The Virtual Mayor of London
Created | Updated Jun 20, 2003
Voting...and a surprise!
The 'Scandal, Rumours and Dirt' sections of the Mayor site were proving to be very popular. Fruit Bat continued to entertain us all with his quirky new policies, and conversations (and vote soliciting) were scattering outside the official site. It was not unusual to visit a totally unrelated forum, only to find that one of the candidates had managed to 'spam' it! This made the whole project take on an almost surreal quality. Everywhere I went I seemed to bump into candidates!
The day arrived, at last, for the Polling Station to be opened for
business. I Contacted Peta, our Community Editor, who kindly put a mention on the Front Page inviting researchers to drop by and vote. The first vote received was from Monsy for Fairly Strange. The second was for Shorty... and the third... a leader already (and boy did he crow about it!). One of the candidates contacted me and asked if they could vote. There was no reason why not, so soon all the rivals had at least one vote!
A careful check was kept on the voters and an acknowledgement email
sent out. I caught at least one person trying to vote twice, so a polite rebuttal of the second vote was forwarded. A special 'vote' file was set up in my email account so that I could keep track of all the 'goings on'. This proved especially useful when a request came through for information on the 'state of the poll'. Yet another page had to be created to keep all updated on the current votes cast. Things were running smoothly... then IT happened.
The war of words between Icarus and Da Baron had spilled over into a forum on the former's page. Icarus had, quite justifiably, called 'foul'... I had already issued a warning about the use of vodka-filled fish when Da Baron, claiming to have been hurt and maligned, suddenly withdrew
from the race. He posted a long, somewhat rambling list of reasons for his action, and exhorted all to vote for 'Fenny'. The other candidates, generously, expressed their regret at his departure and I found myself creating another page devoted to this turn of affairs.
Next Week: A Move, A Holiday, A Crash
The Virtual Mayor of London Election Archive
