IT AIN’T OVER TIL THE FAT LADY SINGS

by Barbara (BJ) Andrews

Boy and how.  The election subject has surely been dissected and discussed but do you remember a few months ago I wrote about dog club elections and how they could so easily be corrupted?  Sure you do.  My phone and e-mail messages indicated that the column hit a very sore spot for a lot of people in different breeds.

Most people probably pooh-poohed the idea that anything could go wrong with dog club elections.  After all, at that time, they thought nothing could go wrong with our government’s national elections.  That was before they learned that homeless people were rounded up and transported to the voting booths along with illegal immigrants and known criminals.  And of course, it was before we learned about hanging chats and how inept some Palm Beach County voters are.  You know Palm Beach, it’s the place where most of the residents are self-made millionaires. Makes you wonder how classes of 8 year old children got every ballot right while thousands of wealthy adults in that affluent county couldn’t figure it out.

All that and more makes the report in the October 30^th Spotlight significant.  SIX MILLION people polled by the 7-Eleven convenience stores, over­whelmingly voted against BOTH Al Gore and G.W. Bush!  That’s right, 59 percent said they would choose a third-party candidate or neither of the two mainstream candidates!!  Al Gore and G.W. each got 20% (about 2 million each) while 3.4 million people said they didn’t favor either one of those candidates.  This poll has been categorized as unscientific, right along with those now-famous exit polls….

Well I wonder how many club elections offer the same-old, same-old slate of establishment candidates when what the members really want is leadership that has the dog’s best interests as the primary focus?  We seem to be overwhelmingly overcome by voter apathy when it comes to choosing from a no-choice ticket in national elections.  Is the same thing happening in dog clubs around the globe???

I’m willing to bet it is.

Is there hope?  Beats me.  I’ve always thought that dog people are but a microcosm of national society.  If, in a dog club, there are political activists who are willing to beat the bushes, round up friends to vote, manage the campaign of their chosen candidate, politic like crazy, and ultimately, if they think it may not go their way, “steal” the election, well then, they deserve to win.  That’s right, if they care more about who governs their breed or local club than the majority who don’t, well? why shouldn’t they have it their way?

On the other hand, if, as related to me by frustrated members of four different national breed clubs, the membership wants a change but can’t get it because, like the absentee ballots in Florida, their votes are being held by who-knows-who, well, how can they hope to change anything?  Maybe dog people are not a spineless bunch?  Gee, if you stood around ringside during a hotly contested breed judging, you’d know that dog people are pretty opinionated.  Even “outspoken.”  If you heard them complaining about being held hostage by club dictatorships, you wouldn’t think they were willing victims.  And if you heard the grousing about mishandled questionable ballot procedures, you wouldn’t think they were apathetic about it either.

There was a ringside discussion just the other day involving whether or not club elections as we know them today will survive.  The guy on my left said it should all be done electronically.  The gal on my right said he was nuts, most of her friends either don’t have a computer or their kids keep them from using it!  I couldn’t stay out of it, what with my newfound inside-knowledge so I told them that internet is about to explode because Europe is getting the same-rate 24 hour connections we take for granted here and that two-computer households are growing faster than a mastiff pup.

I don’t think we will decide who governs our country or who leads our dog clubs by online balloting.  I do however think that, like the 7-Eleven poll that was probably the largest and most unbiased sampling done prior to Election day, the internet offers checks and balances.  It can give us real popular opinion, not slanted or inaccurate reportage.  I asked our webmaster what the geek sites were saying about the election and he confirmed that independent electronic polls did not coincide with network predictions and comment.

Not being a resident of Palm Beach County, my cognitive ability is okay so I began to think about a way to validate dog club ballots based on electronic tabulation.  Like the 7-Eleven, there had to be a way to get real data from real people and not have it corrupted by mis-guessing, mis-handling, or mis-placement.

ThePollingPlace is located on the Top Level of www.thedogplace.org.  It isn’t 100% reliable but then we have learned the hard way that no form of voting, exit polls, surveys, or data is.  You do have to register to vote and you do have to provide some statistical data (unlike 99% of websites, it is NOT sold to mailing lists and research companies) so that the results can be validated.

You can vote on requested upcoming club elections so that the board knows the will of the majority of people in that breed.  You can vote on issues that affect the sport, such as an interesting poll on whether or not Handlers should be eligible to judge National Specialty Sweep­stakes and whether or not they should have to meet basic Breed experience criteria before being granted a breed by AKC.  I think they are also designing an Awards Poll to vote for people who have contributed significantly to the sport and who should be honored by us, their constituents.

Selected issues relating to dog ownership, local and national legislation, and the health or welfare of dogs are also there for your consideration and vote.  The results are authenticated and when there is a governing body, delivered by Certified Mail to that agency, legislative body, or club.  For the first time, dog people have a real voice, a way of becoming a powerful voting block, of fighting back against extremist AR groups or unfair legislation.

Best of all, before you vote, you can study the issue at hand because there are links to related articles, discussion forums, and news items.  You can even debate the issue with others in DogTalk, the “most discussed discussion forum on the net.”

There are currently three Parent Club issues being debated and voted on.  Go there, you will find it a refreshing change from returning ballots to incumbent candidates to be counted!  TheDogPlace doesn’t serve 7-Eleven coffee - it serves the common cause for dog people.

Reprinted courtesy of 

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