RE: “The Mercury’s Cutest Pet Photo Contest” [Feature, Aug 9], in which readers voted for Portland’s cutest pet, and the past two weeks of Letters to the Editor [Aug 16 and Aug 23], which have chronicled Portland’s remarkably awful pet owners as they cheated, tattled, whined, and ranted. Our contest included one dog getting disqualified for voter fraud (Louie), fan-favorite dogs being eliminated (Ottis, Chauncey, and Django), and a final round between Sora, a 12-year-old cat forced to wear a lion costume, and Johnny, a nine-month-old “very smart and funny” miniature pig. Johnny captured 88 percent of the final vote, with 1,145 votes to Sora’s 156. Yes, we checked, the votes were legit. STOP CALLING. STOP EMAILING.
I think the pig, Johnny, is cheating! He got over 200 votes in 20 minutes earlier today! I know another pet was disqualified for cheating, and it seems like the owner of the pig is attempting to rig the contest. Thank you for looking into it.
A Cute Pet Fan Who Wants the Pets to Have an Honest Chance
For today’s round of the cute pet contest, there is an inconsistency. For all prior entries, the pet photo shown on the left side has corresponded with the top choice listed in the voting box. Currently, for Sora vs. Django, Django is displayed in the right side, yet occupies the top slot for voting options. Blogtowners, having been conditioned to connect the left-right/top-bottom dynamic, may be more prone to voting errors.
Also I’m totally biased towards Sora, and looking for reasons why he might be losing, as Django looks like a pretty basic German Shepard.
Kyle Smith
