As every regular Weber County Forum reader is well aware, today is Ogden City Municipal Election Day. The polls open at 7:00 a.m., and will remain in business until 8:00 this evening at all Ogden City voter precinct polling places, as indicated by the Ogden IT Department's nifty new interactive Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping software:
We're urging all WCF readers to make a special effort to show up to vote for the candidates whom we've endorsed, Jennifer Neil, Amy Wicks and Anyone but Brandon Stephenson. All prospective voters should also be aware that although supporters of the opposition crony capitalist Godfreyite-style Candidate Faction don't score high marks for political sophistication, they are reliable
And don't forget, folks, Godfreite-style Faction mayoral candidate Stephenson, in particular, was "FOR" The Malans Basin & Mountain Gondola Development Project, long before he was "against it." Hopefully that memory will assist our readers in building up a sufficient head of steam to propel them to their polling places to vote for the best-qualified mayoral candidate, Anyone but Brandon Stephenson.
If you still need to "bone up" on the qualifications of today's candidates however, be sure to take a look at our right sidebar election module, and our General Election Candidate Roster in particular, where you'll find a true wealth of candidate information, including candidate profiles, web links, election stories, etc. Without a doubt, the material contained therein is the most robust collection of informative 2011 Ogden Municipal Election tidbits which can be found anywhere on the web, (even if we do say so ourselves).
The tallying of votes will begin shortly after 8:00 p.m. Taking into account the logistics of physically transporting polling data from individual polling places to the "counting room," and assembling and recording the results, our experience with earlier elections dictates that final vote counts are unlikely to be made public much earlier than 9:00 p.m. In that connection however, we're now linking Ogden City's online vote tallying software, to give our readers plenty of time to tune up their own computers, and make sure their own Adobe Flash Player utility software is fully updated. Here's the Ogden City online vote tally link. The real-time online utility is up and running right now, so if it isn't displaying on your computer, you obviously have some Flash Player tinkering to do:
As we await this evening's election results however, we'll invite anyone and everyone to chime in with a little election day conversation. Feedback about how your voting experience went today would be most welcome, not only for the benefit of your blogmeister, but also for the thousand or more other individual WCF readers whom we anticipate will be checking in to monitor election results today.
That' it for now, Gentle Readers.
Who'd like to go out on a limb and predict today's election outcome? Who'll be the first to just generally throw in their own 2¢? Who'd merely like to blow off a little pent up steam? Who'll breathe a welcome sigh of relief once the 2011 Municipal Election process is finally over, and Boss Godfrey "shuffles off to Buffalo"?
Have at it, O Gentle Ones.
Update 11/8/11 7:47 p.m.: We've gotten word that at least one of our readers is having trouble with the above-linked 2011 Municipal General Election Real-time Tallies feed. Here's a quick and dirty solution, in the event that a Flash Player update doesn't solve your problem. Simply click the link below, which will take you to Ogden Channel 17's online video broadcast, where vote tallies will be simulcast tonight:
Using this solution, the graphics quality will be inferior, and you won't have some of the "slick" technical advantages of the online Flash Player-based software, but at least you'll be able to follow the basic vote count in real-time as tonight's vote tallies roll in.
(And Comcast subscribers can simply tune into Channel 17 on their home TV sets, of course.)
Hoping this helps.
Update 11/8/11 9:16 p.m.: OK folks, the tote board is now starting to light up, with seven precincts reporting in.
Update 11/8/11 10:40 p.m.: Final (unofficial) tally from the Ogden City site, with 100% of 52 precincts reported:
Mayor
Caldwell 4281 (62%)
Stephenson 2656 (38%)
Conlin 2
Council Ward 2
Hyer 918 (56%)
Neil 722 (44%)
Council Ward 4
Gochnour 2741 (100%)
Council Seat "C"
Wicks 3345 (60%)
Thompson 1826 (33%)
Safsten 432 (8%)
That's it, folks. Looks like we'll move forward with a Council with a very similar makeup as we have now, and a new Mayor who's agenda still remains unknown.
Update 11/8/11 11:31 p.m.: Uh-0h. Looks like the final tallies have been adjusted once again on the Ogden City Site. Here's the latest:
Mayor
Caldwell 4281 (61%) W
Stephenson 2656 (38%)
Conlin 73
Council Ward 2
Hyer 918 (56%) W
Neil 722 (44%)
Council Ward 4
Gochnour 2741 (100%) W
Council Seat "C"
Wicks 3345 (49%) W
Thompson 1826 (27%)
Safsten 1645 (24%)
What's up with that? Did Comrade Safsten arrive in the "counting room" at the last minute, with a wheelbarrow full of uncounted ballots? We certainly wouldn't put it past him.
And here's the Election Summary Report from the Weber County website, which corresponds with these newly-amended Council At-large "C" numbers:
Go figure! Kinda shakes your confidence in Ogden City's IT Department, doesn't it?
All we can say at this juncture... we never had problems like this when we were still using paper ballots.
So what say our gentle readers about all this?
19 comments:
Just returned from voting at Polk Elementary. 35 folks had already voted before me @ 8:30 sharp. I worked that same polling place as an election judge for about a 10 years; and that's not a bad turnout for this time in the a.m. The Standard is carrying as story this morning in which Weber County Elections Director Doug Larsen says, "It should be a very busy election in Ogden City." If Polk School is any bell-weather, and the voter turnout continues at the current pace, I believe Mr. Larsen may be entirely correct in his Monday prediction.
Taylor Elementary was up to voter number 132 at 10:30 am.
Kym Buttschardt was working as a poll watcher at Polk this morning, presumably on behalf of Caldwell.
Just received a recorded call from Safsten that stated that polls are indicating the race is close and voting is open until 8pm. This is at least the fourth irritating cell call from that guy on my personal unlisted-not given to just anyone phone number- with no way to opt out.
Just received a recorded call from Safsten that stated that polls are indicating the race is close and voting is open until 8pm. This is at least the fourth irritating cell call from that guy on my personal unlisted-not given to just anyone phone number- with no way to opt out.
"... polls are indicating the race is close and voting is open until 8pm."
Translation: Safsten's exit polling shows he's running way behind, and his "paid" campaign pros are "pulling out all the stops," and scrambling to scrape up every extra possible vote by whatever sleazy means remain available, LOL.
Even after installed the latest Flash, I'm not having any lucky with the site. Any suggestions? Is it working for everyone except me?
Try this:
1) click the link below and download the latest Adobe Flash Player update:
http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html
2) Reboot your system.
3) Once your system is fired up again, return to WCF and try clicking the 2011 Municipal General Election Real-time Tallies link once again.
If that doesn't work, I'm not sure there's much more I can do to help out; but the reboot might help by itself, as it did for some of our readers who had similar problems during the 9/13/11 primary election vote count.
Lemme know how it all works out.
One other thing, CRJ (and anyone else who's experiencing the same problem). If all else fails, click this link, which will hook you up with Ogden Channel 17's online TeeVee broadcast. As I understand it, Ogden City's vote tallying utility will also be simulcast via that net "URL":
http://www.ogden.cc/
Good luck.
I've not been able to make any of the tote boards come up. Nothing but a black screen the Godfrey channel. Nothing on the city site. Some results reported on the Trib website but it doesn't indicate what percentage of the vote is in. No write in votes reported at all.
Anyone have an definitive info on how the Mayor and council races came out? Do we know?
Current Count per the Ogden Site (74% of precincts reporting):
Mayor
Caldwell 2357 (60%)
Stephenson 1547 (40%)
Seat C
Wicks 1952 (59%)
Thompson 1172 (35%
Safsten 193 (6%)
Ward 2 (67% of precincts reporting)
Hyer 499 (53%)
Neil 439 (37%)
Unfortunately the tallies haven't been updated in over 30 minutes.
Oops! The Ogden Site just updated. All precincts have now been tallied. Reported results:
Caldwell wins with 62%
Wicks wins with 61%
Hyer wins with 56%
We ought to celebrate! After the first of the year, Godfrey and both of his evil rubber stamp council members will be gone and we won't have to endure their immature behavior any longer. I hope Amy will be able to sue Rick Safsten for using her picture without her consent in his dirty campaign.
The only race that I'm disappointed with is the one between Jennifer Neil and Richard Hyer, but she should feel good that it was as close as it was with all the problems she has had (her accideent) and with him being a well-known (loud mouth) stake president. You did a good job, Jennifer! I just feel sorry the council members who have to work with Mr. Know-It-All because he is ALWAYS right!
I viewed the November 1 Council Meeting, and I was proud of them and thought Caitlin did an excellent job of dealing with our spoiled little brat of a mayor.
Thanks Rudi. I just went to the Godfry channel on tv and found the final. Delighted Amy got majority of votes cast even with three in the race. Rick wants his seat back he can run in the Primary next time .... if his real estate lobby pals are willing to pony up thousands more.
Now we get to see how Mayor Caldwell will differ from Hizzonah both as to style and substance. Godfrey never figured out he could have gotten more of what he wanted than he did if hed learned even the basics of effective public management. And once he made it clear to the Council and others that his word was no good much of his maneuvering room evaporated. I know you dont have much confidence in Caldwell but I think hes smart enough not to treat the council and those who disagree with him on an issue with the arrant contempt Godfrey did.
We shall see.
Dorrene:
I hope Amy will be able to sue Rick Safsten for using her picture without her consent in his dirty campaign.
I don't think there are grounds for anything like that, Dorrene. Public persons [and any elected Council member is that] do not have the same protections regarding public use, etc. as non-public persons I think. And that's a good thing. Many campaigns [at every level] use public images of opponents in the course of the campaigns.
I didn't see much from Safsten other than a lot of Write In Rick signs, so I'm not sure what you mean by his running a "dirty campaign." Got robocalled but didn't listen to the spiel.
One of the things I didn't like about his late entry, after dodging the primary --- besides his not having earned a place in the run off --- was that it raised the possibility that whoever won the seat would go into office with fewer than 50% plus 1 of the votes cast. I'm delighted to see that didn't happen and Councilwoman Wicks will return to her seat with an absolute majority of the votes cast. In short, a mandate to continue the job she's been doing for years. Good.
And in other interesting results, State Senator Pierce of Arizona lost a recall election to another Republican who put together a bipartizan coalition aimed at removing the extremist Pierce [who was author of Arizona's controversial enforcement only illegal immigration law two years ago]. Why bring it up here? Because the Republican Lewis who beat Pierce in the recall election did not run purely on the Pierce-is-an-extremist issue. He also ran on this plank:
Lewis ran on a promise to introduce a bill banning gifts for legislators, and said in a campaign pledge that he will not "take any lobbyist or special interest group's gifts, lunches, tickets, or any other privilege."
I suspect there are votes to we won even at the GOP conventions in Utah with a "I won't take so much as a lemonade" plank. And in the general election as well. In close races, it might mean the difference. I'd love to see someone challenge "Free Lunch For Me" Dee on these grounds. You remember Rep. Dee. He's the state legislator who said there were so many free lunches and dinners he couldn't possibly remember who paid for what, and so it wasn't possible that any particular free lunch or dinner could affect how he voted.
I imagine the delay in the final numbers had to do with the write in ballots which could not be tabulated automatically by the machines as votes for those listed on the ballots could. Chalk up the delay, I suspect, as another consequence of Safsten's ego trip late entry.
Well more people voted against Amy than for her, maybe she ought to remember that. Thanks Rick for muddying the waters. Next time don't be a douche and try to use the front door
I suspect that if Safsten had entered the race along with the others, he would have come out ahead of Thompson in the primary and we would have had a close Wicks v. Safsten race in the general election. However, such a serious challenger at that stage would also have forced Wicks to mount more of a campaign of her own, raising more money and getting her own message out to voters. Also, of course, we should remember that Thompson's platform was more similar to that of Wicks than to that of Safsten. So I wouldn't read too much into the fact that Wicks got slightly under 50% of the vote.
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