We spoke to the Dixville 6, the midnight voters who all chose Haley

The first votes for the New Hampshire primary have been cast in the township of Dixville Notch.

All six.

Nikki Haley received 100 percent of the votes, with a turnout of 100 percent. The polls – or in this case the poll – opened just after midnight, as they have done here for 64 years, with much fanfare. And ten minutes later the vote was over.

The event is both a press spectacle and a serious exercise in democracy: there were more than ten journalists for every voter, including representatives from major TV networks, newspapers, news agencies and foreign press from more than a dozen countries.

Ms. Haley's unanimous victory came as a surprise to first-time Dixville Notch voter, Valerie Maxwell, 54, who works for the resort where the vote was held.

“I wasn't sure if she would do it, but I'm so excited,” Ms Maxwell said. “We didn't tell each other who we were voting for, so I wasn't sure. But I'm very happy she did it.”

The township, just 20 miles from the Canadian border, was once heralded as an almost magical bellwether: the winner of the Republican primaries went on to win the party's nomination in every election cycle from 1968 to 2012. Whatever predictive powers the party possessed were exposed by Donald J. Trump, who lost to former Ohio Governor John R. Kasich by a 2-3 vote in Dixville Notch in 2016.

The loss of confidence in his predictive abilities may have hastened the decline of his political appeal. Once a destination for presidential candidates, Dixville Notch did not host this year's primary candidates. That did not diminish the symbolic weight of the midnight vote for Tom Tillotson, 78, the township moderator, an elected position that oversees town meetings.

“My one vote won't accomplish anything, but maybe the way we vote can give people some alternatives,” said Mr. Tillotson, who is unhappy with the prospect of another showdown between President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump. He hopes other voters will follow the council's example and support another candidate.

Les Otten, the real estate developer who owns the Balsams, the election resort, said he was tired of the negative and pessimistic politics of the current presidential race. After all, the American economy is among the strongest in the world, he said.

“How is that something to be afraid of? That is not the case,” said Mr Otten. “That's what our job as voters really is: to eliminate all politics, to eliminate all doubters, all experts.”

Dixville Notch, with a population of six, is not home to a single Democrat; the voter rolls include four Republicans and two independents. But Mr. Tillotson emphasized that the mood here is less about party and more about process.

“The real message here is 'come on, get out and vote.' Everyone. Republicans and Democrats,” said Mr. Tillotson, a former Republican who left the party in 2020 and is now unaffiliated.

Dixville Notch was once nothing special in its approach to elections. Other towns that used to vote at midnight, like Millsfield and Hart's Location, opted to hold their elections at more normal hours this year, leaving Dixville Notch voters alone — except for the journalists, of course.

Just before midnight, Mr. Tillotson gathered the media with a story about his father, Neil Tillotson, who started the midnight voting tradition. As the younger Mr. Tillotson tells it, his father set his watch forward a few minutes just to beat the other cities with early votes.

“Well, I don't know if that's true or not,” he said, spoiling the story somewhat.

Another voter, Annmarie Pintal Turcotte, 54, a real estate developer and business partner of Mr. Otten, who made up more than 16 percent of the electorate here, cast her first vote in Dixville Notch and reported that the process was thoroughly enjoyable.

“It's exciting, I think this is so much more fun,” she said. “I want to vote all the time now.”

Not all Dixville Notch voters were thrilled with the attention and influx of press. Deborah Tillotson, Mr. Tillotson's wife, politely declined to answer questions about the evening's fuss — “I'm not interested in talking about this,” she said — and remained in her seat next to the polls as the media commotion engulfed. her five neighbors.

The Balsams Resort, where the six voters usually meet in the aptly named Ballot Room, is closed for renovation, so the few voters, many journalists and two dogs (Maxine and Lucy) are instead packed into the Tillotson Room in one of the resort areas. outbuildings where the eldest Mr. Tillotson once lived.

Until his death at the age of 102 in 2001, Neil Tillotson took it upon himself to cast the first vote, claiming the unusual distinction of being the country's first voter. Into his shoes stepped Mr. Otten, a ski resort magnate who once owned part of the Boston Red Sox and many of New England's legendary resorts. Mr. Otten bought the Balsams in 2016 and sought to turn the hotel, which has fallen into disrepair and is now vacant, into a year-round destination with a massive ski area that rivals the largest in New England.

The spectacle of the midnight vote has captured the imagination of political enthusiasts for decades, gaining even more fame after the tradition was featured in an episode of “The West Wing.”

But Dixville Notch's reputation did not improve for Scott Maxwell, 54, who took part in Tuesday's midnight vote for the first time.

“They forgot to tell me that part,” Mr. Maxwell, a carpenter and husband, told Valerie Maxwell. “I don't remember when I found out, probably after I had been here two or three months.”