A Mile Closer to the Stars
Voting for the 2008 Hugo Awards has closed. If you voted, thanks! Here's the 2008 Hugo Nomination List * * Hugo Winner List * * Detailed nominations/final vote breakdown
Photos from the Pre-Hugo Ceremony Slide Show
Executable of the Hugo Ceremony PowerPoint
Archival Denvention Hugo Nomination Information
Voting for the Hugo Awards is conducted on a preferential (instant runoff) system. If you're unfamiliar with it, it may seem complicated, but it isn't really. When you vote, you don't vote for just one of the choices — you rank the offerings in each category in order of your preference. You aren't required to rank all of them, but it's to your advantage to do so if you want to help influence the outcome.
The counting is a bit complicated but that only affects you in that a basic understanding of it may help you in ranking your choices. Say we have four items we're voting on: A, B, C, and D. We separate the ballots into four stacks. Stack One has all those ballots that list A as their first choice. Stack Two has those that have listed B as their first choice and so on. We count how many are in each stack. If one of the choices has received the majority (half of the first-choice votes cast plus at least one more) of votes, that item is the winner. If, as often happens in elections with two or more candidates, no item choice has a majority we take up the stack that has the fewest ballots. The fewest people have chosen this item as their top choice. What we do then is redistribute those ballots based on the second choices listed on those ballots as if they were the first choice. For example, say Stack Four, those who chose D as their first choice had the fewest ballots. We'd take those ballots and put them into Stacks One, Two, or Three, depending on which was ranked as second choice. Now we have three piles. This goes on until there is a winner, i.e., someone with a majority.
When it comes time to mark your ballot and vote, think first of all of who/what you would most like to win that category. That's your number one. Then look at all the choices you have left and choose which of those you would most like to see win. That's your number two. And so on through the nominees in each category.
You can read more about this balloting system on Wikipedia. The results of the 2004 Hugo voting process.
For more information on the Hugo Awards, check out the WSFS Constitution, AwardWeb, Locus Magazine's Index to Science Fiction Awards, Science Fiction Awards Watch, or The Hugo Awards, a new site created and managed by the Hugo Awards Marketing Subcommittee of the WSFS Mark Protection Committee.