Hard to post anything today without a caveat, This Is Not A Joke, but the ALA election returns are fairly healthy this year, per Mary Ghikas’ post to the ALA Council list and my own tracking from 2004.
The total votes in the 2003 election–the last all-paper balloting–were 9,844, and we’ve already exceeded the 2004 returns for this point in the election, ALA seems to have recovered from last year’s horrible electoral slump quite nicely. Maybe ALA needs to put a budget increase on the ballot every year!
Polls close April 24. Please vote! Shorthand FRL endorsement: vote for Loriene Roy for president, Andy Johnson for small-roundtable ALA Councilor, and vote for all bylaws amendments. Have more time? Here are other FRL recommendations.
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As of 3/30/06 [Thursday]:
7,991 voted including 7,107 electronic & 884 paper
That compares with 3/30/05:
4,650 voted including 4,183 electronic and 467 paper
We have data for 3/31/06 but not same-day data for 3/31/05. Still 3/31/06:
8,306 voted including 7,293 electronic & 1,013 paper
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Also, FRL noted two years ago, as of April 1, 2004:
Electronic ballots submitted 6,122 Paper ballots submitted 634
Posted on this day, other years:
- Perhaps we shall meet? - 2012
- Dixievore Pescetarians Unite - 2008
- 100_2147 - 2007
- Google Buying OCLC: An Early Analysis - 2007
- Exciting Choices Ahead - 2005
- for you're no bigger than my thumb... - 2005
Well might it have something to do with the fact that the electronic system actually worked this year, unlike the system they used last year?
No doubt, though my feeling is “whatever worked.” ALA improved its voting mechanism, the candidates may be more interesting, and there’s a hot issue on the ballot. Usually change is a confluence of many things…