First US election results are in and it couldn’t be closer

05 November 2024 , 21:17

538     0

First US election results are in and it couldn’t be closer

This is the moment the first results are announced in the 2024 US presidential race between vice president Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

Voting in the small town of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, kicked off the Election Day with its traditional midnight vote early Tuesday (Eastern Time).

Cameras flashed as each of the six registered voters gathered at the Tillotson Room of the Balsams Resort, where people have cast the first ballots for the last 60 years.

Moments later, the results were in – an even split between the Democrat favourite and the Republican nominee.

Each candidate secured three votes in the town located along the border between the US and Canada, only underscoring how close the election will be. 

Before the results were called out, resident Annmarie Pintal said: ‘New Hampshire is a purple state, and I think it is very divided. And I think even the six of us might be divided.’

Dixville Notch has supported the Democratic nominee the last two elections, with voters in 2020 unanimously casting five ballots for president Joe Biden.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton won four of seven votes, with two going to Trump and one to Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.

People stand near a board showing vote tallies during the 2024 US presidential election (Picture: Reuters)

Leslie Otten, one of the township’s voters, opened up about his presidential pick: ‘I think the president works for me and I do not work for the president.

‘So this year, the largest reason that I have for voting against Trump and for Harris is my feeling that I am not the enemy from within.

‘I am from the middle of the system, and if I do not believe in one candidate or another, that doesn’t make me an enemy.

‘And now I think being we’re being told, it’s being loudly said by Trump that I am now an enemy because I don’t back him.’

Grace Cooper