How the poll goes

As you can see over to the right of this article, my “best local blog” poll is taking a hiatus for the holidays, replaced by an RNC poll that I’ll leave up for a few days. But I found the opening round results of my local blog poll quite interesting.

Last year, I had three finalistsafterthegoldrush, Salisbury News, and Twirling, Twirling, Twirling Towards Freedom. Since I only had twelve competitors last year, the first round of four polls cut the field to six (4 winners + 2 wildcards), then the semifinals cut the remainder in half (the two winners + a wildcard.) afterthegoldrush was a wildcard in the first round that survived, won its semifinal, and defeated Salisbury News 152-146 in the final poll (4TF received six votes.)

But in 2010 I expanded the field to 24, and since I want to maintain 3-way races the eight round winners will be joined by just one wildcard into one of three semifinals, with the three winners moving on. From here on out, just like the NFL playoffs, it’s win or go home.

Of the three who were in the finals last year, two have survived into the semifinals. Here is the list in seeding order, based strictly on the number of votes with which each won its individual round.

  1. Random Thoughts of a Citymouse (191 votes)
  2. Right Coast (175 votes – wildcard)
  3. The Salisbury Grinch (93 votes)
  4. afterthegoldrush (65 votes)
  5. Salisbury Soapbox (56 votes)
  6. Delmarva Shorebirds Blog (40 votes)
  7. Twirling, Twirling, Twirling Towards Freedom (37 votes)
  8. Delmarva Sportsmen (17 votes)
  9. Delmar Dustpan (8 votes)

While many contenders garnered more than eight votes, they didn’t happen to be in such a weak first-round draw. That’s life. In the semifinals the rounds will be made as equal as possible.

This poll will return January 3rd with the first of three semifinals, with the winner being crowned later in January.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.