HOW MANY PEOPLE NOMINATE AND VOTE?
This depends on the category, since eligible nominators are encouraged to nominate only in categories they feel they have enough experience with. Last year when Worldcon was in Melbourne, Australia, there were 700 nominations for Best Novel . So if each person nominated five novels, that could have been as few as 140 nominating ballots. (Except that The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi received 142 nominations, so clearly many people nominated fewer than five titles.) Julian Comstock tied with Palimpsest for fifth place with 62 nominations, so both made it to the final ballot.
In the Best Related Work category last year, there were 259 nominations. The top nominee received 56 nominations, and there was again a tie for fifth place, with 29 nominations. (Writing Excuses received eight nominations last year.)
The final vote totals exhibit similar differences. 875 ballots were counted for Best Novel, and there was a tie for first with 380 votes for both China Miéville’s The City & The City and The Windup Girl . 548 ballots were counted for Best Related Work, and This is Me, Jack Vance! won with 251 votes.
Here’s a sample voting breakdown for the final ballot, from last year:
Best Dramatic Presentation Short Form
- Doctor Who
- “The Waters of Mars” (winner) 172 172 204 212 350
- Dollhouse
- “Epitaph 1” 199 201 205 243 278
- Doctor Who
- “The Next Doctor” 144 144 173 203
- FlashForward
- “No More Good Days” 123 125 127
- Doctor Who
- “Planet of the Dead” 70 70
No Award 59
The first column of numbers indicates what people ranked as their #1 choice. 199 people picked “Epitaph 1” as their favorite, and only 172 people picked “The Waters of Mars” as their favorite. Yet 199 was not above the 50% threshold necessary to win. So the instant runoff began: the lowest vote-getters were eliminated and those voters’ preferences reassigned. Of people who voted “Planet of the Dead” #1, when that was eliminated, their #2 moved up to #1 and the votes were counted again; four had voted “Epitaph 1” as #2 and 32 had voted “The Waters of Mars” #2. “Epitaph 1” was ahead by a vote, but still didn’t have enough to win. This process continued until eventually all but the top two were eliminated, and “The Waters of Mars” was declared the winner, even though it was behind in every round but the last.
You’ll also notice the “No Award” listing. If you’re voting and think none of the entries on the final ballot deserve your vote, you can pick No Award. I know that No Award won in the Dramatic Presentation category in 1977, but this is rare. There are more details on the Hugo voting system here.
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