Advantage Obama in village election count
Two tiny villages in northern New Hampshire got the race for the White House under way today, casting America’s first election day votes.
People headed to the polls at midnight (5am Irish time) and after 43 seconds of voting, President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney each had five votes in Dixville Notch.
In Hart’s Location, Mr Obama had “won” with 23 votes, Mr Romney received nine and Libertarian Gary Johnson polled one vote. Thirty-three votes were cast in five minutes, 42 seconds.
The towns have been enjoying their first-vote status since 1948 and it is a matter of pride to get everyone to the polls.
Hart’s Location Selectman Mark Dindorf said you could call it a friendly competition to see whose votes were tallied first – but added that Hart’s Location was a town and Dixville Notch a precinct.
Earlier, in his final political rally as a candidate, Mr Obama asked Iowa voters to help him finish what they started in the state four years ago.
The president told more than 20,000 people in Des Moines that Iowa voters helped start “a movement that spread across the country”.
His win in the state’s 2008 caucuses jump-started his first presidential bid. And his last rally was held in front of the building that housed his campaign headquarters during that election.
Meanwhile Mr Romney rallied New Hampshire voters, repeating his promise of “real change” if elected.
He told more than 10,000 voters that a second Obama term could cause another recession.
The rally, in a packed sports arena in Manchester, was the fifth stop on a day-long, four-state slog that first took him to Florida, Virginia and Ohio.
The former Massachusetts governor launched his presidential campaign in New Hampshire last June. The 11pm rally was supposed to be his final campaign stop, but he then added election day campaigning in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
