A couple of days ago I posted about being nominated by elliott.org for the “Favorite Travel Blogger” award. I shared my reasons for even mentioning it in the previous post, and it was intended more in good fun than anything else. The outpouring of support and kind comments reminded me once again that y’all are my BFFs. The voting was supposed to end at 5PM EST today, and last I checked I was leading by over 400 votes.
My mom even called me earlier this afternoon as she was clearing the mantle for my new award — “Benji, daddy and I are so proud of you, what a great honor.” It’s nice to have my career choice validated, even if for all the wrong reasons. 😉
Well, the poll just ended and I was looking forward to giving my acceptance speech until I saw this on Elliott’s site:
Update (11/16): Thank you for your participation in this survey. Unfortunately, we’ve had some reports of voting irregularities. I’m going to need to investigate them before posting the results. Thank you for your patience.
One eagle-eyed Tweeter was quick to point out that obviously there was fraud involved:
But even my good pal Chris Elliott saw through it:
“Voting irregularities?” Are you trying to tell me that me busing people to polling stations and offering them free meals isn’t allowed?!
So, Chris Elliott, you’re an investigative journalist — can’t wait to see you get to the bottom of this one!
Last I checked, it was about 400 for Ben, and 12 for the next guy. And given that Ben can get more than 12 comments on his own blog just for posting something about Honey Boo Boo, I'm pretty sure 400 votes was not that hard to achieve. You could even argue it's Elliott stuffing the box since I voted just so I could see the progress.
I say, go back and remove the link to his site so he can't benefit from the association, or at least make it a nofollow.
Interesting that you cant comment about this on his site. All the other articles he has written do allow comments.
So essentially all your readers have been scammed. He picked up the traffic to his site so we could vote for you, yet he wont list you as a winner.
Elliot is by far the worst travel blogger I have read, has no idea what he is talking about and in general is an idiot. I have no idea how he stays in the game.
"What a ripoff. If I was ever tempted to read his trash this certainly cured me of it. The people have spoken and the idiot has decided not to listen. Why am I not surprised?"
Yep, he used us all to bolster his blogs ratings, and then just to be "fair" said "everyone wins", rather then let someone who disagrees with his opinions be listed as the real winner. And he didn't even list the...
"What a ripoff. If I was ever tempted to read his trash this certainly cured me of it. The people have spoken and the idiot has decided not to listen. Why am I not surprised?"
Yep, he used us all to bolster his blogs ratings, and then just to be "fair" said "everyone wins", rather then let someone who disagrees with his opinions be listed as the real winner. And he didn't even list the number of votes. My guess, Camels and Chocolates got 270 votes, and Lucky got 2,700, yet C and C gets listed first. Lucky, do us all a favor next year, and completely ignore this @#& "contest"!
@MilageUpdate Go back to Lucky's first post about this contest. He links to past articles about Chris Ellliott in the commments section. Basically, Chris doesn't think loyalty programs are worthwhile.
Anyone have a link or short description of why they dont like each other? I missed it.
What a ripoff. If I was ever tempted to read his trash this certainly cured me of it. The people have spoken and the idiot has decided not to listen. Why am I not surprised?
Lucky, you deserve better than this. I think we need to make this an excuse to get you to surpass Elliot in Twitter followers. As of last check, he is at 34,421 and you are at 31,657. Let's spread the word - everyone follow @onemileatatime ! (though I bet the next worthless allegation of fraud will be that people created fake Twitter accounts so they could follow you. Then, he will have to list every twitter user in alphabetical order and praise them all).
Aww, Lucky you were robbed! I sure your 600+ voters would still love to hear (read?) your acceptance speech. ;)
@ Ken -- ROFLMAO!
This is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. And this guy is an investigate journalist?
Just to be fair, the top vote getters in the US election were Obama and Romney. They both will be President, with their names listed alphabetically.
I guess you and 12 others won.
Well, Chris's latest update says you are in the top 13. Since he thinks there was funny business going on it looks like he isn't going to annouce a winner, just list the top 13 in alphabetical order.
Can't wait to see what Gary has to say about this.....
You won!
Elliott!!!
he's def cheating.. you should be the clear winner
@ colleen -- Thanks for the support!
@ palm -- Hey, if it does I'll be proud to lose. Classic joke, and if they can't see that then so be it!
I will feel horrible if my Chicago joke hashtag #voteearlyandoften hinders your deserving recognition. I stand by my assertion that no cheating was done (or even intended or promoted).
Can't a guy just be "Lucky"?
Best... @palmerlaw
I think you now see that although you intended it as "all good fun", you have a number of us supporters who took it seriously. Please stay classy and snark-free, even in your lighhearted approach.
And congratulations on your win!
@ That John -- Actually, don't let them go to waste. Chris Elliott lives in Florida. ;)
Too bad you just moved to Seattle. All those "Florida rigged an election" jokes going to waste...