Washington, Nov 5 (Representative) Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have tied with three votes each in the tiny New Hampshire township of Dixville Notch, kicking off Election Day in one of the first places in the country to report its presidential preference, media reports said on Tuesday.The township in New Hampshire, near the US-Canada border, has a tradition of polling after midnight ET. Four Republicans and two undeclared voters participated, CNN reported. Dixville Notch’s annual production, despite a dwindling population, is a success story for local leaders and a source of joy for political junkies eager to witness early events, despite not always being predictive of the state’s winner.According to CNN reports, by tradition, all eligible voters gather at the now-dormant Balsams Hotel in Dixville Notch to cast their secret ballots once polls open at midnight.
Once every ballot is cast, votes are tallied and results announced hours before anywhere else, making it a destination for national reporters, who often outnumber the voters. Dixville Notch voters have supported the Democratic nominee the last two presidential elections, with the township in 2020 unanimously casting five votes for President Joe Biden and with Hillary Clinton in 2016 winning four of seven votes—two went to Trump and one to Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, the report said.In January, four registered Republican voters and two independents participated in the GOP primary, casting six unanimous votes for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
The 75-year-old Otten, who said he has been “a Republican ever since I was seven years old,” told CNN before Tuesday’s vote that he would cast his ballot for Harris.“Nowhere in the Pledge of Allegiance does it say anything about pledging your allegiance to a person,” Otten said. “And I think at the end of the day, Trump has made it clear that you need to pledge allegiance to him, and he alone can fix this, and that is as anti-democratic as I can understand.” The voters also cast their votes in the country’s most competitive governor’s race between former one-term Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Democratic nominee Joyce Craig, the former mayor of Manchester, to succeed retiring Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, the report said.