Joe Biden secures first Election Day victory with all five votes in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire

Joe Biden has secured the first victory of Election Day 2020 by winning all five votes in a tiny New Hampshire town. 

Dixville Notch posted its final tally on a handwritten poster board just after midnight on Tuesday, as most Americans get some shut-eye before polls open nationwide this morning. 

In recent years the town near the Canadian border has been among the first in the US to reveal election results, handing Hillary Clinton one of her first wins in 2016. 

This year, all five ballots were cast within three minutes after midnight.  

Meanwhile 12 miles away in Millsfield, ballot boxes also opened just after midnight, with all votes coming in just after Dixville Notch. President Donald Trump won that contest, with 16 votes to Biden’s five.  

President Trump took home the second Election Day victory in Millsville, New Hampshire

Dixville Notch posted its final tally on a handwritten poster board just after midnight Tuesday

Normally, there would be a big food spread and a lot of media crammed into a small space to watch the voting in Dixville Notch, town moderator Tom Tillotson said last week. 

But that’s no longer possible because of the coronavirus pandemic. It’s also hard to observe the 60th anniversary of the tradition, which started in November 1960.

‘Sixty years – and unfortunately, we can’t celebrate it,’ he said.

A third community with midnight voting, Hart’s Location, suspended the tradition this election because of coronavirus concerns. It decided to hold voting from 11am to 7pm Tuesday. 

The White Mountains town started the early voting in 1948 to accommodate railroad workers who had to be at work before normal voting hours. It eventually stopped in 1964 and brought it back in 1996.

In recent years Dixville Notch has been among the first in the US to reveal election results, handing Hillary Clinton one of her first wins in 2016. Pictured: The Hale House at the Balsams resort where midnight voting took place on Tuesday 

Dixville Notch’s five residents: Tanner, Debra and Tom Tillotson with Joe Casey and Les Otten, stand together after voting during the historic midnight vote at the Hale House

The communities also vote just after midnight for New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary, which was on February 11. 

That almost didn’t happen this year in Dixville Notch, when one person moved away, leaving the remaining four residents one short of the minimum needed to handle various election responsibilities. 

That was fixed when a developer working on renovations of the now-closed Balsams resort, where the voting tradition began, moved in.

For years, voting was held in a wood-paneled room filled with political memorabilia at the Balsams, which closed in 2011. 

Some of those items were brought over to a former culinary school on the property, the setting for Tuesday’s vote. 

This is a developing story.