In Hart's Location, another early polling place, Obama received 9 votes, Hillary Rodham Clinton 3 and Edwards 1. On the Republican side, McCain received 6 votes, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee 5, Ron Paul 4 and Romney 1.

A running joke among the traveling press corps Monday was whether or not to make the trek up to Dixville Notch to see the traditional vote.

"You want to go to the Notch?" asked one woman at Romney's event at the Nashua Country Club who overheard a plotting session while the crowd waited for the governor to show up. "That's God's country. You go up there and you might end up in Canada."

Unseen media chaos

Customers at Mary Ann's Diner in Derry, N.H., got an order of politician and a side of media to go with their sausage and eggs during Monday morning's breakfast rush when Mitt Romney bounded through the door to shake hands with the local electorate.

Politicians pressing the flesh with voters is a common enough sight on the nightly news or captured in newspaper photos. But what often goes unseen is the chaos of cords, fuzzy boom mikes, bright lights and cameras needed to capture these images.

As Romney sat next to voters in a booth — one wearing a Mitt Romney sticker on her face — cameras and microphones were in an adjacent booth capturing their every move.

Chasing an autograph

Susan and Joe Perry's 5-year-old daughter Charlene Perry graces a Romney campaign pamphlet drinking a Coke at the diner's counter while Romney smiles at her and her mother.

The couple returned with their children to Mary Ann's for breakfast on Monday upon hearing Romney was going to be in attendance. Susan Perry brought along a stack of the pamphlets, making sure the candidate autographed them.

Answer to pet problem?

At the Nashua Country Club's "Ask Mitt Anything" event, one woman stood up telling Romney she was going to ask him something that had not been asked of any presidential candidate yet.

The news media suddenly perked up, interested, while Romney braced himself for her question.

What, the woman queried, would Romney do as president to control the over-population of pets?

When Romney admitted he didn't know much about that issue, the woman answered her own question — suggesting the many undocumented immigrants Romney plans sending back to their home countries might be inclined to take an extra dog or cat with them when they leave.