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Counting votes at car shows

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Jerry

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I am not sure where to post this on the Forum, so I will start here and hope other car people look also.

We have been trying to find a faster way to count votes at our club car show. We get about 300 cars and each entry gets a vote for best car in one of about 36 classes. I have been looking at Scantron forms to see if we can use those to collect votes and then run them through a machine. I have found that the Scantron (and other names) will collect votes if you custom design a form. At least, I have not found one that will work yet. I also did not like the quote of over $2000 for a machine to count the votes. Have any of you looked into this? Any better ideas? We now use about 8 people who count in batches but it still takes about 1.5 hours.

Jerry
UBSCC car show chairman
 
We have one person per class. We pull the ballots about 45 minutes before the end of voting and count. Then we pull them again at the close of voting. It takes about 20 minutes per person (except the vote counting organizer... it takes hime about an 1.25 hours). The important thing is that we can start the awards within 30-45 minutes of the close of voting.
 
We manage and we have 34 volunteers. I pitched it to them (our club members) as such:
It is a great and simple way to help out and still enjoy the show. It is a small time commitment that makes a big difference in the success of the show.
 
This in conjunction with color coded ballots and separate ballot boxes for each class all located in a common area has worked for us for many years.

https://www.britishbash.com
 
I'm assuming this is a popular vote car show.
We give each participant a pack of ballots. This pack has a small (approx 1" x 3") ballot for each class - each in a different color. They are bound as a booklet. Voters can walk among the cars and vote for each class. Then when they get ready to turn in their ballots... the ballot boxes are up by the announcer. They simply tear the ballots out of their pack and place them in the correctly colored boxes. The color coding can be extended to windshield cards and parking signs as well. The color coding helps people get the ballots into the correct boxes, but we still have class alphabetical class designations printed on them as well.
 
I've attended many shows both large and small. IMHO the best way is to just have people vote for their favorite car regardless of what class there in. By doing it this way you can save on trophy costs as well. Ex: 10 votes equals 10 trophies or 11 if you have best in show.

Excluding the method above, I've always thought putting the ballot boxes at the beginning of an aisle of like cars makes the voting simpler. Walking around with a stack of colored bits is not very convenient and is very frustrating.
It also makes it simpler to just collect the ballot boxes which are already separated.
 
Having classes helps spread the trophies out to people and helps keep the show attendance and quality of cars high.

We've tried boxes at the end of rows, but found that people prefer one location to drop the ballot (we still have separate boxes for each class). At first I didn't like the idea of a central location, but then I realized it was easier. Here's why: I would often be at the wrong end of the class row to drop the ballot, and then I would forget it when I went back by. Not having to worry about the order I walked the show rows I felt it was more enjoyable, and I tended to give more consideration to the cars.

In the end, as long as things go smoothly and the participants feel like the show was organized, with plenty of fun, prizes, awards and interesting cars then the show will be a success.

We all have different preferences, and luckily there are plenty of car shows from which to choose.

Johnny, have you ever been at the Louisville KY British Bash? https://www.britishbash.com
or the Bluegrass Healey Spring Thing?
https://www.springthing.info

We are not that far away.
 
I feel voting is not always a valid measure of anything. There should be two classes in each division. One for most original restoration/preservation and one for the nicest looking (nicest paint even though too glossy or wrong color and many other things which can be done to increase proformance, appearence and safety) I know I'll get static on this but how many times have you inspected a car and been swayed by something you know was wrong while a perfect restoration is boring after all these years of looking at originals.
TH
 
I agree. Voting at popular vote car shows does not indicate the best car. There are no criteria. It is simply a matter of which car/person the voters liked best. I've always thought that the voting was just something to do while you looked at the cars. If you have a bunch of participants that are "into" judging cars for correctness, then any slightly modified car (no matter how great the workmanship) will not get a trophy. On the other hand, you could get a group of participants that are gearheads and really sway the votes for the modified. I was glad to see the cobra replicas at our show last year and I hope they return. But some people in our club thought they had no place in a British car show. I can honestly say that I do not car about the trophies, but many people do. As a show organizer, all you can do is try to keep as many people as happy as possible so that you can get quality cars every year. I think I may suggest that we create few more specialty awards (best color scheme, best paint, most creative bodge, cleanest interior, buggiest grill, etc.)
 
I overheard a person at a show talk about how the club he was in got together and all voted for the same car. We just have to realize that a popular show can be biased, but it is just reward to people that take care of the their cars. It is not a concours show and there are those that prefer that type of show. Although the last concours show I went to had a panel of 3 judges that spent 2 min at most looking at each class and made a determination from 10 feet away. True concours, takes quite a while to judge.

If a potential for a trophy brings people to the show, then that is still good. I love to see all the different types of cars at our club show. Some are pretty beaten and some are over prepped but they still run!

I saw a mini at the last show that I would really like to drive. It looked like a lot of fun.

Jerry
 
Yes, Trevor I've been to Louisville but not to the Bash.

As for as popular car shows go, there all fun to attend. I really don't put a lot of emphasis on "judging" others cars as I don't consider myself qualified. I have heard of judging by car club, or even judging by whether or not you lift the hood up. Even, I only vote for cars that are from out of state.

In my opinion I really like the vote count that merely says which car you like the best?
 
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