Thursday, October 06, 2005

MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS 2005: SNORE!

Good evening. Well, yesterday we had our municipal elections here in the Fairbanks area; and even though I had to do my duty as a citizen and vote; there was absolutely nothing exciting coming out of them...except, of course, for how fast the results come in.

When I babbled about the 2003 election on the old "Allen Report" site, I said the first numbers came in about ten minutes after the polls closed at 8:00 pm, and the final tallies at close to 9:20. This time, the first returns arrived at around 8:20 and the last ones with 97% in at a few minutes to 9:00pm!!!!! It's all about Accu-Vote, which since 1998 has been churning out the results faster than, oh, that satellite broadband Internet connection the Swain family has at their home in Rocky Mount, Virginia (see July 21 blog)! Besides, we've sure come a long way from voting on punch cards and waiting till like 1:00 am for the final vote to be counted.

By the way, knowing that Tuesday night was "Amazing Race" night, I checked the results on the Fairbanks North Star Borough website. It's just that the TV stations were just slow-pokes in trying to relay the returns during a station break or two, and the Internet of course had them beat.

Anyway...as you already know, I've started my year-end Sexiest Woman of 2005 poll much early with the month-long preliminary round; there are eight groups with 80 ladies on the hunt for the title. Enough wasting time; here are the latest results along with the links to the polls:

GROUP A:

Jennifer Love Hewitt--31%
Eva Longoria--22%
Kristen Bell--13%
Denise Richards--9%
Kelly Clarkson--7%
Hilary Duff/Carmen Electra--6% each
Alicia Keys/Vanessa Minnillo/Lauren Sanchez--2%

GROUP B:
Angelina Jolie--25%
Katherine Heigl--21%
Maria Sharapova--11%
Mischa Barton/Kelly Monaco--8%
Christina Milian--8%
Teri Hatcher--7%
Mariah Carey--6%
Tyra Banks--3%
Paulina Rubio--1%

GROUP C:
Jessica Alba--60%
Jennifer Aniston--12%
Maggie Grace--6%
Maria Menounos--5%
Marcia Cross--4%
Brooke Burke/Lindsay Lohan (who was recently involved in some paparazzi-related car crash yesterday)/Amber Tamblyn--3%
Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson/Danica Patrick--1%

GROUP D:
Halle Berry--20%
Jessica Simpson, whose marriage to Nick Lachey is not in jeopardy despite the huge "SPLIT" cover in "Us Weekly"--18%
Anne Hathaway--16%
Rachels Bilson and McAdams--13%
Beyonce Knowles--8%
Nicollette Sheridan--5%
Kaley Cuoco--4%
Hilary Swank--3%
Ashanti--1%

GROUP E:
Evangeline Lilly--22%
Scarlett Johansson--13%
Stacy Keibler/Eva Mendes--10%
Vanessa Marcil/Brittany Murphy--9%
Diane Lane--8%
Heidi Klum--7%
Kelly Ripa/Gwen Stefani--6%

GROUP F:
Keira Knightley--40%
Reese Witherspoon--15%
Jennifer Garner--14%
Lauren Graham/Shakira--11%
Charlotte Church--8%
Shannon Elizabeth--6%
Uma Thurman--5%
Gabrielle Union--4%
Jodie Foster--3%

GROUP G:
Toni Braxton--31%
Lacey Chabert--16%
Alexis Bledel--14%
Jennifer Lopez--10%
Elizabeth Hurley--8%
Jenny McCarthy--7%
Brooke Burns/Cindy Crawford--4%
Aishwarya Rai/Evan Rachel Wood--3%

GROUP H:
Sarah Michelle Gellar--58%
Rebecca Romijn--10%
Joss Stone/Sofia Vergara--6%
Sandra Bullock/Cameron Diaz--5%
Michelle Rodriguez--4%
Paula Abdul/Emily Procter/Brittany Snow--2%

Remember, there is still time for you to vote for your favorites. The top 40 ladies after the prelims will advance to Round 2; after that, 20 will move on to Round 3, AFTER THAT, only the top ten votegetters go on to the big Sexiest Woman of 2005 poll itself. We're talking about 1 1/2 to two straight months here, and anything could happen between now and the time we get to the main event which'll be in late November-early December. I'll be posting the latest results on various newsgroups, so be watching!

With all that said...good night!!