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The election is less than one week away, but what’s sooner than that? Halloween. And what’s sooner than that? My cat’s birthday.
Her name is Sally Carrera, and we got her a month ago during a Halloween sale at the shelter. Yes, she was a discount cat. And yes, the shelter named her after the Porsche from the animated movie “Cars.”
In honor of this very special day, I made everyone I know help me pick the best photo of Sally through ranked-choice voting.
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There were five photos to choose from, and endorsements were made. Mission Local’s donor engagement lead, Vicky Anibarro, ran attack ads on our office Slack against the photo of Sally reading Proust. Editor Lydia Chavez said she would vote for the photo of postpartum Sally because she “supports women.”
Then ballots were filled out. Everyone could rank as many — or as few — photos as they wanted. But they couldn’t rank multiple photos first. That would disqualify their ballot.
The same rules apply in San Francisco’s election, which will have 13 mayoral candidates.
After all the ballots were cast, everyone’s first choice vote was counted.
The photo with the least number of votes was eliminated. Proust-reading Sally was taken out of the running, a blow to scholarly cats everywhere.
Everyone who cast their first choice vote for the photo that was eliminated then had their second choice vote counted.
After their votes were redistributed, the next photo with the fewest votes was eliminated.
This process continued until there was a photo that received more than 50 percent of the votes. The photo of Sally tearing up my notepad — “Menace Sally” — was crowned the winner.
While perusing cat photos may be more enjoyable than ranking politicians — at least, in my very unbiased opinion — remember to vote on Nov. 5. Mission Local’s election dashboard is here to help you make an informed decision.
After you’ve cast your ballot, go adopt a cat to celebrate!
ABIGAIL VÂN NEELY
Originally from New York City, Abigail is a recent graduate of Stanford’s Journalism Master’s program. She’s interested in community, inequity, and accountability stories, and enjoys foggy mornings with her tuxedo cat, Sally Carrera. (Yes, the shelter did in fact name the cat after the Porsche from the animated movie Cars.)More by Abigail Vân Neely
