Final Results January 12, 2009 The crack contest staff of Laughton.org thanks Polly Pollster for submitting the only entry that met the conditions for winning, thereby saving us the difficulties we experienced tallying the final score for Rig the Vote! As the winning contestant herself observes, "Polly was appalled that the prior pollsters were so pathetic that contest participants proposed changes paled in comparison to the pervasive predominance of Obama voters. Cheers!" Yeah, that's what we say too. Thanks to everyone for playing, no matter how feeble your attempts.

Official Results from CNN Popular Vote Electoral Votes State McCain Obama McCain Obama Alabama 61% 39% 9 0 Alaska 60% 38% 3 0 Arizona 54% 45% 10 0 Arkansas 59% 39% 6 0 California 37% 61% 0 55 Colorado 45% 54% 0 9 Connecticut 38% 61% 0 7 Delaware 37% 62% 0 3 District of Columbia 7% 93% 0 3 Florida 49% 51% 0 27 Georgia 52% 47% 15 0 Hawaii 27% 72% 0 4 Idaho 61% 36% 4 0 Illinois 37% 62% 0 21 Indiana 49% 50% 0 11 Iowa 45% 54% 0 7 Kansas 57% 41% 6 0 Kentucky 58% 41% 8 0 Louisiana 59% 40% 9 0 Maine 41% 58% 0 4 Maryland 37% 62% 0 10 Massachusetts 36% 62% 0 12 Michigan 41% 57% 0 17 Minnesota 44% 54% 0 10 Mississippi 57% 43% 6 0 Missouri 50% 49% 11 0 Montana 50% 47% 3 0 Nebraska 57% 42% 5 0 Nevada 43% 55% 0 5 New Hampshire 45% 54% 0 4 New Jersey 42% 57% 0 15 New Mexico 42% 57% 0 5 New York 37% 62% 0 31 North Carolina 49% 50% 0 15 North Dakota 53% 45% 3 0 Ohio 47% 51% 0 20 Oklahoma 66% 34% 7 0 Oregon 41% 57% 0 7 Pennsylvania 44% 55% 0 21 Rhode Island 35% 63% 0 4 South Carolina 54% 45% 8 0 South Dakota 53% 45% 3 0 Tennessee 57% 42% 11 0 Texas 55% 44% 34 0 Utah 63% 34% 5 0 Vermont 31% 68% 0 3 Virginia 47% 53% 0 13 Washington 41% 58% 0 11 West Virginia 56% 43% 5 0 Wisconsin 43% 56% 0 10 Wyoming 65% 33% 3 0 Total 174 364 Laughton.org declares Barack Obama the winner of the 2008 presidential election.

Zapped Results Richard Laughton McCain 58 Obama 335 The election results are unchanged.   Karl Rove McCain 174 Obama 261 The election results are unchanged.   Polly Pollster McCain 174 Obama 142 Zap successful! The election results are reversed!   Anxious Agonizer McCain 174 Obama 193 The election results are unchanged.   Maria McCain 174 Obama 335 The election results are unchanged.   Oliver North (Twist) McCain 174 Obama 262 The election results are unchanged.   M. F. Leith McCain 174 Obama 217 The election results are unchanged.   Mr. Potatoe Head McCain 174 Obama 263 The election results are unchanged.

Entries Zapped States Are Marked With an "X"

Player

AL

CA

CO

FL

GA

HI

IL

KY

LA

MA

MI

MS

MO

NV

NJ

NM

NY

NC

OH

PA

SC

TN

TX

UT

WA

Tiebreaker

Richard Laughton*

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

195,740,966

Karl Rove

X

X

X

137,000,000

Polly Pollster

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

99,999,999

Anxious Agonizer

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

75,000,000

Maria

X

X

X

5,345,972

Oliver North (Twist)

X

X

X

131,461,209

M. F. Leith

X

X

X

X

X

X

100,000,000

Mr. Potatoe Head**

X

X

X

128,691,485

States which no players have zapped are not displayed in the table. *Richard Laughton is a "Canadian," unaffiliated with Laughton.org, and eligible to win a prize. **Mr. Potatoe Head is an employee of Laughton.org and is ineligible to receive a prize. Abbreviations:  AL-Alabama  AK-Alaska  AZ-Arizona  AR-Arkansas  CA-California  CO-Colorado  CT-Connecticut  DE-Delaware  DC-Washington, D.C.  FL-Florida  GA-Georgia  HI-Hawaii  ID-Idaho  IL-Illinois  IN-Indiana  IA-Iowa  KS-Kansas  KY-Kentucky  LA-Louisiana  ME-Maine  MD-Maryland  MA-Massachusetts  MI-Michigan  MN-Minnesota  MS-Mississippi  MO-Missouri  MT-Montana  NE-Nebraska  NV-Nevada  NH-New Hampshire  NJ-New Jersey  NM-New Mexico  NY-New York  NC-North Carolina  ND-North Dakota  OH-Ohio  OK-Oklahoma  OR-Oregon  PA-Pennsylvania  RI-Rhode Island  SC-South Carolina  SD-South Dakota  TN-Tennessee  TX-Texas  UT-Utah  VT-Vermont  VA-Virginia  WA-Washington  WV-West Virginia  WI-Wisconsin  WY-Wyoming

The problem is simple: too many states! Or to be specific, too many of the wrong states. This contest gives you the opportunity to correct this problem by eliminating as many states as you like from the Electoral College. You'll do this neatly and painlessly by using alien technology as seen in the classic-but-preachy science-fiction movie The 27th Day. This technology lets you remove all the humans from a geographic location without harming any plants or animals (the aliens wanted to use it to clean up planet Earth before moving in, but you'll have to watch the movie to find out what went wrong with their plan). Although the term is not used in the movie, for contest purposes we'll use the word "zap" to mean "remove from the presidential 2008 election results." If by zapping the right states you manage to reverse the outcome of the coming election, you may win a prize! How to Enter Use the convenient form at the bottom of this page to enter the contest. Fill in the identifying fields, then check the box next to each state you want to zap. Finally, fill in your tiebreaker prediction and click "submit." All entries must be received no later than midnight on Sunday, November 2, 2008. Anyone with an e-mail account is welcome to play. There is no charge. You may send only one entry from an e-mail address. If you have more than one address, you may send one entry from each. You may use the same address to enter this contest and any other running concurrently at Laughton.org. Scoring Results will be calculated using CNN's online election results. For each contestant, the electoral votes from all the states he doesn't zap will be tallied, and if the result of this "recount" is the reverse of the actual election, the contestant is eligible to win a prize. Since it's likely that more than one player will meet this criterion, a series of tiebreakers will be used to determine the prizewinner. If multiple players are tied for first place after all tiebreakers have been exhausted, duplicate prizes will be awarded (or equivalent prizes if duplicates cannot be obtained). Tiebreakers will be applied in the order shown here: The player who zaps states that are all won by the same candidate wins. The player who zaps the fewest electoral votes wins. The player who zaps the fewest states wins. The player who generates the largest electoral-vote margin of victory wins. The player whose tiebreaker prediction is closest to the actual number of votes cast nationwide wins (it makes no difference whether the prediction is higher or lower than the actual total). Because the outcome of the election and the percentage of votes won by each candidate in each state may not be known immediately, Laughton.org will not announce an official winner until the results are no longer in doubt. Tentative results will be posted when practical. The Prize Laughton.org does not reveal the prizes to be awarded before all entries have been received. However, since this contest is all about changing the results of an event rather than predicting them, we're going to break our own rule. The winner will receive a copy of How to Build a Robot Army by Daniel H. Wilson, PhD. If the winner should actually try to follow the instructions within, the crack contest staff at Laughton.org recommends that he (and everyone else) get a copy of Dr. Wilson's arguably more important book, How to Survive a Robot Uprising.   Seeking Professional Help Where and how you do your research is entirely your decision. For those of you who aren't sure where to start, we suggest CNN. They summarize the results of all the latest polls in their Electoral Map Calculator, which not only tells you which way each state is leaning but also lets you see the impact of changing the preference of any state.

Your e-mail address (will not appear on player roster): Your name (as you want it to appear on the player roster): Check the boxes next to the states you want to zap.
State	Electoral Votes
Alabama	9
Alaska	3
Arizona	10
Arkansas	6
California	55
Colorado	9
Connecticut	7
Delaware	3
District of Columbia	3
Florida	27
Georgia	15
Hawaii	4
Idaho	4
Illinois	21
Indiana	11
Iowa	7
Kansas	6
Kentucky	8
Louisiana	9
Maine	4
Maryland	10
Massachusetts	12
Michigan	17
Minnesota	10
Mississippi	6
Missouri	11
Montana	3
Nebraska	5
Nevada	5
New Hampshire	4
New Jersey	15
New Mexico	5
New York	31
North Carolina	15
North Dakota	3
Ohio	20
Oklahoma	7
Oregon	7
Pennsylvania	21
Rhode Island	4
South Carolina	8
South Dakota	3
Tennessee	11
Texas	34
Utah	5
Vermont	3
Virginia	13
Washington	11
West Virginia	5
Wisconsin	10
Wyoming	3
Tiebreaker Predict the total number of votes that will be cast nationwide: