Obama, Hassan and Shea-Porter win in early morning voting in Hart’s Location

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It took less than six minutes for the town of Hart’s Location to cast their votes early Tuesday morning.

Of the 33 ballots cast, 23 were for Barack Obama, nine for Mitt Romney and one for Gary Johnson. Maggie Hassan received 22 votes for governor, ahead of Ovide Lamontagne’s nine votes and John Babiarz’s two votes. Twenty-three residents voted for Democrat Carol Shea-Porter for Congress while nine voted for Republican Frank Guinta and one for Libertarian candidate Brendan Kelly.

Of the 36 registered voters, 25 came out to cast their ballots just after the stroke of midnight to complete the town’s claim as the first in the country to cast their votes in the national election. Eight voted absentee. A bus from Obama for America waited on the side of Highway 302 just down the hill and about a dozen non-residents watched from near the door.

Actually, there are two New Hampshire communities that vote just after midnight. In Dixville Notch voters headed to the Balsams ski lodge since the resort hotel is undergoing renovations.

The first vote tradition was started in Hart’s Location in 1948 and the town considers itself the first town to cast a vote. The tradition, started in 1948 to accommodate local railroad employees, was discontinued in the 1960s, but revived in 1996. For almost 30 years town residents voted in the basement of town clerk, Marion Varney’s home, but have spent the last few years in a town hall built from cabins moved from Crawford Notch when the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Highland Center was built.

There are 36 registered voters in the town, which stretches like a thin strip of ribbon between Bartlett and Crawford Notch and is surrounded on the north and south by the high peaks of the White Mountain National Forest.