Local residents fill in their ballots and wait to cast them at a polling station in Dixville Notch in New Hampshire, the United States, Nov. 6, 2012. Villagers in Dixville Notch cast votes just after midnight, kicking off U.S. presidential elections on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Zhang Chuanshi)

Voters in the tiny New Hampshire town of Dixville Notch cast their votes just after midnight, kicking off the quadrennial U.S. presidential elections Tuesday.

Only ten voters cast their ballots, and produced a tie between Democratic President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

It was the first time that the outcome was tied in the town's 50-year tradition as the first polling place to cast and count the vote on Election Day. Polling stations elsewhere are generally open between morning till nightfall on election day.

"This has never happened before in Dixville Notch: five votes for President Obama, and five votes for Governor Romney," Tom Tilotson, the election moderator, whose father Neil Tillotson created the legendary voting tradition in the small town, said as he was opening the tally.

The first voter, Tanner Tillotson, was decided by lottery drawing shortly after 23:00 EST (0400 GMT Tuesday). Tanner, 24, is grandson of Neil Tillotson.

"It's a great honor for me to be selected as the first voter this year," he told Xinhua, adding it was the second time he had won the honor, having also voted first in the 2008 election. He said he voted for President Obama, as he did four years ago.

A local ski lodge, a grey bungalow in the ski resort, was used as a makeshift polling station this year.

The ballot box, with a brass lock on it, was placed under a big sign, which read, "Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, the First in the Nation."

Dixville Notch is well known for its longstanding middle-of-the-night vote in the U.S. presidential elections. Reporters from all over the world outnumbered the voters in the northern New Hampshire hamlet.

It was snowing as the voting began and the temperature stood at minus 5 degrees Celsius.

"This event is covered worldwide, it's a center of the political universe for a moment of time," E.J. Powers, spokesman for the Balsams Resort Grand Hotel, told Xinhua.

Town clerk Rick Erwin said: "I think that is part of the reason that we get the attention, because people are curious (about) what the first votes are going to be. Of course, lots of people (in the United States) have voted already, but we are the first one to give the results. So, I think people find it interesting."

"You know, it's a beautiful place, it's a great place to live and work," he said. "And certainly, it's good to have people know that we exist here."

Following hot on the heels of Dixville Notch in the race to post the first results, by tradition, is Hart's Location, also in New Hampshire, where, shortly after midnight (0500 GMT), it was announced Obama won 23 votes to nine for Romney and two for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.

As America's first African president, Obama is vying to be the first Democrat to win a second term since Bill Clinton in 1996. Romney, the former head of a private equity fund and former Massachusetts governor, will be the first Mormon president and one of the wealthiest Americans to occupy the White House if he wins.

The two presidential contenders headed into the polling day after a long and bitter White House campaign which focused on the lagging economic recovery and persistent high unemployment, with both men seeking to convince voters they have a plan to usher in faster growth and job creation.

Obama, 51, advocates more economic fairness, investment in education and infrastructure, protecting welfare for the poor, elderly and disabled and taxing the rich to pay down the deficit.

Romney, 65, on the other hand, advocates limited government to battle the federal deficit and public debt, and deregulation and tax cuts to spur the economy.

The race also pits the two candidates on issues of healthcare, national security and immigration, but they were overshadowed by the all-important economic concerns.

The economy has struggled to break above a 2-percent annual growth since the 2007-2009 recession and the unemployment rate stayed above 8 percent for nearly four years until September, when it dipped to 7.8 percent. It edged back up to 7.9 percent in October.

At least 120 million Americans are expected to vote, with polls showing the two candidates in virtual dead heat in a race that will be decided in a handful of states, where it is extraordinarily close. Both candidates sought to generate strong turnout from supporters and to sway independent voters to their side in the last hours of the race.

The national opinion polls, which measure the likely popular vote, show the Democratic incumbent has a slight advantage in several vital swing states -- most notably Ohio -- which could give him the 270 electoral votes he needs to win.

U.S. elections are not directly decided by the popular vote, but require candidates to pile up a majority -- 270 out of 538 electoral votes -- from the 50 states and Washington, DC, calculated indirectly on the basis of population.

Under the electoral college system, U.S. voters only cast their ballots for a slate of electors of the U.S. Electoral College, who in turn elect the president and vice president. The majority of states use the "winner-takes-all" principal when it comes to electoral votes, meaning the candidate who wins that state's popular vote gets all of its electoral votes.

A candidate can, therefore, win the nationwide popular vote and still be deprived of the presidency by falling short in the Electoral College.

Under such a system, the traditional "red" or "blue" states don't determine the outcome of the election. It is the swing states, such as Ohio, Virginia and Florida, that decide the election. Both candidates shaped their campaign around the seven to 12 swing states.

In addition to presidential elections, voters are also voting Tuesday for 33 Senate seats, all 435 House of Representative seats, 11 state governors and numerous local offices.