Dixville Notch: A Small Town On The Big Stage

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. Actually, the word town isn’t technically correct, as it’s designated as an “unincorporated community in the Dixville township.” The only reason anyone has heard of Dixville Notch is because the town has the honor of being the first town to vote in the New Hampshire primaries. To illustrate just how small Dixville Notch is: the community’s population tally in 2010 was a whopping 12 people.

In the wacky world of primaries and caucuses, where some of the most powerful people in the country pretend that Iowa is their favorite state, sometimes small towns like Dixville Notch get their fifteen minutes of fame.

This all happens because New Hampshire law allows a town with fewer than a hundred residents to open polls at midnight, and close polling as soon as the last ballot is cast. Why? Because “Live Free or Die,” that’s why. Dixville Notch isn’t the only town who has taken advantage of this law, as there is a nearby town named Hart’s Location which has a similar tradition. One key difference: the citizens of Hart’s Location grew tired of the media attention for a few decades, and suspended the tradition from 1948 to 1996. I like to imagine that Hart’s Location is a bustling metropolis of forty-one people, who look down on the twelve townsfolk of Dixville Notch for living simple lives.

One man, Neil Tillotson, (who has a bizarre 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. He has since passed away at 102 in 2001, and now the first to vote is randomly selected.

There has only once been one tie in the history of Dixville Notch, and while that statement could feasibly be about neckties given the size of the population, here it refers to a tie in voting. This occurred in 2012, when Mitt Romney and Barack Obama each received five votes.

Dixville Notch is just one of several small towns across the country that draws attention during the insane election season. Remember when Polk County, Iowa was momentarily nationally relevant? In a political system governed by archaic and bizarre rules, with caucuses and coin-flips, midnight voting and pork-eating, quirks like Dixville Notch’s voting tradition add a little levity to the tiresome ordeal.

Sean Simon

Sean Simon is an Editorial News Senior Fellow at Law Street, and a senior at The George Washington University, studying Communications and Psychology. In his spare time, he loves exploring D.C. restaurants, solving crossword puzzles, and watching sad foreign films. Contact Sean at SSimon@LawStreetMedia.com.