So much for the "horse-race" bias

The Dispatch headline reads:

Pryce’s lead over Kilroy grows with 2 counties’ totals

The first sentence reads:

Deborah Pryce’s lead over Mary Jo Kilroy grew by 181 votes yesterday in their still-undecided congressional race, a smaller gain than expected in the Republican strongholds of Madison and Union counties. (emphasis added)

I thought the media was primarily interested in seeing competetive races. So why the headline emphasizing the numerical expansion of the gap rather than the narrowing of the predictive gap? For that matter, why does the discovery of 30 uncounted voting machines not warrant a headline?

I am, however, glad that my complaint is only with the headline writer, not the article itself nor the events described.

FWIW I, like many bloggers, have been quick to criticize Matthew Damschroder and the Franklin County BOE when I thought they've done a less-than-acceptable job. This year it should be noted that the Unofficial Abstract of Votes and the distribution of provisional ballots cast were immediately posted in Excel format and the distribution of voting machines was posted along with the formula-based guidance on machine numbers/precinct for each voting location. So far, the 2006 election looks much cleaner on paper than the 2004 election did, and the transparency added to the data reporting means I haven't had to work nearly as hard to get the data to examine that this time around.

I didn't much care for the way that M.D. verbally responded to criticism last time around, but to give credit where it's due: actions speak louder than words, and although there are some new problems, the BOE has taken visible steps to remedy every one of the complaints from last time around. That's a whole lot better than a bunch of mea culpas and the same old same old come election time.

Let's hope they keep it up through the provisional count, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Bev Campbell and MJK.

P.S. I'm kind of late to the party publicizing Marie Wilson's talk at OSU next week. I'm particularly embarrassed because I got a personal heads-up from Jill at WLST, who did a really good interview with Wilson, and because good female candidates like Emily Kreider and Bev Campbell don't grow on trees.

I can't go but I'm working on a proxy. If you plan on going, drop me a line.