No, the title wasn't a typo. It's time for a poll about polling!



GENERAL QUESTIONS

1. Are you old enough to vote in political elections in your country?

2a. If "no" to #1, when will you be old enough?

2b. If "yes" to #1, have you ever voted in a political election?

3. Have you ever voted in an election that wasn't for public office? (i.e. Hall government, popularity contest, etc.)

4. Have you ever run in an election? If so, did you win?

5. Do you think that majority votes to elect people to office work well?


POKEMONIZED QUESTIONS

6. Have you ever answered one of those "What's your favorite Pokemon" polls?

7. In a recent poll of Famitsu magazine, Japanese gamers voted Pokemon Red and Blue #51 on their list of top games. (No other Pokemon game made the top 100.) Would you have expected Pokemon to do better, worse, or about that well?

8. A poll in Koro Koro magazine revealed that Pikachu was the most popular non-starter Pokemon from Pokemon Red and Blue, which is why it was chosen to be Ash's starter in the anime. If the poll had been run after D/P, with all available Pokemon, which one do you think would have been chosen?



And here are my answers...



GENERAL QUESTIONS

1. Yes.

2b. To be honest, no. But that's only because I wasn't old enough at the time of the last presidential election.

3. Yeah, quite a few. The most recent ones were hall government elections; aside from that, there were things for school yearbooks and such.

4. A few, yeah. The last was one for president of my residence hall government... nobody else ran, so it was kind of an easy win. Last year, however, my bid for the vice president spot didn't go so well.

5. I think they would if people paid more attention. The problem is that some people are far too heavily swayed by propaganda rather than real issues and values (the advent of TV helped JFK get elected despite getting destroyed in the debates), and if the voters are uninformed, the decision isn't necessarily any good. Access to the airwaves also severely limits possible candidates. When only a few people out of an entire country even have a chance because of finances, you can't expect the best people to be elected. Representative democracy is good in theory, but it has its share of problems.


POKEMONIZED QUESTIONS

6. Yeah. I always just say "*points to username*" or something snide like that.

7. Honestly, I would've expected it to at least crack the top 30. Even a top 10 finish wouldn't have surprised me at all. Perhaps the franchise hasn't had as big of an impact in Japan...?

8. Well, I'm still surprised that Clefairy wasn't picked, since it was the main Pokemon in the Coro Coro comics. (Maybe they thought it was too "girly" for a shonen anime.) But I think something like Sneasel might have had a good chance. I could see a lot of personality coming out of it, and it just drips with the "coolness" factor. Aside from that, maybe Eevee, if only because of the ever-growing list of Eeveelutions.



Respond!