Hitting the reset button

If you were paying attention to my sidebar poll, you may have noticed the results regressed to a much smaller number this afternoon. It was intentional, and I’ll tell you why.

While I like to think the poll is rather accurate in the sense that passionate people are reflective of the general population, I also want two things out of a poll.

One is to get a sense of how people are thinking, even if it’s not the most scientifically accurate manner of doing so. More importantly, though, is that I want people to actually come to my page and check the poll out. If someone is way out ahead, it sort of discourages people who happen to support the bottom-feeders from participating and I absolutely HATE that. Fewer people coming = fewer readers = less opportunity for them to partake in my Amazon affiliation, and = fewer people seeing the ads from my sponsors.

So I decided that every day or two I will reset the number so everyone gets a fair shot. In the end the numbers should reflect the overall mood of the electorate, or at least who has the most passionate backers. It also gives me a chance to boost my site’s Facebook page because I just might decide to post the interim numbers there as an exclusive for those who ‘like’ the page (neat trick, huh? I can do this marketing stuff a little bit, too.)

In the words of former TV cop Sledge Hammer, “Trust me. I know what I’m doing.” Well, sort of, but we’ll see. It’s all fun anyway. But now you know the scoop.

First obstacle overcome for redistricting vote

It was closer than organizers would like, but the effort to bring Congressional redistricting to referendum will move on after turning in 25,000 signatures to the state Board of Elections Thursday. That eclipsed the 18,579 needed and saved the Maryland Republican Party from a bitter and public defeat. Now they have 30 more days to collect another 37,157 valid signatures to place Maryland’s newly-drawn Congressional districts on the November ballot.

While there are elements within the Maryland GOP which prefer the new districts, the party as a whole is backing the effort to erase the lines that party Chair Alex Mooney called a “direct attack by power-hungry Democrats in Annapolis” in a message to supporters. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dan Bongino echoed that sentiment, calling the map”absolutely ridiculous” because his home county of Anne Arundel has been shredded into four different Congressional districts.

(continued at Examiner.com…)