WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO HART'S LOCATION?

Theodore H. White's The Making of the President: 1960 opens with the midnight votes from Hart's Location (five expected for Kennedy, five expected for Nixon, two voters playing coy with the campaign staffs).  Yes, that was a long time ago in The America that Worked^(TM), and the book should still be required reading for contemporary politics junkies as it lays out the way the shift change affects the returns the decision desks see, and recalls a time when the losing side would accept the results "and cut down any man who goes against it, even though for millions the decision runs contrary to their own votes."  Mr White passed before the routine questioning of presidential elections became just another way America stopped working.

In New Hampshire, small towns have the option of convening a town meeting at midnight of an election day, to vote, count the votes, and, if everyone eligible has voted, close the elections and count the ballots.  Apparently that only became a thing in 1960, and a handful of towns took that approach. They're still voting that way in Dixville Notch, perhaps for the publicity.

The six registered voters of tiny Dixville Notch in New Hampshire all cast their ballots for Nikki Haley at midnight on Tuesday, giving her a clean sweep over former President Donald Trump and all the other candidates.

The resort town was the first place in the nation to vote in the 2024 primaries. The voters were outnumbered more than 10-to-1 by reporters from every corner of the globe — not to mention by a pile of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

Dixville Notch has a tradition of first-in-the-nation voting that dates back to 1960, with the results announced just a few minutes after midnight.

With such a tiny sample of voters, the results are not typically indicative of how an election will end up. But they do provide for an early curiosity.

In some previous elections, a couple of other tiny New Hampshire towns have also voted at midnight, but this year Dixville Notch went it alone.

The voting took place in a new location, the living room of Tillotson House, with the Balsams Resort undergoing renovations. It made for a congenial setting, with an 11-month-old golden retriever named Maxine greeting media and voters.

With those resorts come the prospect of more year-round residents, and whether those new arrivals will buy into the tradition of opening the voting, even with chocolate chip cookies on hand, remains to be seen.