Here's a link to the official Calling Caldecott Ballot #1. Note that you will vote for your first, second, and third choices, just like the real committee. The polls will close at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning (Tuesday, January 17) and we will try to get the results up at noon.

Tallying Caldecott votes is a tricky business, but Robin has volunteered to do the honors. Here's what the handbook says about counting votes and determining the winner:

Balloting:

When there is consensus that all the books on the discussion list are fully discussed, the committee proceeds to a selection ballot. Certain procedures apply:

• Committee members list first, second, and third place votes for the award on a selection ballot.


• In tabulating ballot results, the tellers assign four points to each first place vote, three points to each second place vote, and two points to each third place vote.


• There is a formula to determine the winner. A book must receive at least 8 first choices at four points per vote for a total of at least 32 points, and it must have an 8 point lead over the book receiving the next highest number of points.

Tally

Once balloting is complete, the tellers tabulate the results. The tabulations are double-checked, and the Chair reads the results aloud to the committee. Depending on the results, certain steps are taken:

• If there is a winner, the committee proceeds to considering whether or not to select honor books.


• If the first ballot does not produce a winner, the committee follows procedures for re-balloting.

For our tally, we will need to adjust for a larger committee size. Eight first choices on a committee of fifteen means the winning book needs to get a first place vote from more than half the members, so I guess we will aim for the same ratio. You can see why we may go to a second ballot. I guess Robin will also figure out what the equivalent of "at least 32 votes" is, based on how many of you we hear from. The web polling tool has been set up to assign the right number values to each vote, but that still leaves Robin with a fair amount of math to do. Better her than me!

The real committee keeps discussing and voting until there is a clear winner. Unlike them, each of our votes will take about a day and a half, so we will stop at two ballots no matter what. In any case, Robin will do the math and one of us will post the results tomorrow around noon.