If this is an omen of things to come, Dixville Notch and Hart’s Location, New Hampshire overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama in the wee hours of this morning. The towns have a tradition of having the first Election Day ballots tallied.
Democrat Obama defeated Republican John McCain by a count of 15 to 6 in Dixville Notch, where a loud whoop accompanied the announcement in Tuesday’s first minutes. The town of Hart’s Location reported 17 votes for Obama, 10 for McCain and two for write-in Ron Paul. Independent Ralph Nader was on both towns’ ballots but got no votes.
With 115 residents between them, Dixville Notch and Hart’s Location get every eligible voter to the polls beginning at midnight on Election Day. Between them, the towns have been enjoying their first-vote status since 1948.
Being first means something to residents of the Granite State, home of the nation’s earliest presidential primary and the central focus of the vote-watching nation’s attention every four years.
According to the Huffington Post, Dixville Notch, nestled in a mountain pass 1,800 feet up and about halfway between the White Mountain National Forest and the Canadian border, followed suit in 1960, when John F. Kennedy beat Richard M. Nixon. Nixon, the Republican, swept all nine votes cast in Dixville that year, and before Tuesday, the town had gone for a Democrat only once since then. That was in 1968, when the tally was Democrat Hubert Humphrey eight, Nixon four.
Let me close by saying that I am proud to be an American, albeit a naturalized one. I prayed for Barack Obama this morning because he embodies what America is all about. He has forever changed the landscape in America and made us confront our biases. Barack Obama, for what it is worth, has done what no other president in recent times or even in the past have done. He has transcended race, the very issue that has confounded us for so long. He has rallied and energized so many people to take the electoral process seriously. He ran the best campaign I have ever seen and he deserves to win the election tonight.
Barack Obama has done Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcom X, Johnnie Carr, Ralph Abernathy, Medgar Evers, Hosea Williliams, Frederick Douglass, Andrew Young, John Lewis and all the other leaders of the civil rights movement proud. This is the culmination of their struggle. I am reminded of the story of David and Goliath. David slew the giant with a stone. Sometimes God sends a leader who isn’t quite what we have in mind, but he surpasses our wildest expectations. Barack Obama, you have surpassed my wildest expectations and brought me to tears. May God go with you and may you walk into your destiny tonight, as the first African American president of the United States of America.
Filed under: Barack Obama, Dixville Notch, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Hart's Location, Hosea Williams, Johnnie Carr, Presidential Elections, Ralph Abernathy, Rosa Parks
Black Political Thought 