No. I don’t want to make my candidate look bad by using a script. Other people are campaigning in these web polls for their candidates just as I am campaigning for mine.

Yes. I think this is stupid. I’ve highlighted it.

The difference between running a script and clicking refresh is that it is concievable that it can be argued that the script is cheating. It is an illogical argument, but one that I would expect the people who would prefer to use a web poll rather than scientific poll would make.

I don’t have the time or money to be on the other end of that argument. I’m not going to set myself up for it, or create a local repuation as a “hacker”.

I’m not working for a start up, but for local small businesses. I know how easily confused people are by technical issues. “You mean he broke into the TV computer?”

By clicking the link again and again, it’s no different from the supporters of the other candidates who are pressing the vote button again and again.

I am calling attention to how foolish this is.

Looks like Nick is going to lose, anyway. He needs to beed David Kent, since they are taking the winner the group of candidates who debated on two separate nights.

Are you motivated by the fact that Nick was (at the time of this writing) not one of the top 2 candidates? If you are most interested in getting Nick into the debate, then fine – no scripting so as not to compromise the position of your candidate.

Or are you motivated by the misuse of an entertainment poll by a media entity to greatly influence an election?

Is there a big difference between scripting, and sending out emails linking to this blog? Is there a difference between scripting and me keeping a webpage open and hitting “refresh” every couple of minutes to vote again?

It is apropos. One of the projects I’m discussing is turning one of the people finder databased into a constituent finder.

http://familymessages.org/

This is a project that collaborated with immediately after Katrina. At the 9th Ward Homeowners, State Rep. Charmaine Marchand asked me what it would take to create a database of displaced constituents for the Lower 9th. I said a phone call to Dan Chaney. He wrote Family Messages in about 48 hours.

Amazing stuff. I’m not plugging it in the mainline blog, since I’m waiting to see if it’s really possible. We’ll see.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060325/pl_nm/hurricanes_voters_dc

The polls close at the end of Monday. The debate is on April 13th.

I voted for Nick this morning. I voted like a Chicago cemetary.

Thanks for your help in deciding the future of New Orleans elections and criminal justice.

Two of the folks that are ahead are relative unknowns, and will probably get more votes in the web poll than in the actual election. Seriously.

Nick really does have the support here. He should really be the one in that debate.

When the polls close, your guess is as good as mine. I’ll ask Nick and Jimmy Delery this afternoon. I’m going to the opening of Nick’s campaign headquarters.

Here’s the front end of the poll…

http://www.wdsu.com/politics/index.html

The election is on April 22nd. It’s a crazy election with a large number of candidates in each contest. (Katrina has embolded folks to make a political bid, since the demographics have changed.)

thanks, hard to stop once I started…

I don’t think anyone has written a script. The votes dropped off at nighttime.

I do think that people are voting again and again. I’m sure they are going to get up and running again today.

I would never write a script or work to effect the poll programatically.

I am sure that people would argue that it was some sort of cheat to write a script, but the process was otherwise fair, which is not true, of course. They would simply disqualify the candidate who used a script, saying that it was a fluke.

Of course, the other candidates might have a script, but they could be clever about how they use it. If this was how elections were deterined everywhere, people would have clever spoofs to make their million votes look legitimate.

No script. But, I’d like to get this blog entry linked in like crazy today.

Have you written a script yet? Have you notified other news media about this? It seems like a horrible (if well-intentioned) abuse of the power of media to influence an election.

Knowing that its happening, and that the system is broken, I think you should do whatever is in your power to take advantage of the system *AND* highlight its injustice. What would WDSU say if one candidate has a million votes, while the next candidate has a thousand? If Nick is chosen, I would ask him to make a point in the debate about the inherent unfairness of the selection process.

I forgot to say…

Thanks for voting for Nick Varrecchio!

Vote early. Click reload often.

I know. It’s something else. There is a disclaimer on the survey form that says…

Please keep in mind that our polls are for entertainment and are not conducted in a scientific fashion.

We make no guarantees about the accuracy of the results other than that they reflect the choices of the users who participated.

Everyone on the campaign is pretty much freaking out though. The television time, during the news, is priceless. Being voted into the debate is so important for crediblity.

For a contest like the Clerk of Court, budgets don’t permit much television, so this television exposure can be decisive.