Backgrounder: The "first towns" in U.S. presidential elections

DIXVILLE NOTCH, the United States, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) - Towns in New Hampshire will open polls shortly after midnight on Tuesday to kick off the quadrennial U.S. presidential elections.

Dixville Notch, a small town in New Hampshire's northeast corner, is the first in the nation to vote in the primaries and on the Election Day.

The town is well known for its longstanding tradition of midnight vote, a symbolic event which started in 1960 to mark the casting of the first ballots and the elections' initial results.

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.

On this year's Election Day, Dixville Notch voters are expected to begin voting at the stroke of midnight (0500GMT), and the ballots will not take long to tally: Dixville Notch has only seven registered voters.

Of those voters, there is one registered Democrat, three Republicans, and three independents, according to Tom Tillotson, son of Neil Tillotson and also the town's polling moderator.

He told Xinhua that six voters will cast their ballots at the polling station, while his son, Tanner Tillotson, who was the town's first voter in 2012 presidential elections, is now working in Spain and will

vote as an absentee.

The voters cast their ballots and the polls are expected to be officially closed about one minute later.

These few votes will make headlines on Tuesday morning. The midnight vote is like "a starting gun for the election," said Tom Tillotson.

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.

Since 1996, another small New Hampshire town, Hart's Location, reinstated its practice from the 1940s and also opens its polls at midnight.

This year, another community Millsfield joins the midnight vote to revive such a tradition it once had in the early 1950s.

Wayne Urso, town selectman in Millsfield, said his town has 21 registered voters, and 14 of them will vote at its polling station.

He said with about a dozen of voters, polling at midnight will ensure those who need to work in the day fulfill their daytime obligations after voting. Endit