Decision time in New Hampshire

Gardner said the state has a typically high turnout in presidential primaries-even higher than their mid-term elections, when New Hampshire voters elect a new governor.

Outside of a polling site at an elementary school in Manchester, Hillary Clinton greeted voters and took pictures with them. In it, Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman describes the small town of 42 people (Hart’s Location has 41) that votes at 12:01 a.m. and reports results at 12:07 a.m., giving the press something to talk about for 21 hours before anything else happens.

In the tiny town of Dixville, which votes at midnight on primary day, Kasich sneaked past Donald Trump, 3-2, among Republicans.

Sen. Bernie Sanders received four votes, Ohio Gov. John Kasich got three, while Donald Trump pulled in two.

“When you get to be president, or just before you get to be president, the attitude would change very much”, Trump said.

Political nerds and Aaron Sorkin fans may remember the West Wing episode, “Hartsfield’s Landing”, a fictitious nod to these small towns in New Hampshire.

Who can vote? Any registered voter can cast a ballot, and yes, voters may register on the day of the primary. Elections have results, and candidates who did poorly in Iowa like Kasich, Bush, Chris Christie, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina will have a hard time continuing their campaigns if New Hampshire gives them a second weak result.

Then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush won Dixville Notch in 2000.

In 2011, then-New Hampshire Speaker of the House Bill O’Brien, a Republican from Mount Vernon, explained why he wanted to eliminate election-day registration and prevent college students from voting where they attended school.

But Trump needs to turn his soaring lead in the polls into a convincing win in New Hampshire if he is to recover from the embarrassment of finishing second behind Cruz in Iowa. The odds are lower for the Republican field, but still heavily favorable for Trump.

Trump took some jabs at his competition.

Bush, appearing on Fox News Tuesday, says he’s determined to knock down Trump because he says “this guy is not a conservative” and he can not “win by insulting your way to the presidency”.

He has a huge lead in the Granite State, but the number two spot seems up for grabs.

Kasich, Rubio and Bush battled for a runner-up finish to assume the leadership of the GOP establishment.

Fiercely independent voters here bypassed establishment candidates to deliver an important early victory to two outsiders who are polar opposites in both policy and personality.

Elsewhere on social media, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders held strong.

Yet local voting rights groups, including the League of Women Voters, the Citizens’ Alliance, and the ACLU, say the current voting laws could prove a barrier to many New Hampshire residents, who already have to show an ID and proof of residence to register to vote. The Secretary of State predicts more than half a million people.

Dixville Notch wasn’t the only New Hampshire community voting at midnight this time.