For the past 48 years, the first results of voting in national elections in the United States have always come from the same place - the small village of Dixville, which is located in the mountains in the state of New Hampshire.

New Hampshire law allows polling places with fewer than 100 registered voters to end voting after all voters have filled out ballots and announce the results immediately afterwards. And every time on the eve of the primaries or presidential elections, Dixville residents gather in the hall of The Balsams Hotel, fill out ballots and place them in the ballot box at the stroke of midnight.

This year, according to tradition, the turnout was one hundred percent - every one of the 21 registered voters voted. And just a few minutes later the whole world was able to learn about Barack Obama’s first victory - he managed to get 15 votes. Only six votes were cast for John McCain.

It’s hard to think of better advertising for a small resort: footage from the hotel ended up on air on central TV channels and on news sites. However, Dixville has competitors from the village of Hart's Location (also in New Hampshire), which was the first to come up with voting at midnight back in 1948. The reason was simple: numerous railway workers could only come to the site at night, before the start of their work shift. Popularity was a secondary concern. But after 12 years, the owner of The Balsams Hotel, Neil Tillotson, decided to take over the initiative. There is a legend that this was achieved only through deception.

“It was a great scam,” says Dan Wolf, a former photographer for UPI. “Dixville became a legend because of the minute hand of the clock.” According to him, in 1960, when Dixville residents were able to vote at their own polling station for the first time, it was decided to do so at midnight. All the journalists and photographers then, out of habit, sat in the Harts Location and waited for the vote to send photos and materials first. However, UPI photojournalist Don Robinson came to Dixville and decided to use a ploy to get ahead of the competition. "Don moved the minute hand of the clock forward by about three minutes," explains Wolfe. "At the time, three minutes was a huge advantage. You had to beat the Associated Press." As a result, the photographs from Dixville were published earlier, and all the glory went to him. Already in the next elections, the village of Hart's Location lost the championship to Dixville. One of its residents admitted: “At some point, people began to get tired of having to wake up at night, so Dixville came out ahead. But it didn’t bother us.”

True, since 1996, Harts Location has resumed the tradition of voting at midnight, but they will clearly not be able to become the first again. The press is now, out of habit, waiting for the first results from Dixville, and the clock trick will no longer work. “Such tricks worked in the golden age of journalism,” Dan Wolf says with a smile, “you can’t use them now.”

Night owl voters – Power – Kommersant