From Chris.Hilker Sent Mon, Jan 4th 1999, 23:13
>Not to put down Chris's hard work, but did anybody notice how many times >"abstentions" actually 'won the category' and the high amount of total >abstentions... nearly 200 making it almost 2 abstentions per valid vote. > >I'd put it down to the vote collecting method used. Why not dispense of the > redundant second round and make it a much more representative poll!? First-round balloting averaged about 16% abstentions across the board. (The final round averaged 22%.) Many people simply aren't interested in all the categories. The second round is anything but redundant. Without it, a majority of votes are wasted on records with no chance of winning. In first-round balloting in the Drum & Bass Album of the Year category, 19 titles received one vote each. I think it would be ludicrous to declare a winner based on that, especially with the top vote-getter receiving only eight votes and the runner-up having seven. It's impossible to have a clear winner without splitting up the balloting, unless you go to a weighted-vote system (i.e. vote for your top five or ten or whatever, and a first-place vote is worth more than a second-place vote, etc.) I haven't been willing to run the poll this way, because under the present arrangement it's hard enough for people to follow the directions on the ballot. I think the two-round format also makes for a more inclusive poll. More people are likely to vote when given nominees to choose from, rather than a blank ballot. The poll bears this out: 68 ballots in the first round this year, 113 in the second. If I do an all-time poll later this year, it will use a one-round, weighted-vote system. Depending on how well or badly that goes, I might change over to such a system for the 1999 year-end poll. C. -- Chris.Hilker (xxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx)