Three small towns in New Hampshire with early voting are giving Donald Trump a 32-25 lead over Hillary Clinton.
In New Hampshire, towns with under 100 voters are allows to open polls at midnight and close upon receipt of ballots for all registered voters. Trump came out ahead of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton with 32 votes to Clinton’s 25 between the Dixville Notch, Hart’s Location and Millsfield communities of the New England region state
Trump came out far ahead in Millsfield with a commanding 16-4 lead over Clinton with one write-in vote going to the man that lost to Clinton in the primaries, Sen. Bernie Sanders. Clinton came out slightly ahead in two towns. The local news station reported that Clinton received four votes to Trump’s two in Dixville Notch where Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson received a vote and failed 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney received one write-in. Though he had teased running in 2016 and later harshly criticized nominee Trump, Romney was not a 2016 candidate.
Clinton took 17 votes to Trump’s 14 in Hart’s Location, New Hampshire. There Johnson pulled out three votes while former 2016 candidates Sanders and Ohio Gov. John Kasich received one write-in vote each. Sanders and Kasich both lost their party’s primary elections.
Hart’s Location, New Hampshire touts its position as “The Smallest Town in New Hampshire and the First in the Nation to Vote” on its website. The site states that the community started the tradition of early in the day voting, 7 a.m., in 1948 as a way to accommodate railroad workers and their families. By 1952 they had moved the time up to midnight. With growing media attention over the practice, residents voted to stop the practice in 1964, however it was reinstated in 1996.
In 2012, Hart’s Location chose Democratic President Barack Obama to continue in a second term over Republican nominee Romney by a margin of 23-9. According to 11Alive News, the town also chose Obama in 2008, chose Bob Dole in 1996 and George Bush in 2000 and 2004.
Tiny Dixville Notch recorded only eight votes according to results reported by the local news outlet, half of which went to Clinton over Trump’s two. The report stated that the town voted consistently for Republicans from 1960, including Barry Goldwater who lost overwhelmingly to Lyndon Johnson. Their Republican trend ended in 2008 when Obama was favored and in 2012 the vote there was down the line between Obama and Romney.
Trump and Clinton have been fighting hard for the swing state’s four electoral votes that could help decide the fate of the election.
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