Can you feel the #HUNTSMENTUM tonight? They’re feeling it in Dixville Notch!
Republican voters in the “First in the Nation” hamlet, which quadrennially opens its polls at midnight and closes them at ~12:01 AM after everyone in town has voted, gave two votes each to Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, for the first tie since 1980, when Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush got 5 votes apiece. Nate Silver may say Huntsman has just a 0.4% chance to win tomorrow, but in Dixville Notch, it’s a 50/50 proposition!
Yes, it was high drama as America’s silliest democratic tradition took place. And CNN’s Steve Urkel was there:
If only Huntsman had worked harder to convert the town’s Paul voter, or perhaps its Gingrich voter, he could be seeing “HUNTSMAN WINS DIXVILLE NOTCH” headlines right now. That’d be some bankable #Huntsmentum!
Of course, in the other midnight-voting New Hampshire hamlet, it was a different story: Hart’s Location went Romney 5, Paul 4, Huntsman 2, Perry 1, Gingrich 1. But as Huntsman is no doubt saying, “They pick their noses in Hart’s Location. They actually pick presidents in Dixville Notch.” Or something like that. 🙂
(Top twitpic by @mzwrite.)
P.S. Here’s my previous Dixville Notch blog coverage…
2004 primary: here, here, here and here.
Is that “scoreboard” picture correct, that HALF as many people that voted for ALL the GOP candidates showed up to vote for Obama in what I wasn’t even aware was an uncontested Dem primary? If this is any indication of what might happen in the general election, I’m going to pick Obama to take Dixville in a landslide 9-5.
The Dem primary is not uncontested. New Hampshire has very lax ballot access laws. 🙂 I can’t wait to see how many votes Randall Terry and Vermin Supreme get…
In any case, registered Democrats can’t vote in the GOP primary and vice versa (independents, I believe, can vote in either), so the fact that the town’s Dems showed up and voted for Obama, rather than voting in the GOP primary (which they can’t do) or not voting at all (which would prevent Dixville Notch from closing the polls and tallying its votes at 12:01 AM), isn’t really indicative of anything.
Obama did carry Dixville Notch in the 2008 general election, riding his wave of national and especially NH-specific momentum, but IIRC that’s the first time the town has gone Democratic in a long time. It’s a Republican bastion, as you’d expect for a tiny rural hamlet. With the economy down and Obama’s numbers far below 2008 generally, I expect the GOP nominee will win there easily in November.