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Friday, October 27, 2006

AP Rooting For A Hedger Victory?

Over on the KXMC website they have their news stories divided up into categories.  One of those categories is “people.” Basically, it’s a listing of people who have been in the news and when you click on their names you see all the most recent stories where they’re mentioned.

It’s a pretty neat feature, I think, but when you click on the link for the North Dakota Secretary of State candidate Kristin Hedger you get this story:

image

Whoops.  That announcement won’t be appropriate, well, ever as far as I’m concerned.  But at least not until November 7th.

It’s a test story, I guess.  But still, pretty funny that it showed up to the public.

Comments

Work by day at the AP, work at night for the Hedger campaign?


What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.


The Whistler's signature
The Whistler on October 27, 2006 at 04:14 am
Avatar for aNONOMISLY

It’s a test story, I guess.  But still, pretty funny that it showed up to the public.

what’s a test story, what’s it for? ..training the new apprentices? ..Im serious, ..really have little idea what it is.

aNONOMISLY on October 27, 2006 at 04:27 am
Avatar for WhatTha?

Rob-PLEASE contact the Texas Elections Division and check to see if Hedger voted there...word is she registered to vote there back in 1998.  Someone on the Forum newspaper’s blog mentioned it.  If true, it would certainly negate her claim that she always considered herself a North Dakotan. 

Funny, today in the Forum there’s a letter to the editor from someone in Chicago endorsing her candidacy!  With friends like these…

WhatTha? on October 27, 2006 at 05:08 am
Avatar for Dale Wetzel

AP counts votes for North Dakota statewide candidate races and ballot measures, district judgeship races (there is one in the Northwest District) and the races for the state Senate and House. The results you will see for these races on election night are tabulated by The Associated Press.

To this end, before the election, we run a number of tests. We send out a variety of vote tabulation tables, bulletins, etc. The tests allow the AP member broadcasters, newspapers and other customers to configure their Web sites and election systems. The tests allow recipients to check on whether their computer systems are correctly coded to sort the data in the way they prefer. It also gives them an advance look at what types of data the AP will be providing, such as county-by-county tables.

The tests are transmitted on a number of specified days leading up to the election. As you can see, they are marked as test results. They do not signal any rooting interest, and are not intended for public display. They are tests, after all. Other tests we’ve run this fall have shown Al Jaeger as the winner in the secretary of state’s race.

In the last presidential election, for reasons I don’t remember, we used the names of Ole Aarsvold (a Democratic state legislator from Traill County) and John Andrist (a Republican state senator from Crosby) as test candidates for president of the United States.

Dale Wetzel on October 27, 2006 at 11:17 am
Rob
Rob
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Dale,

Thanks for stopping in and explaining this.

I wasn’t meaning to imply that the AP had legitimately already called the SoS race, or even has a favorite.  I just thought it was a funny little snafu.


When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

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Rob on October 27, 2006 at 11:19 am
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