McCain and Obama win (the first vote)

Dixville Notch, a town of 24 with 17 registered voters, opened the polls at 12:01 a.m. today Jan. 8, the first vote in the New Hampshire primary. They declared McCain and Obama the winners seven minutes later. Dixville Notch has voted just after midnight since 1960. They file in and vote by placing their ballots in a ballot box.

Results:

McCain - 4, Romney - 2, Giuliani - 1

Obama - 7, Edwards - 2, Richardson - 1

Working for the Votes: McCain

Just two of the 20 PACE Center volunteers in New Hampshire are campaigning for Republicans. Bryan Gergen '08 and Chris Nenno '08 are campaigning for Arizona Sen. John McCain. We met them in McCain’s Nashua field office after they returned from a short McCain rally this morning. Short being the operative word, as McCain only spoke for two minutes, 40 seconds before moving on to his next event on this the last full day of campaigning.

The office was on the second floor of a building with more people than it could support. Volunteers were standing in the hallways and outside other companies’ doors to make phone calls encouraging voters to choose John McCain. That was what Bryan and Chris were doing this morning, contacting people who had expressed that they were divided between supporting McCain or another candidate. Sometimes they received answering machines, and other times they reached supporters of other campaigns, ranging from New York Sen. Hillary Clinton to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Yet they also had success , finding supporters to whom they offered rides to the polls. Each answering machine message ended with the phrase “This call was paid for by John McCain 2008.” Sometimes the people in the room sounded like they were speaking in a round.