What to know about first in nation vote at Dixville Notch


A quadrennial tradition is set to return at the stroke of midnight as Dixville Notch is set to hold its midnight vote in the 2024 Presidential primary elections.

The poll in the remote New Hampshire town near the Canadian border opens at midnight Monday and closes after all the residents have voted.

This year six votes are up for grabs, one more than there were in 2020.

This year Republicans are deciding between former President Donald Trump, who is currently facing 91 criminal counts across four state and federal cases, and Nikki Hayley the former ambassador to the United Nations.

On the Democratic side President Joe Biden will be a write-in candidate as he did not file to participate in the election to support the Democratic National Committee’s move to recognize South Carolina as the party’s first primary vote. The Biden campaign has waged an effort to have supporters write in the President to defeat fringe challengers like Representative Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson who have used the unsanctioned primary to argue that the President is subject to a competitive primary.

When did Dixville Notch start its midnight vote?

The midnight tradition began in 1960.

Voting at midnight started in Dixville Notch when Neil Tillotson lead a successful campaign at the New Hampshire Legislature to recognize the town as a stand-alone voting precinct, according to CBS News.

“It’s an unincorporated township, and at that point, it wasn’t authorized to do anything,” Tom Tillotson, Neil’s son and current Town Moderator told the network. “They got together, nine people, and voted at midnight,” Tillotson said. “I don’t think there was much press coverage that first year … but that started the tradition.”

Though the town was not the first town to hold a midnight vote, it will be the only town to do so in 2024, according to WMUR.

Who did Dixville Notch vote for in 2020?

Dixville Notch voted for Michael Bloomberg in the 2020 Presidential primary and Biden in the general election, according to the Associated Press.

In the Republican primary Bloomberg received three write-in votes, and Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders each received one vote in the Democratic primary. Biden won all five votes in the general.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dixville Notch: What to know about the first in nation primary vote

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