From: kfl@KeithLynch.net   
      
   Bernard Peek  wrote:   
   > The Chengdu Worldcon was voted in by a democratic process.  The   
   > results were predictable.  The blame, if that's the right word,   
   > lies with the members who voted them in and also those that had   
   > the opportunity to vote against but didn't.   
      
   The great majority of voters were people in China.   
      
   The main thing Kevin Standlee got in trouble for was publicly   
   revealing, early at the DC Worldcon, that the number of mail-in votes   
   for Chengdu was so high that even if everyone present in DC were to   
   vote against Chengdu, it would still win.  It was against the rules   
   for him to reveal anything about the vote totals until the voting was   
   over, but I'm glad he did it, since it let everyone at the con who   
   didn't want the con to be in Chengdu to avoid wasting their money by   
   voting against it.  They would lose, and their voting fee would just   
   go straight to China.   
      
   Maybe voting should be restricted to people at the con.  It would be   
   in some sense "democratic" if everyone on the planet who paid a voting   
   fee were to vote this November that the next US president will be some   
   random Communist Chinese guy who is no fan of free speech, but most   
   Americans probably wouldn't be happy about it.   
   --   
   Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/   
   Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)