Budget Travel’s 7th Annual “Coolest Small Towns” Contest
Hammondsport, NY, and Beaufort, NC, have been locked in a month-long, neck-to-neck battle for Budget Travel’s 2012 “Coolest Small Town” in America. The voting was so intense–with more than 360,000 votes cast–that although Beaufort was technically ahead by a few votes when the voting cut off at midnight Jan. 31st, the site crashed, causing many last-minute voters to be locked out. The final count was Beaufort 36.2 percent and Hammondsport 36.0 percent. However, because of the crash and the closeness of the vote, the editors declared a tie!
Best-selling novelist Nicholas Sparks, who encouraged fans to vote for Beaufort via a Tweet, promised to give away a few signed novels if they won! (Wonder who gets them?)
The contest was open to towns with populations under 10,000. Last year’s winner was Lewisburg, WV. In total, 647 towns were nominated with Weaverville, CA, coming in third, after Beaufort and Hammondsport.
To read the full article go to: http://blog.budgettravel.com/budgettravel/2012/02/coolest-small-town-2012-tie.html
Southern-Traveller 