Bush wins Dixville Notch hamlet vote

8.30am - By GREG FROST

DIXVILLE NOTCH, New Hampshire - President George W. Bush has scored a symbolic victory, capturing the first Election Day votes in a tiny New Hampshire hamlet whose residents traditionally cast the first ballots in the US presidential race.

Voters in Dixville Notch, about 25km from the Canadian border, backed Bush over Democratic challenger John Kerry by a margin of 19 to 7, election officials said on Tuesday. Independent candidate Ralph Nader received no votes, they said.

Located in New Hampshire's northern White Mountains, the popular tourist destination traditionally was among the first to cast ballots in the US presidential election.

But the hamlet's quadrennial claim to fame lost some of its shine this year as more than two dozen states offered citizens the opportunity to vote early. Officials have reported record levels of early voting across the country, including nearly 2 million voters in Florida.

Dixville Notch voters, of whom there are 26 in total, were unconcerned by the trend of early voting elsewhere in the country, noting that theirs was the first community to vote on election day and to announce the results.

"We're not worried. The thing is, we don't know the results of those early ballots around the country whereas these are the first to be made public," said resident Rick Erwin, a registered independent.

Dixville Notch takes advantage of a state election law that allows communities to close the polls after all registered voters have cast their ballots.

The hamlet is heavily Republican. Republicans have won each of the presidential vote in Dixville Notch since 1972 although Kerry's 7 votes this year are two more than Al Gore received in 2000.

The town's entire voting population -- 11 registered Republicans, 2 registered Democrats and 13 independents -- gathered in the Ballot Room at the elegant Balsams resort on Monday evening before they could officially cast ballots at one minute past midnight.

The midnight-voting tradition began in 1960 when, in an effort to get publicity and serve a civic function, community leaders opened voting booths early on primary day and reported the results to a local wire service.

They did the same thing on Election Day later that year, and every four years since then the media has turned to Dixville Notch for the nation's first Election Day votes.

- REUTERS