2024 Presidential Primary

Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Polls will be open from 11am to 7pm
at Notchland Inn

The smallest town in New Hampshire will be out to cast their ballots for the 2024 Presidential primary on Tuesday, January 23rd.  This will be the first Presidential Election cycle that this smallest town has NOT been the first in the nation to cast their votes since 1948.

For recent primaries, voting booths have been set up the Hart’s Location Town Hall which was once a former Appalachian Mountain Club hostel  building. With fewer than 100 residents, Hart’s Location has opened the polls at midnight and closed them as soon as all registered voters have cast their ballots.  Few towns can boast 100% turnout.  This year voting will return to the Dining Room at Notchland Inn.

The polls opened at midnight on February 11, 2020 and closed at 12:04 am.   Results were provided thirty minutes later by the chairman of the Board of Selectman.  Hart’s Location was the first incorporated town in the nation to vote.

There will be a break in this tradition for this year’s primary.  For a number of reasons the town moderator decided that voting will take place during regular polling hours and not at midnight. The complexity of the ballot reporting documentation, increased time needed for reporting process, the probability of numerous write-in votes due to President Biden’s absence on the Democratic ballot, the absence of one supervisor of the checklist to assist in ballot counting, and the lateness of the hour in general are just some of the reasons this decision was made.

Hart’s Location may resume the midnight voting tradition for upcoming Presidential elections including the General Election in November.

There has always been a lot of media attention on this small town which is a challenge when WiFi is not available and cell service is very limited.  This year is no different.  The media seems just as interested in what Hart’s Location isn’t doing , which is an unusual twist!