Millsfield, New Hampshire, population 23, has continued its age-old tradition of casting the first votes in presidential elections, and the incumbent, President Donald J. Trump was the clear winner, winning 16 votes – with the Democratic candidate, former VP Joe Biden, getting only 5.
However, 12 miles north of Millsfield, in Dixville Notch, near the Canadian border, Biden swept the electorate, taking all 5 votes. So things are heating up.
New Hampshire law allows towns with fewer than 100 residents to open their polls at midnight of election day and close them as soon as all the registered voters have cast their ballots. According to the Star Tribune, a third community that traditionally votes at midnight, Hart’s Location, decided to suspend the tradition because of the coronavirus and will open its voting station like the rest of the country, in the morning. That’s 11 AM after all the cows had been milked and the maple trees sapped.
The rest of America is going into election day with more than 98 million ballots already cast, yet another consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Joe Biden is leading in most national polls as well as in swing states, but Democrats, in a classic show of PTSD resulting from Trump’s shocking come from behind victory in 2016, remain cautiously optimistic – and many aren’t optimistic at all.
If we believe the polls (and many don’t), Biden is leading in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, the states where Trump turned the table on Hillary Clinton in 2016. And Biden has narrow leads going into election day in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, and Georgia. Biden is a threat to trump in Texas, which has been a solidly red state since 1996.
The Jewish American vote is split, with roughly 30% supporting the president and 70% his opponent. In Israel, the majority of the country’s Jews are behind Trump, and several prayer sessions enlisting the support of a higher power have been reported in the local media.