So Beaufort, that beautiful waterfront town that serves as the county seat of Carteret County, will have to share the honor of being the Coolest Small Town in America with Hammondsport, N.Y. The editors of Budget Travel magazine decided that the two towns would share the title even though Beaufort apparently garnered slightly more votes than its northern rival during a month of voting on the magazine’s website in January.

The reason: Online voting was so intense that the website couldn’t handle all the traffic. The website crashed, leaving some doubt in the editors’ minds as to which town really won. Said the editors:

However, since voters in several parts of the country had been locked out due to the site crash, Budget Travel editors decided it was impossible to determine which town would have won had all things been equal for all voters. “We have to declare a tie,” said Lisa Schneider, the general manager for digital products. “It’s the only thing that’s fair under these circumstances.”

The editors go on to explain that out of more than 360,000 votes cast, Beaufort ended up with slightly more votes, and a slightly higher percentage: 36.2 percent for Beaufort to 36.0 percent for Hammondsport.

I can vouch for Beaufort being quite hospitable. The quaint town is picturesque any time of the year. The food is excellent and my dog loves the attention he gets when I walk him along the waterfront.

I’ve never visited Hammondsport, but I have traveled to the Finger Lakes region of New York. I was there in the summertime, and it’s quite beautiful too. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen trees as green as the ones I saw in that region one August.

I will give the climate of Beaufort an edge though. When I checked the temperature in Hammondsport, it was in the mid-40s. In Beaufort, the temperature was in the 60s on the first day of February.