The tiny New Hampshire town that is famous for being the first polling place in the nation to open each Election Day cast ten votes last night and turned the presidential race into a actual dead heat. The ten registered voters of Dixville Notch, who submitted their ballot just after midnight, were evenly split—five voted for President Obama and five for Mitt Romney. It's the first time in the history of this "first in the nation" election that the vote ended in tie. The number of votes was also down more than half from the 21 who voted there in 2008. 

Obviously, the fate of ten votes in a tiny northeastern state are unlikely to tell us much about the election, but since this is the only actual "exit poll" we'll be seeing until later this evening, it's also the only thing worth talking about right now. (In another New Hampshire early voting spot, Hart's Location, Obama won 23-9.) The trouble with Election Day is that the campaign itself is over, but until the polls start to close at around 7:00 p.m. Eastern time, there's nothing else to say. There's no actual news and any analysis is pointless. Not that that will stop anyone in the media from trying. It's going to be a long day.

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Dashiell Bennett