HART’S LOCATION, N.H. (AP) – About five dozen North Country residents cast the first votes for president just after midnight Tuesday, giving President Bush the lead over John Kerry 34-22. Ralph Nader received one vote.

The first vote came from Hart’s Location, whose voters gave Bush and Kerry 15 votes each and one to Nader.

Minutes later in Dixville Notch the voters split 19 for Bush and 7 for Kerry.

Kerry, according to Stephen Barba, the Dixville Notch voting moderator, was expected to get fewer than the seven votes he received in the Republican majority community.

He termed the seven votes “reasonable and not a surprise since the trouble Bush has been in lately” in the polls, he said.

“We’re spoiled up here in New Hampshire because we get to talk to the candidates themselves,” said Steve Learned. “Some people up here say we don’t vote for people we don’t meet and Kerry didn’t come here,” he said.

The two communities since 1948 sporadically have been taking advantage of a state law that allows communities to close polls early if all registered voters have voted.

In 2000, both mountain hamlets chose President Bush over Democrat Al Gore. In Hart’s Location, Bush won 17-13.

In Dixville Notch, about 50 miles to the north, Bush had 21, Gore five and Ralph Nader one vote.

By state law, polls must be open between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. But nothing prevents a town from opening the polls earlier, and closing after all potential voters have cast ballots.

Hart’s Location began doing just that in 1948 because nearly everyone in town worked for the railroad and many had to be at work before normal voting hours. Dixville followed in 1960.

Hart’s Location residents traditionally cast their ballots at the Notchland Inn, but this year voting was moved to the new town hall.

National media attention to these “first votes” began in 1952, when the state let voters in the state’s earliest presidential primary vote for the candidates themselves rather than delegates to the national party conventions.

The Republican primary made news that year because Gen. Dwight Eisenhower upset party favorite Robert A. Taft.

Small towns including Hart’s Location, Millsfield and Waterville Valley soon were competing to cast the nation’s first votes. Hart’s Location dropped early voting in 1964, only to revive it 1996.

Dixville didn’t get into the act until 1960 for the general election. Reflecting the state’s then-solid Republican leanings, Republican Richard Nixon beat Democrat John Kennedy, 9-0. Kennedy triumphed nationally in one of the closest presidential elections ever.

Republicans still have the edge in both towns. Hart’s Location has 10 Republicans, 15 independents and six Democrats. Dixville has 13 Republicans, 11 independents and two Democrats.