Why a tiny New Hampshire town — with only 6 voters — gets to vote before everyone else

Though she faces an uphill battle in the New Hampshire primary, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley marked one early success in the state: sweeping the board in a tiny town that holds the distinction of voting first in the state — and historically, the country.

In a midnight vote on Jan. 23, all six registered voters in Dixville Notch — an unincorporated community near the Canadian border — gathered to cast their ballots for Haley.

“A great start to a great day in New Hampshire,” the former U.N. ambassador wrote on X. “Thank you Dixville Notch!”

Why do these half-dozen voters, residents of an otherwise unremarkable hamlet, get a leg up on their fellow New Hampshirites? They have a civic-minded local politician and a reporter with an eye on convenience to thank.

First votes in the state and nation

Nestled in the White Mountains of northern New Hampshire, Dixville Notch has played host to the state’s first primary votes since the 1960s.

In 1959, Neil Tillotson, the owner of a local resort, was approached by an Associated Press reporter regarding the upcoming presidential primary, according to NewEngland.com.

“For the past several election cycles, journalists had tripped over themselves as they traipsed around the state trying to nail down which community could claim first-to-vote status,” per the outlet.

The reporter believed Tillotson’s resort, called The Balsams, would make a convenient home base for journalists, and proposed making Dixville Notch the first community to vote.

Tillotson ran with the idea, and the change was made, according to the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.

Starting in 1964, he began opening up the resort at midnight on the presidential primary day for voters to cast the state’s very first votes, according to the foundation. Since New Hampshire law mandates that it host the country’s earliest primary, these became the first primary votes cast nationwide.

In the decades that followed, Dixville Notch became known for its early voting tradition, which has tended to garner outsized media attention.

In recent elections, it has faced competition from several other towns that also voted at midnight on the primary day — but this year, it’s again gone solo, according to the Associated Press.

“It’s special,” Les Otten, owner of The Balsams and one of the six Dixville Notch voters, told the outlet. “None of the six of us can complain about the outcome of the election, because we’ve participated.”