The first wave of U.S. presidential election voting will not flow in until 7 p.m. ET Tuesday night (0000 GMT Wednesday), but the results in one precinct will be known much sooner.
Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, is the first in the nation to vote in the primaries and Election Day.
The small village in New Hampshire's northeast corner began voting shortly before the stroke of midnight (0500 GMT), and the ballots will not take long to tally: Dixville Notch only has about 20 registered voters.
The town, home to around 75 residents, has opened its polls shortly after midnight each Election Day since 1960, drawing national media attention for being the first place in the country to make its presidential preferences known.
But since 1996, another small New Hampshire town, Hart's Location, reinstated its practice from the 1940s and also opens its polls at midnight.
As a matter of fact, the two small towns share the "first town" status in U.S. presidential primaries and presidential elections every four years.
The result in Dixville Notch is, however, hardly a reliable bellwether for the eventual winner of the White House or even the result statewide.
While New Hampshire is a perennial swing state -- with 4 Electoral College votes at stake -- Dixville Notch consistently leans Republican.
The last Democrat it picked was Hubert Humphrey over Richard Nixon in 1968.
But the result could be close this year given Democrats now outnumber Republicans there.
According to Donna Kaye Erwin, supervisor of the voter checklist, Dixville Notch has five registered Democrats, four Republicans and 11 undeclared voters.
The result could also be a nail-biter given the town picked both presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama for the New Hampshire Republican and Democrat primaries last January.
McCain ultimately won the state of New Hampshire, while Hillary Clinton upset Obama there.
In a tradition that started in the 1960 election, all the eligible voters in Dixville Notch gather at midnight in the ballroom of The Balsams.
The voters cast their ballots and the polls officially are closed one minute later.
The result of the Dixville Notch vote in both the New Hampshire primary and the general election are traditionally broadcast around the country immediately afterwards.
A similar tradition in the community of Hart's Location began in 1948.
Dixville Notch was granted the authority to conduct its own elections in 1960 and chose to open its polls at midnight.
In 1964, the primary election returns were the first in New Hampshire to be reported by UPI (United Press International) and the Associated Press.
Since then, Dixville Notch has gained international media attention as the first community to vote in the presidential primary season (since New Hampshire's primary is required by state law to be scheduled earlier than any competitor).
Dixville Notch also votes at midnight in the general election in November, although this usually attracts less press attention than primary voting.
The tradition was first organized by prominent Dixville Notch resident Neil Tillotson who was traditionally the first voter. He would reportedly hold his ballot over the ballot box while watching his wristwatch.
At the moment of midnight, Tillotson would drop the ballot into the ballot box and the rest of the town's residents would follow suit.
Since Tillotson's death from pneumonia in 2001 at the age of 102, the first voter has been chosen by random ballot beforehand.
New Hampshire law allows towns with fewer than 100 residents to open the polls at midnight and close them as soon as all registered voters have cast their ballots.
In Hart's location, the voting tradition began as its residents, most of them are railroad workers, want to cast ballots before they go to work at midnight.
(Xinhua News Agency November 4, 2008)
