Update: Antarctic Vote Count

The current Antarctic Trip Vote count is as follows; 6123 - 1903 - 1859 - 1279 - 1234 out of 589 candidates registered. I am in third place and sloooowly creeping up on second place. With only 2 weeks remaining, things are heating up and voting is changing rapidly as previous voters reassign their votes and new voters cast theirs for the first time. [Yes, you can change who you voted for, even if you voted weeks or months ago! All you have to do is log in using the account you created to cast your original vote, a process that takes only seconds] Many tens of thousands of votes have already been cast in this competition, so if the people who have cast their votes already decide to change them, they can significantly affect the outcome of this competition. The top four vote-getters are receiving most of these votes, so I need your votes more than ever -- and you are encouraged to change your votes if you've already voted -- so I can recapture first place, so please ask your friends and relatives to vote for me now!

According to the competition rules, there is an interview after the voting has ended to ascertain whether the top vote-getter fulfills Quark's requirements. If not, the next highest vote-getter will then be evaluated.

If you've already voted, then please encourage your family, friends, colleagues and neighbors to vote for the person whom you think would be best for this unique job: traveling to Antarctica for the month of February 2010 and writing about it for the public on a blog. Here is my 300-word essay; hopefully, you will agree that I am a very well-qualified candidate for this job opportunity. Voting ends at noon EDT 30 September and there is one vote allowed per valid email address (registration required).

Details: Quark Expeditions is searching for an Official Blogger to join a voyage to Antarctica. Their goals, according to an email I received recently from their official spokesperson, Prisca, are to have their official blogger write a daily blog entry in English about his or her experience on this Antarctic trip, and to help raise public awareness of the environmental and conservation issues that pertain to the Antarctic. To select their official blogger, they are asking candidates to enter a competition where the public votes for whom they think would do the best job.

I've posted a picture and written a 300 word essay and my entry is public. To vote, go there and register your email address (and create a different password from that used for your email). Then, within a few seconds to an hour or so, you will receive a confirmatory message at your registered email address so you can then vote in this competition. Remember, according to the rules, there is "one vote per valid email address" and no more than two votes per individual. So after you've voted, be sure to ask everyone you know to vote for me, too. If you've had troubles registering your email address, please contact me (so I know of your troubles) and Quark Expedition's marketing manager, Prisca Campbell, who will then register your email address by hand, as she's already done for several of my readers.

Voting ends at noon EDT on 30 September 2009, and the Official Quark Blogger will travel to Antarctica in February 2010 to blog about the experience, chronicling the action, the emotion, and the drama as this polar adventure unfolds.