McNeil tops inaugural DopePoll ™

The first ever DopePoll™ proved to be intensely popular, and is already being imitated by other blogs such as Capitol Fax and DownLeft. And the results are in.

Porter McNeil emerged the victor after a hard fought contest against the only other real contender, Dennis Ahern. McNeil and Ahern attracted a whopping 97% of the vote between them out of the field of 11 possible choices.

McNeil pulled ahead to a commanding lead, only to see it evaporate during the evening yesterday, but still held on to finish 122 votes in front with a tally of 552 votes or 54.5 %. Ahern gathered 430 votes or 42.4%.

On the question "If Mike Boland chooses not to run, who would have your support to win the 71st District seat?"

Out of 1013 total votes cast, the final results in order of finish are:

Choice : Vote total - Percentage of vote

1. Porter McNeil : 552 - 54.5%

2. Dennis Ahern : 430 - 42.4%

3. None of the above, I want Boland to stay : 10 - 1%

4. Steve Haring : 6 - 0.6%

5. Tony McCombie : 5 - 0.5%

6. Jerry Lack : 4 - 4%

7. Another Republican : 4 - 0.4%

8. Mike Hugetoon : 1 - 0.1%

9. Another Democrat : 1 - 0.1%

10. Mike Smiddy : 0 - 0.0%

11. Phil Banaszek (misspelled in poll): 0 - 0.0%


What the results reflect could be any number of things. Obviously, both Ahern and McNeil mobilized their networks to bring out the vote. They both ran a closely contested race and should be commended. (not one report of a yard sign being torn down!)

There was much pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth over the fact that I had to change the poll after the first one had already been up for a while.

There were a couple reasons for this. The primary reason was that it had become apparent that some voters were able to hack the first poll in able to vote multiple times. I'd also inadvertently included a candidate who doesn't even live in the district. I apologize for any problems this may have caused, but I wanted to ensure as much as possible that the results were not tainted by anyone voting multiple times.

The votes did come in at an amazing rate at some points, including one 45 minute period I observed between 4:50 and 6:35 p.m. Tuesday in which 97 votes were received for Ahern vs. McNeil's 3.

So far, I've not heard of anyone being able to vote multiple times in the new poll. Without such evidence, we must assume that vote rigging didn't occur. But if you figured out a way to get around the one computer, one vote restriction, please drop me an e-mail and let me konw. If it was possible, I'll need to try to find a poll system that is more secure. It the poll was "rigable", that fact should be taken into consideration when viewing the results as well.

A big thank you to all who voted, and a special thanks to those who came back and voted again after the change was made.

Now on to the next poll.