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The 2016 US election has officially begun, with Hillary Clinton coming out on top in the first results to come back — the nine-person community of Dixville Notch.

Clinton came out with just under half the vote, as a whopping four people picked her to win. Trump did half as well with two, while Gary Johnson racked up one. But the real surprise was a written-in vote for 2012 candidate Mitt Romney.

Clinton’s success may seem odd: Not only does the community usually vote Republican, there are only two women and seven men.

Then again, the remote New Hampshire community voted overwhelmingly for Obama in the 2008 election – giving him 15 votes to John McCain’s six.

That was the first time the majority chose a Democrat since 1968, when they plumped for Humbert H Humphrey II against eventual winner Richard M Nixon. In fact, the town’s hit rate in the elections has been only slightly over 50:50 since 1960.

It could be Dixville Notch voters were swayed Clintonwards this election by the Obama’s full-throated support of the Democratic candidate in Philadelphia tonight.

Then again, it’s not like Obamania has kept a total hold on the town: the 2012 election saw Obama tying with Mitt Romney after they both got five votes each.

So Romney’s appearance on the ballot tonight could signal bad blood in the remote New Hampshire community.

This election has been especially thrilling, as the population dropped by a full 20 percent earlier in the year when two people moved away.

The community only has four female voters, and is down one voter from last election. Obama was tied with Romney and won 2008 — though it’s historically usually gone to a Republican

However, the population increased to nine when someone moved to the community shortly afterward.

Clinton and Trump reunited with their families for a final push on the campaign trail Monday evening at a pair of swing-state rallies that marked the beginning of the end of their respective presidential campaigns.

Clinton met up with her husband Bill and her daughter Chelsea in Philadelphia. They were joined at the outdoor event across from Independence Hall by President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and musicians Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi.

“Thank you for coming out for one last rally before election day tomorrow,” Clinton said at the Pennsylvania rally and concert. “I am so happy to be finishing this campaign with my husband and my daughter by my side.”

Trump, his adult children — Tiffany, Eric, Don Jr. and Ivanka – their spouses — Lara, Vanessa and Jared — and his VP pick, Mike Pence, campaigned in Manchester, New Hampshire. The White House candidate’s wife Melania and young son Barron were noticeably absent from the family portrait.

“I’ve been reading about Hillary Clinton having all these surrogates,” Trump said at his rally, when a laser light show and fog machines were switched off. “I had the best surrogates of all,” he asserted, meaning his children. “They were all over.”

The president spent much of the last seven days criss-crossing the country for Clinton, and he delivered a stirring defence of her at  last night’s rally, near the building where the nation’s founding fathers signed the Constitution.

He urged Americans to “reject a politics of resentment and a politics of blame and choose a politics that says we are stronger together,” Clinton’s slogan, and to “reject fear and choose hope” on Election Day.

The Democratic politician who trounced Clinton in the 2008 primaries only to name her as his secretary of state hailed his party’s nominee as “this fighter, this stateswoman, this mother, this grandmother, this patriot — our next president of the United States of America”.

Trump meanwhile called his opponent the “face of failure” as he appealed to “all of the Democratic voters in our country who are thirsting for change like everybody else.”

Trump had made five stops during the final campaign push, stopping at Sarasota in Florida, Raleigh in North Carolina, Scranton in Pennsylvania, Manchester in New Hampshire and Grand Rapids in Michigan.

Clinton took in four rallies — Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, Grand Rapids in Michigan, Philadelphia in Pennsylvania and Raleigh in North Carolina.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton pulled out all the stops for her final campaign tour with a celebrity haul that put Trump to shame.

Clinton rolled out appearances from Lady Gaga, Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen for her celebrity-packed final night of campaigning in Raleigh, North.

But over in Trump’s camp, the Republican nominee relied solely on musician Ted Nugent to warm the crowd at his Grand Rapids, Michigan rally.

Clinton took to the stage at 12.53AM  to quip that “by the time the poll closes tomorrow we are gonna be Livin’ on a Prayer”.

She also got words of support from her celebrity performing cohort. “We can’t elect somebody that doesn’t care for the people. We can only elect somebody who does,” Gaga said.

When she did her hit Born this Way, she added: “Don’t judge me cuz I’m voting for Hillary, I was just born this way.”

Gaga then joined Bon Jovi on his hit, ‘Livin’ on a Prayer,’ taking the high part in an acoustic duet.

“We just started this in a phone call. So we are truly doing this together for the first time,” Bon Jovi told the screaming crowd. “The time is here the time is now,” Bon Jovi said when they were done.

“This state is razor close and that’s why the two of us are here. North Carolina, you know that the road to the White House leads through your state,” he said.

Lady Gaga also performed Poker Face and Angel Down — a song she prefaced by saying Black Lives Matter.

Trump meanwhile relied on musician Ted Nugent to warm the crowd at his rally on Monday – even though he has criticised Clinton in the past for bringing celebrities to her own events. — AFP