Sanders, Kasich win 1st votes in tiny NH community

Sanders beat rival Hillary Clinton 4-0 while Kasich beat Donald Trump 3-2 for a total of nine votes cast in a tradition that dates back to 1960.

The three governors in the Republican race-Bush, Christie, and John Kasich-are wooing voters looking for a seasoned executive.

When Dixville Notch, in the far northern reaches of New Hampshire, voted just after midnight Tuesday, it didn’t predict six more weeks with Donald Trump. Hart’s Location, which started the tradition in 1948 to accommodate the schedules of railroad workers, and Millsfield, which first held midnight voting in 1952.

Dixville Notch. That’s the name of a small town in New Hampshire, and not, as you may have expected, the name of a Southern lawyer from the 1920s. The more populous town declared its results minutes after Dixville Notch.

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

Despite Dixville Notch being better known for its midnight voting, Millsfield residents have been invoking their town’s history to poke fun at their neighbours.

Tillotson, who also acts as the organizer of the midnight vote, insists there wasn’t any competition between the hamlets.

One man, Neil Tillotson, (who has a freaky and fascinating Wikipedia page) had the ceremonial honor of casting the first ballot, which he would do by holding his slip above the ballot box with one hand, checking his watch on the other hand, and dropping his vote in at the exact stroke of midnight.

The rest of New Hampshire will follow and the result will probably – hopefully? – winnow the Republican field, allowing us to look at the remaining contenders more closely as we await our turn on April 26.

“This is an example of American democracy where 100% of the voters come out and vote”, he said.

Christie notched one vote in Millsfield, where Cruz led the GOP pack with nine votes. There were no votes for Clinton.

Jeff Stevens, a 60-year-old construction manager on The Balsams, wouldn’t say who he supported, but he did vote for a Republican, and his reasoning echoed Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. Mark Stewart Greenstein, a CT attorney who calls himself “an increasingly embarrassed Democrat” and was the first Dem to file his New Hampshire paperwork, got two votes.