Dixville Notch, New Hampshire

Dixville Notch, New Hampshire
Unincorporated community
The Balsams, a resort hotel in Dixville Notch and the site of the "midnight vote"
Dixville Notch Dixville Notch Show map of New HampshireShow map of the United StatesShow all
Coordinates: 44°52′15″N 71°18′21″W / 44.87083°N 71.30583°W / 44.87083; -71.30583Coordinates: 44°52′15″N 71°18′21″W / 44.87083°N 71.30583°W / 44.87083; -71.30583
Country	United States
State	New Hampshire
County	Coos
Township	Dixville
Elevation	1,873 ft (571 m)
Population  (2020)[1]
• Total	4
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (EDT)
Area code(s)	603 Exchange: 255
GNIS feature ID	866591[2]

Dixville Notch is an unincorporated community in Dixville township, Coos County, New Hampshire, United States. The population of the township, all of whom live in Dixville Notch, was 4 as of the 2020 census.^[1] The village is known for being one of the first places to declare its results during United States presidential elections and the New Hampshire presidential primary.^[3] It is located in the northern part of the state, approximately 20 miles (30 km) south of the Canadian province of Quebec. The village is situated at about 1,800 feet (550 m) above sea level at the base of mountains.

The village shares its name with Dixville Notch, a mountain pass that lies about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) southeast of and 100 feet (30 m) uphill from the town itself, located between Dixville Peak and Sanguinary Mountain, separating the Connecticut River's watershed from that of the Androscoggin River. The village is the location of The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel, one of a handful of surviving New Hampshire grand hotels, situated on a 15,000-acre (61 km²) plot, accommodating golfing in the summer and skiing in the winter.

Dixville Notch is part of the Berlin, NH–VT Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Midnight voting tradition[]

Elections in New Hampshire
Federal government Presidential elections 1788-89 1820 1824 1828 1832 1836 1840 1844 1848 1852 1856 1860 1864 1868 1872 1876 1880 1884 1888 1892 1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1916 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 Dem 1996 Dem 2000 Dem 2004 Dem 2008 Dem Rep 2012 Dem Rep 2016 Dem Rep 2020 Dem Rep New Hampshire primary Local Dixville Notch Hart's Location United States Senate elections 1788 1789 1792 1794 1798 1798 (sp) 1800 1801 (sp) 1802 (sp) 1804 1807 1810 1810 (sp) 1813 (sp) 1814 (sp) 1816 1817 (sp) 1818 1819 1823 1825 1846 (sp) 1831 1835 1836 (sp) 1837 1841 1842 (sp) 1843 1846 1852 1855 1855 (sp) 1857 (sp) 1859 1861 1864 1870 1872 1876 1879 (sp) 1883 (sp) 1885 (sp) 1887 (sp) 1889 (sp) 1891 1895 1897 1901 1903 1907 1909 1913 1914 1918 1918 (sp) 1920 1924 1926 1930 1932 1936 1938 1942 1944 1948 1950 1954 1954 (sp) 1956 1960 1962 1962 (sp) 1966 1968 1972 1974/5 1978 1980 1984 1986 1990 1992 1996 1998 2002 2004 2008 2010 2014 2016 2020 2022 United States House elections 1789 1789 (sp) 1790 1792 1794 1796 1797 (sp) 1798 1799 (sp) 1800 (sp) 1800 1802 (sp) 1802 1804 1806 1808 1810/1811 1812 1814 1814 (sp) 1816 1819 1820 1822/1823 1824/1825 1825 (sp) 1827 1829 1831 1833 1835 1837 1839 1841 1843 1845/1846 1847 1849 1851 1853 1855 1857 1859 1861 1863 1865 1867 1869 1871 1873 1875 1877 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1917 (sp 1st) 1920 1928 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 1954 1956 1968 1972 1980 1984 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020
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Dixville Notch is best known in connection with its longstanding midnight vote in the U.S. presidential election, including during the New Hampshire primary (the first primary election in the U.S. presidential nomination process). In a tradition that started in the 1960 election, all the eligible voters in Dixville Notch gather at midnight in the ballroom of The Balsams. The voters cast their ballots and the polls are officially closed when all of the registered voters have voted – sometimes merely one minute later. The results of the Dixville Notch vote in both the New Hampshire primary and the general election are traditionally broadcast around the country immediately afterwards.

A similar tradition in the town of Hart's Location in adjacent Carroll County began in 1948; theirs was discontinued in the 1960s in light of the abundance of media attention, and revived only in 1996. Informal competition for the distinction of the first town to report election results has been ongoing for several election cycles, among a number of small communities, including:

• Coos County:
  • Dixville Notch
  • Millsfield (the township to the south of Dixville township)
• Carroll County (the next to the southeast):
  • Hart's Location
• Grafton County (the next to the southwest of Coos):
  • Ellsworth
  • Waterville Valley

Press accounts occasionally falsely state that Dixville Notch "votes first" in U.S. presidential elections. However, the village does hold a number of voting records within the United States:

• Longest continuous record of midnight voting
• Highest count of midnight presidential primaries (13 as of 2008, vs. 5 to 9 for Hart's Location)
• At least one of the first handful of lawful votes (nationwide) in each presidential campaign's binding primaries
• Often first to report its returns

Dixville Notch was granted the authority to conduct its own elections in 1960 and chose to open its polls at midnight. In 1964, the primary election returns were the first in New Hampshire to be reported by UPI and the Associated Press. Since then, Dixville Notch has gained international media attention as the first community to vote in the presidential primary season (since New Hampshire's primary is required by state law to be scheduled earlier than any competitor). Dixville Notch also votes at midnight in the general presidential election in November, although this usually attracts less press attention than primary voting.

Although most New Hampshire polling stations open around sunrise and close in the early evening, Dixville Notch takes advantage of a state law that allows a precinct to close if all registered voters in that precinct have cast ballots. Consequently, all registered voters in Dixville Notch gather and are counted before the balloting takes place. The "Ballot Room" of the Balsams Hotel resort served as the polling place until a recent fire; this room featured separate voting booths for each citizen.

The tradition was first organized by prominent Dixville Notch resident Neil Tillotson (1898 – October 17, 2001), who was traditionally the first voter; he would reportedly hold his ballot over the ballot box while watching his wristwatch. At the moment of midnight, Tillotson would drop the ballot into the ballot box and the rest of the town's residents would follow suit. Since Tillotson's death from pneumonia in 2001 at the age of 102, the first voter has been chosen by random ballot beforehand.

In the presidential election of 2 November 2004, the village had 26 registered voters, roughly half of whom were registered as Republican; the other half were registered "undeclared" or unaffiliated with a party. New Hampshire law, however, allows a voter to declare or change a party affiliation upon arriving at the polling place, meaning that a number of the town's independent voters vote in the Democratic party primary.

The votes are counted immediately after all are received; the Dixville Notch results of the primary (and now the Hart's Location ones as well) often lead morning news programs on election day. During every election year between 1968 and 2012, the candidate with the plurality of Dixville Notch's voters has been the eventual Republican nominee for president. On the Democratic side, however, the village's election results have less often predicted the nominee. In 2000, for example, Bill Bradley won the most votes among Dixville Notch's Democratic primary voters, although Al Gore was the party's eventual nominee.

In 1992, the Libertarian Party unsuccessfully attempted to capitalize upon Andre Marrou's unexpectedly strong showing in Dixville Notch in the general election. In 2004, Democratic candidate Wesley Clark was the only contender to personally visit Dixville Notch; he was on hand when the votes were cast and counted, and he received the majority of Democratic votes cast. (Clark placed third and received only 13 percent of votes statewide.)^{[citation needed]}

The community's voting tradition received a nod in the 2002 third-season episode of US television program The West Wing, in an episode entitled "Hartsfield's Landing", named after a town clearly modeled on either Dixville Notch, or its companion, Hart's Location.

In 2008, Senator Barack Obama became the first Democrat to win the community's vote in a presidential election since 1968, by a margin of 15 to 6.^[4]

In 2012, the Dixville Notch result delivered a tie for the first time in its history, with Barack Obama and Mitt Romney receiving five votes each.

In 2016, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton won the community's vote, beating Republican candidate Donald Trump, 4 to 2, with Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson receiving one vote, and Mitt Romney receiving a single write-in vote. Eight people voted in total.^[5]

In 2019, the community was at risk of losing its ability to conduct its own election and having to combine with another municipality for voting, as its population had been reduced to four people, one too few to hold all the positions needed to conduct an election in New Hampshire.^[6] However, Dixville Notch received a reprieve before the primary when a fifth person (Les Otten, developer of The Balsams) agreed to move there in time for the election.^[7]

When the community's five residents convened for the 2020 primary, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg received three votes as a write-in candidate. The other two votes went to Democrats Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders.^[8][9]

In 2020, former Vice President Joe Biden won over incumbent Republican Donald Trump, winning the votes of all five of the community's voting residents.^[10][11]

Federal election results[]

The eventual nationwide winners for each contest are indicated in bold.

See also[]

• Hart's Location, New Hampshire
• List of mountain passes in New Hampshire
• New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 171: Dixville Notch – "First in the Nation"

References[]