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DIXVILLE NOTCH, New Hampshire (CNN) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama emerged victorious in the first election returns of the 2008 presidential race, winning 15 of 21 votes cast in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.People in the village in New Hampshire's northeast corner voted just after midnight Tuesday.It was the first time since 1968 that the village leaned Democratic in an election.Obama's rival, Republican John McCain, won 6 votes.A full 100 percent of registered voters in the village cast ballots. And the votes didn't take long to tally.The town, home to around 75 residents, has opened its polls shortly after midnight each Election Day since 1960, drawing national media attention for being the first place in the country to make its presidential preferences known.However, since 1996, another small New Hampshire town -- Hart's Location -- reinstated its practice from the 1940s and also began opening its polls at midnight.The result in Dixville Notch is hardly a reliable bellwether for the eventual winner of the White House -- or even the result statewide.President Bush won the town in a landslide in the past two elections: He captured 73 percent of the vote in 2004 (19 residents picked Bush while six preferred Sen. John Kerry), and secured 80 percent of the vote in 2000 (21 votes for Bush, five votes for Al Gore.)But villagers expected the results to be close this year given Democrats now outnumber Republicans there.The town picked both John McCain and Barack Obama for the New Hampshire Democratic and Republican primaries in January. McCain ultimately won the state of New Hampshire, while Sen. Hillary Clinton upset Obama there.
I got to my polling place about five minutes before it opened. The line snaked around the building a bit. I kept wondering what time the first people in line got there. (4:00 AM?)
Voters Get Early Start at PollsBy Debbi WilgorenWashington Post Staff WriterTuesday, November 4, 2008; 6:57 AMLines formed hours early at polling places around the region this morning, as voters braced for unprecedented turnout and went out of their way to make sure they could cast their ballots.Frank Douglas, a 67-year-old Woodbridge resident, was first in line at the Potomac Library in Prince William County, ground zero in the battleground state of Virginia. Douglas, one of many African Americans in the crowd, arrived at 3:30 a.m., taking no chances of running out of time before he was due at his job at the Prince William County Department of Parks and Recreation.Behind him stood Cybil Archibold, 21 years old, white and voting for the first time in her life. She said she came straight from last night's Obama rally at the Prince William County Fairground, stopping home only to grab a sweater."I believe in my presidential candidate a lot," said Archibold, who works two jobs -- as a cashier at one restaurant and a waitress in another. "I believe in his political ideas. He doesn't seem like a robot, like some politicians. He seems like a real human being."By 5:30 a.m., 100 people stood outside the library. By 6 a.m., when the doors opened, 200 stood patiently, and others drove their cars in circles, finding no place to park in the normally ample lot.Around the region, similar scenes were unfolding -- both in Virginia, where polls opened at 6 a.m., and in Maryland and the District, where voting began an hour later. Long lines and jammed parking lots at the Arrowhead Elementary School in Upper Marlboro and Lee Corner Elementary School in Fairfax. Crowds of people waiting to vote in Rockville, Beltsville and on still-dark city blocks in North Cleveland Park and Adams Morgan.Election officials say they are ready for historic numbers of voters, especially in Virginia, where both Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain have campaigned extensively. Over the last few days, record numbers of voters in Northern Virginia have stood in long lines to cast in-person absentee ballots.In Alexandria, a safely Democratic city where John Kerry won by 67 percent four years ago, Democratic organizers were taking nothing for granted this morning; lining up more than 170 volunteers to drive voters to the polls and emailing activists to bring any umbrella, regardless of its condition, to protect voters who may be stuck outside waiting in the rain.Moveon.org sent granola bars, T-shirts and Hannah Montana dolls to hand out to people standing in line, said Julie Jakopic, deputy chair of the Alexandria Democrats. "People are really concerned about how long the lines will be," Jakopic said. "This is the first time we have volunteers just to encourage people to stay in line."Republican organizers in Northern Virginia, too, were busy organizing rides and reminding voters to get to the polls.Alexandria Registrar Tom Parkins is anticipating 70,000 voters today, an 11 percent increase from 2004. "We're deploying every machine we have," Parkins said. "In 1004, we used 500 election officers. We're puting 600 out this year. We're just slamming precincts with polling officers to help serve voters as best we can."Arlington County Registrar Linda Lindberg has put 1,000 election officials in the field today, up from about 800 four years ago, to deal with the more than 20,000 new voters that have registered in the county since January, bringing the total number of registered voters to 149,500."It's just incredible," Lindberg said. "I've never seen anything like it."At Oaklands Elementary School in Laurel, poll workers arrived to find police investigating an attempted burglary that ended with a police officer grazed by a bullet. Prince George's officials said the officer responded to the reported overnight burglary and confronted a suspect. The two got in a struggle, during which the officer's weapon was fired. His injury was minor, officials said.Poll workers were eventually allowed into the building, in time to open the doors at 7 a.m.Back in Woodbridge, at the Potomac Library, Army sergeant major Keith Scott and his family were in line by 5:20 a.m. Scott said he took the day off from work "in order to watch this historical event." After Scott, his wife and their 23-year-old twins cast their ballots, they planned to go out to breakfast and relish the knowledge that they had done their part in choosing the next president."I know there was early voting, but nothing beats doing it the day of," Scott said. "I wanted to see people come out in masses. I think the whole world is looking for change."
