Villagers in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, kick off U.S. elections with midnight votes

Source: Xinhua | 11-04-2008 15:15

DIXVILLE NOTCH, New Hampshire, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Over a dozen voters from Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, kicked off the day-long polling in the U.S. presidential elections as they gathered here at 0000 eastern U.S. time (0500 GMT) Tuesday to cast their votes for a new president.

Dixville Notch residents wait for the stoke of midnight to be the first voters for the nation's presidential  election in Dixville Notch, N.H. Tuesday Nov. 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Cheryl Senter)

The polls, which officially closed minutes later, showed that 15 votes went for Democratic ticket Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Republican ticket John McCain and Sarah Palin grabbed 6 votes, while Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez, an independent ticket, got no votes. 21 eligible voters cast their votes.

Dixville Notch, a small village located in the far north of New Hampshire, is well known for its longstanding middle-of-the-night vote in the U.S. presidential elections, a symbolic event which marks the casting of the first ballots and the elections' initial results.

Hart's Location, a small town in New Hampshire, also shares Dixville Notch's enviable status of being one of the first places to cast votes in the elections.

But for millions of other eligible voters, polling stations will not open until at least hours later. A few voting districts in neighboring Vermont are scheduled to open at 5:00 a.m. EST (1000 GMT), followed by the remainder of eastern states where polling stations open at 6:00 a.m. (1100 GMT) or 7:00 a.m. (1200 GMT).

Voting across the continental United States will begin between 8:00 and 11:00 a.m. EST (1300 and 1600 GMT). Alaska and Hawaii will be the last two states to join in, with voting to begin at 1600 GMT and 1700 GMT respectively.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei