I just adore Chicago, but all the other cities that have been mentioned are also very cool. I think what we can learn from NOLA was that the price break is very important.

I just loved the Highland Inn in Atlanta, btw, which while it wasn't shiny or modern or de-luxe, was quirky and clean and very accommodating....

NOLA also taught us something about the voting. The poll that put NOLA in the lead was a 4 parter if I remember correctly. NOLA won, but both Minneapolis and KC got sizeable votes as well. I've always felt that if those two cities hadn't split the vote one of them would have ended up hosting the F2F. The combined total for Minneapolis and KC was quite a bit higher than the numbers that NOLA had.

As the counter for that vote, I'll confirm ND's memory. It was a close vote among 3 of the cities, and the 4th (Nashville, I think) did fairly well, too. On the other hand, voters were allowed to choose 2 cities, which may have cut down on any city's taking votes from any other.

That's true. I'd forgotten about the double voting option.

t cough preferential ballot t cough

Nothing to see here. Move along.

I was thinking instant run-off voting. Is preferential ballot same thought?

t backing away slowly

Please, omnis, tell us more about this "instant run-off voting."

oops, that's what I get for looking over the sand-bags.

In all honesty, I can barely give you the concept of it. It is something the local Green Party has been pushing for elections. It saves candidates money. Saves the localities money. And it gets you an elected official in half the time, and reduces voter fatigue.

In a nutshell, rather than casting A vote. You cast a ranking vote. Of choices A-F, I prefer choice B, so that gets my #1 vote, and Choice C is my 2nd choice, and choice F my 3rd. Then, when you tally the votes, first you look to see if there is a clear winner. If not, you look to the 2nd choices... and so on down the line. It is at this point (or just slightly before it) that I go "huh?". Sounds good in theory, but I don't have the math formulas infront of me to see how it works. Not sure it would work in here. It certainly would make tallying the vote harder.

For more info, here is the link to Wiki: [link]

It is something the local Green Party has been pushing for elections.

Aha! A communist plot.

I'm teasing, omnis. We had a HUGE HUGE discussion and fight about preferential voting when we were establishing the board's voting structure.

People still get twitchy when the subject comes up.