Election News

2008-01-05 01:11:07.000 – Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist

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Update: The following was posted on the Conway Area Humane Societies Youtube.com account. To best see the video, click on “expand” or “Observer Comments”on the bar above.

The “Mount Washington Mascot Primary” race is heating up with only three days left until voting is open. Since the three candidates put their hats into the ring on Thursday, the fur has been flying and the claws are out as each one vies for the top position. According to an unofficial KMWN poll today, Marty is currently in the lead capturing 20% with Wilson and Sarah coming in at 10% and 60% claiming they are undecided for the time being. With such a huge portion of the national public coming in undecided, the race may come right down to the wire. But with such a tight race, the candidates have been campaigning heavily and been running a smear campaign at times.

Marty, the current leader in polls, is claiming that Sarah and Wilson are too inexperienced due to their young ages and that neither of them has proven their selves in the outside world, literally. Wilson is claiming that Marty is playing the “long-hair” card too heavily and Sarah is using the feminine card and mimicking her looks to that of her predecessor Nin. Sarah is claiming that Marty’s “free cheeseburgers and fish heads for everyone” will cost the obs way too much and will be voted down by summit staff with all the attachments it has to it. Sarah also claims that “Leave no mouse behind” sounds good on paper but the reality of it is there are still mice in the world and that this plan is failing the American people months after making such a bold claim.

But where do the observers stand on who they want. Talking to everyone up here, it is a toss up and none of us want to sway the vote. We will not make a decision until we are able to meet each candidate in person. But in talking, we wanted to share a few things that I think are confusing people since we have been getting email about these. First, the voting is open to anyone around the world, not just the state of New Hampshire. Second, the cat that wins the popular vote will not necessarily win the observer vote. This is similar to our US voting system; the Electoral College has voted presidents into office even if they did not win a majority of the popular vote (this has happened four times in our history). Third, the names are not their official and final names. We will be starting a thread in our forums for feedback on a new name. Fourth, as to why we are getting a cat and not a dog, mouse, rabbit, fish, gerbil, hamster, monkey, etc., we are getting a cat because after much debate decided that they require a minimal amount of care and continue with a bit of tradition. Fifth, as to why we are getting another cat and not making the summit allergy free, this was a topic of hot debate between summit and valley staff. The main point of the valley staff was how cat allergies sometimes scare away interns, volunteers, edutrippers, etc. The summit staff sees the validity in this argument but we enjoy having a feline companion up here. And since we have to stay up here over half of the year as compared to a night (edutrippers), week (volunteers), or three months (interns), we want a cat to keep us happy and not concede to the minority. Besides, I have met edutrippers, volunteers, and interns that got prescription drugs to handle their allergies when up here so there is still an opportunity for those seeking to come up here.