Coronavirus partially interrupts 3 tiny New Hampshire towns midnight voting tradition

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Three tiny New Hampshire towns -- Dixville Notch, Millsfield and Hart's Location -- have traditionally cast their ballots at midnight on Election Day, but the coronavirus pandemic has put a damper on the usual festivities.

Dixville Notch is set to continue its 60-year midnight voting tradition and Millsfield will stand by its tradition, but Hart's Location changed its ways in the wake of COVID-19.

"It's a hard thing to let go of," said Mark Dindorf, chairman of the Hart's Location Board of Selectmen. "Really, during a pandemic, we didn't see that there was any way to conduct it safely with the health and safety of our poll workers and voters involved," Dindorf added.

The 48 voters from Hart's Location will go to the polls instead from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

The 22 registered voters of Millsfield will stand by the tradition.

"We have the room to do it here," said Millsfield election coordinator Wayne Urso. "We can do it safely, and that's exactly what we're going to do."

"This year, we have far fewer voting booths," he added. "We want to make sure that the booths are the right distance from each other."

New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner expects a record number of ballots to be cast in Tuesday’s election.

Gardner on Monday predicted at least 800,000 ballots would be cast, topping the record of 755,850 set in 2016.

“I wouldn’t be shocked if we had tens of thousands more than that, but I’m being conservative,” he said.

The first Election Day vote to be cast at a polling place is expected to be to Les Otten, of Dixville Notch, a lifelong Republican who is voting for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

“I don’t agree with him on a lot of issues, but I believe it’s time to find what unites us as opposed to what divides us,” Otten said. “The things that unite us are what makes this country great. At its core, that starts with electing people who are of character and will be truthful and will put the country’s welfare ahead of anything else.”

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Anyone with concerns about the coronavirus was allowed to vote by absentee ballot this year. As of Monday morning, more than 244,000 absentee ballots had been requested and more than 223,000 had been returned to city and town clerks.

Multiple safety precautions — masks, gloves, plexiglass barriers — will be in place for those who vote in person Tuesday. Gardner said local election officials are well prepared.

“There was a lot of concern in the late spring and early summer, but we had an advantage by having the primary in September because we could see the mistakes some other states made and plan for not doing the same thing,” he said.

Voter registration stood at 1,043,178 heading into Tuesday, but voters also can register at the polls.