes of the election at midnight, with 35 ballots going to Republican Donald Trump, and 22 to Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Meanwhile, with poll locations opening as early as 6 a.m., some voters across the rest of the country face long lines.
At one polling place on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the line stretched over half a block by 5:45 a.m. By 6:30 a.m., it stretched to the end of the block and wrapped two-thirds around another.
Other polling places in New York City, including in Bushwick Park Slope, Brooklyn, saw short waits to cast ballots.
In the town of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, Clinton earned 4 votes to Trump’s 2, while Libertarian Gary Johnson picked up 1.
While over in Hart’s Location, Clinton also grabbed a narrow lead with votes going 17-14 in her favor, with 3 to Johnson. But in Millsfield, Trump took 16 votes to Clinton’s 4, and one vote went to Bernie Sanders.
Because all three towns have fewer than 100 residents, they’re legally allowed to open polling at midnight. However this may be the last year Dixville Notch will have just a handful of voters — a developer took over the Balsams Grand Resort in town five years ago, and hopes to turn it into a large ski resort.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine voted in his home state of Virginia right at 6 a.m., the second voter of the day after 99-year-old area resident Minerva Turpin.
Clinton cast her historic vote just two hours later, at an elementary school near her hometown in Chappaqua, New York.
“It’s the most humbling feeling,” Clinton told reporters.
