Dixville Notch 2024: Trump and Harris in a Tie

The tally — the first result of this election — was announced 12 minutes after midnight.

In a hamlet where 66.67 percent of the registered voters are Republicans (the other two are independents) and where Nikki Haley swept the primary with all six votes, the general election ended in a tie: three votes for Kamala Harris, and three for Donald J. Trump.

“I didn’t see that coming,” Scott Maxwell said of the split result. His vote, for Mr. Trump, came as something of a surprise, even to him. As late as 10:30 p.m. on Monday, Mr. Maxwell said he was undecided.

Four years ago, all five votes went to Joseph R. Biden Jr. In 2016, Hillary Clinton got four votes and Mr. Trump two.Dixville Notch was created for the sole purpose of turning the Balsams resort into a voting location. Neil Tillotson, the hotel’s owner, won free advertising for the resort, and journalists took advantage of the in-house telephone company to deliver the town’s real, albeit statistically insignificant, vote tally 12 hours before exit polls from elsewhere in the country began to trickle in.

The voters of Dixville Notch worked for weeks to prepare for this year’s election night. They took calls from curious journalists in New York City, Montreal and Hong Kong. They mowed the grass in front of Mr. Otten’s home, which now doubles as the voting precinct. In the kitchen, they prepared ham and cheese croissants and chocolate chip cookies as thick as wallets. In the living room, they erected risers for television journalists, chairs for photographers, and a plastic table for counting votes.

“In our backyard, the system is going to work the way it was designed,” Mr. Otten said before the votes were cast. “Six people will vote. Their votes will be counted.

And once it’s done, it’s done.”