Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, traditionally the site of the first balloting in the nation’s first quadrennial presidential primary elections, sent nine voters to the polls at midnight Tuesday, producing a split decision.
Former governors Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Jon Huntsman of Utah won the approval of two voters each. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas congressman Ron Paul each got one vote.
Three Dixville Notch residents voted for President Barack Obama, who ran unopposed.
Perhaps overstating the news, Huntsman wrote on Facebook that the town’s voters “have picked the GOP primary winner every year since 1968 and we tied for first place!”
Most recently, in 2008 the small town in northern New Hampshire correctly predicted that Obama and Republican John McCain, both U.S. senators, would win their parties’ presidential nominations.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, also a senator in 2008, eventually edged out Obama in the statewide primary election by three percentage points. McCain won the state by six points over Romney.
While Obama collected just one-third of the votes cast in Dixville Notch, he still scored a plurality victory over each Republican, mirroring the reality of a broad GOP field still fighting for the support of a majority of Republicans.
Dixville Notch’s town clerk told the Associated Press that the nine voters — three registered Republicans, two Democrats and four with no declared party — are the unincorporated hamlet’s only residents.
David Martosko is The Daily Caller’s executive editor. Follow him on Twitter.