Tiny U.S. town readies for another first in presidential elections

The tiny, unincorporated town of Dixville Notch in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, is readying itself once again for its quadrennial moment of fame as the U.S. Election Day is drawing near.

Midnight voting in the first-in-the-nation presidential elections is expected to take place in Dixville Notch on Tuesday, despite major renovations underway at the now-crumbling Balsams Grand Resort Hotel, the traditional balloting place, which was closed in 2011.

Traditionally, the voting in Dixville Notch finishes in less than a minute.

A makeshift polling station was set up this year in the hotel builder's lakeside house, which was erected more than 100 years ago, just a few hundred meters away from the hotel itself. The voting station for the 2012 elections was moved to a nearby ski lodge, a grey building, at the foot of snow-capped mountains in the ski resort.

In the living room of the red-roofed wooden house, a wood ballot box with a brass lock was put on a table near a sign which says: "Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, the first in the nation," meaning that the tiny town is the first to vote in the country's presidential elections.

Around the corner, five ballot booths were erected for the voters to mark their ballots before casting them.

Tom Tillotson, whose father Neil Tillotson started the midnight voting tradition in the small town in 1960, told Xinhua that six voters are expected to cast their ballots just after midnight on Tuesday.

The ballot booths -- just small cubicles -- were not enough for all the six voters, the other voters have to mark his or her ballot at a writing desk around the corner, said Tillotson, who will moderate the voting on Tuesday.

He was the moderator of the 2012 elections which saw 10 voters from the small town.

Tillotson said that his son, Tanner Tillotson who was the first to cast his ballot in the 2012 presidential elections, is now working in Spain and he registered himself as an absentee voter this year.

Two of the 2012 voters here moved to the neighboring state of Maine, he said.

The six registered voters are expected to cast their ballots at the stroke of midnight on Tuesday, signifying the official beginning of the voting in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.

The first voter is decided by lottery drawing, Tillotson said, adding that all the six voters will gather at the polling station at around 23:00 EST (0400GMT) on Monday for the lottery.

"We have to carry on the tradition," said Tillotson, who said he was a little bit sad about the fact that the number of voters are shrinking in this tiny town. Enditem