Another story, with a bit more detail and history.
McCain, Obama, get early votes in N.H. villages
By Clarke Canfield, Associated Press Writer | January 8, 2008
DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. --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 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 -- for McCain.
"I think he's somebody we can look at as president and be proud of," she said.
Tanner Tillotson, 19, cast his first vote ever -- for Barack Obama.
"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. in a small room packed with TV cameras and photographers.
"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. Hart's Location Selectman Mark Dindorf said getting 100 percent voter turnout was the most exciting aspect of the event.
"We challenge any other town in the country to do that," he said.
McCain, Giuliani, Paul and Hunter had visited Dixville Notch. None of the major Democratic hopefuls visited, although the Obama campaign sent representatives to the town last week.
In Hart's Location, Dindorf said one prominent resident's energetic campaigning for Obama paid off.
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. Neil Tillotson was Tanner Tillotson's grandfather.
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 -- one of whom 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, who later cast the town's first vote. "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."
Neil Tillotson was a staunch Republican. Another grandson, James Tillotson, 33, also voted for Obama. He said his grandfather would not have frowned upon the vote.
"He would have been glad that I got out to vote. For him, it was all about voting and having your voice heard."
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