Get out and Vote!

I am on the road this week. I have to pick up my kids, get married, and go to a convention. We'll fit in some camping and hiking around those little things, too. There will be photos. Loads of them. But I wanted to make a public-service announcement before I forget about it, and a friend wrote it up so beautifully I asked his permission to post it. 

Look at the numbers picking up! I want to see this trend continue.

written by Anony-Mouse

I have filled out my preliminary Hugo ballot. It is still subject to change, but in general I've got to say that it is very difficult to separate out my judgement of the works from my judgement of the people involved, and I am not talking about the Sad Puppy contingent. For those of you with voting rights, you have until the end of July to get it done. You can change your ballot as you go along, so as soon as you know what you want to do in which category, go ahead and fill in that category. That way even if you space out, you still have a partial ballot in. Some suggestions: Do NOT vote NO AWARD for anything. Yes, I know the temptation to make a statement by putting something below No Award at the bottom, but in the unlikely case of close races NA can have an adverse affect on outcomes because it's a weighted ballot. And frankly, it's a pet peeve of mine. NO AWARD is a political statement, and this isn't supposed to be about naked politics. Do NOT vote at all for anything you do not think is worthy, regardless of why you do not find it worthy. See previous. DO try to vote for at least one good thing in each category rather than leaving the category blank. For example, some of the fanzine/semiprozine entries have been nothing but contemptuous of dissidents against the establishment. I will not vote for them. Others have been accepting of everyone, I will rank them. If you have voting rights, please, GO START VOTING. http://sasquan.org/hugo-awards/voting/ I'll have some thoughts on the 2017 Site Selection later.