Results from the first-ever Garlic Festival voting asking
patrons to cast electronic ballots on things such as their favorite
festival foods, least favorite foods, if they are staying the night
in Gilroy and if they will come back to the festival were released
Sunday night.
Results from the first-ever Garlic Festival voting asking patrons to cast electronic ballots on things such as their favorite festival foods, least favorite foods, if they are staying the night in Gilroy and if they will come back to the festival were released Sunday night.
Garlic fries were the crowd favorite, registering 326 votes as peoples’ favorite festival food.
Garlic bread finished second place with 304 votes, followed by scampi (234), peppersteak sandwiches (222), calamari (211), pasta con pesto (145), garlic ice cream (114) and sausage sandwiches (112).
During the voting at a booth located in Garlic Avenue, patrons were asked to vote for their three favorite foods, in no particular order.
Festivalgoers were also asked to vote for their least favorite food. Garlic ice cream took home top honors in the least-favorite category, accumulating 211 votes. Garlic fries followed with 113 votes – highlighting an apparent love-hate relationship between the crowd and garlicky fried potatoes. Garlic bread was the least despised food, drawing only 36 votes.
The county sponsored the touch-screen electronic voting booths with the goal of providing festival organizers with garlicky data and educating the three-day crowds totaling more than 132,000 about the new electronic balloting system.
The new technology will be available in November’s election, but not for October’s gubernatorial recall election, which will use traditional punch-card ballots. All county voters will be required to vote electronically by March’s elections.
Some 822 people filled out electronic garlic ballots, while hundreds more used the opportunity to register with the county on time for the upcoming recall election.
The touch-screen voting works like an ATM machine, where users insert an identification card and selections appear on a computer screen. Then, they make their selections by touching the appropriate choice with their finger tip.
