Welcome to the Carnival Of The Vanities - Week 59. Since today was election day in many parts of the country the Carnival this week features all the great entries you've come to expect, and a little election trivia thown in for good measure. Special thanks to Jennifer of Jennifer's History & Stuff for the election trivia.

Entries are presented in ballot form, even though that metaphor got tiresome about 2 hours into the list compilation. Much like the time spent listening to stump speeches, I'm never going to get those hours back. Neither are you...

Entries are broken down into 11 major categories for readablility...

Boise, Idaho's 1985 mayoral election saw Mr. Potato Head receive 4 write-in votes.

Candidate: SportsBlog
Platform: With a new look courtesy of Sekimori, we're having a remodeling celebration. Sportsblog covers all major sports and teams and is always looking for new contributors - see the "Contribute" link in the left sidebar.

Candidate: Unbillable Hours
Platform: An inside view of boxing and despair.

Candidate: BoiFromTroy
Platform: USC Football, California current events, and blogger narcissism

Candidate: Signal+Noise
Platform: Over the edge of the falls. Extreme sports or extreme stupidity?

Candidate: angelweave
Platform: Heather details her battle with cancer. She kicks its ass…

Candidate: goobage
Platform: The cost of blood tests run amuck, courtesy of managed health care.

Candidate: Musings from Brain J. Noggle
Platform: A voyage of self-discovery as a blogger takes an "Are You Depressed?" quiz.

Candidate: You Big Mouth, You!
Platform: Life matters, and Chuck is going to fight the battle where and when he can.

In 1933, Boston Curtis was placed on the ballot for the Republican precinct committee in Milton, Washington. He had been placed on the ballot without his knowledge by mayor Kenneth Simmons, and refused to campaign. He won anyway. Oh, and he was a mule.

Candidate: Meryl Yourish
Platform: More topless driving, a platform everyone can get behind.

Candidate: Calblog
Platform: Calblog (Justene Adamec) scores more male than the ones trumpeting it through the blogosphere. She's a man, baby!!!

Candidate: Trish Wilson
Platform: Camille Paglia doesn't like blogs, but she steals from them. She tried to take credit for "axis of weasels." Blogger Scrappleface coined that phrase.

Candidate: Dissecting Leftism
Platform: The pros and cons of SUVs

Candidate: the evangelical outpost
Platform: The perfect blog post. Sort of like the David Allen Coe song…

Candidate: Matthew J. Stinson
Platform: Thoughts on blog comments - pro's and con's.

Candidate: Dodgeblogium
Platform: Andrew gives his first impression of Apple's new Panther operating system.

Nashville Councilman Ludye Wallace lost his seat in 1995 and expressed his feelings on live television: "Well, shit!"

Candidate: The Eclectic Chapbook
Platform: Is the recent cluster of Iraq attacks morphing into another Tet offensive?

Candidate: Joe Kelley
Platform: Support for the administration policy prohibiting TV cameras and photographers from covering flag-draped coffins returning from war.

Candidate: The Road To Surfdom
Platform: "It's the terrorism, stupid" is one bloggers detailed assessment of the situation in Iraq.

Candidate: Forgotten Fronts
Platform: Psychology and the War

Candidate: Kevin Murphy
Platform: There IS a plan, you may not like it, but it exists…

Candidate: The Mudville Gazette
Platform: Why is it so hard to help the troops? Pentagon lawyers have one explanation.

In 1994, Virgil Nelson and Mitch Fiedler ran for the city council in Rice, Minnesota. The vote came out tied at 90-90, so they decided to draw cards for it. They both drew eights; then they both drew aces. Finally on the third draw Nelson had a seven and Fiedler drew an eight to win.

Candidate: Les Jones
Platform: Anyone who has ever published a Web page has wondered about the possibility of being sued. It's especially unnerving to imagine being sued by a powerful person or company.

Candidate: Patterico's Pontifications
Platform: An examination of the larger issues of the Terri Schiavo case.

Candidate: Helloooo chapter two!
Platform: A before and after comparison of news coverage on Madison, WI's Halloween riots.

Candidate: Peaktalk
Platform: According to Peaktalk, Canada needs to get into the missile defense game before it's too late.

Boise, Idaho's 1985 mayoral election saw Mr. Potato Head receive 4 write-in votes.

Candidate: Admiral Quixote's Roundtable
Platform: Don Quixote explains why he believes President Bush will win reelection in 2004 even if the economy enters another recession.

Candidate: The American Mind
Platform: Are conservatives winning the media war?

Candidate: The Noble Pundit
Platform: I take a look at the proposed Geneva Initiative and some of the commentary that makes it unlikely to succeed.

Candidate: PC Watch
Platform: PC Watch says political correctness is a form of Maoism.

Candidate: Boots and Sabers
Platform: Labor Unions Are A Destructive Force!

Candidate: QandO
Platform: The Halliburton War Profiteering Myth

Candidate: The King Of Fools
Platform: What Democrats have here is a failure to communicate… A detailed look at the "framing" of the message.

Candidate: The Smarter Cop
Platform: Clinton claims he advised Bush on the foreign threats to our country... the numbers speak differently of Clinton's priorities.

Candidate: Interested-Participant
Platform: American students are being taught to be activists; LIBERAL activists.

Candidate: Tasty Manatees
Platform: Why do our enemies doubt our resolve? Is it because the expect a Democrat in the White House in 2004?

Candidate: The Gunther Concept
Platform: Is the Whitehouse website is modifying transcripts to eliminate potentially embarrassing material?

In 1988, Herbert Connolly was trying to keep his seat on the Massachusett's governor's council. On Election Day he was busy campaigning when he realized the polls were about to close. He was fifteen minutes too late to vote for himself. The final count was 14, 715 votes for Connolly and 14,716 for his opponent.

Candidate: a voyage to arcturus
Platform: The Mathematics of Wildfires -Comparing a nuclear strike to the Southern California wildfires.

Candidate: The Calico Cat
Platform: A new SAT? Why fix what works?

Candidate: dustbury
Platform: Details the restrictions imposed on residents of an Urban Conservation District. The Association will assimilate all that stand in it's way!

Candidate: Simon World
Platform: Narcissism in Hong Kong is reflected in ways great and small. Simon explores the finer details of the issue.

In 1996, Scott Glasrud lost the New Mexico state senate primary by two votes. A month later he found out that his father-in-law and mother-in-law had failed to send in their votes due to a death in the family.

Candidate: Capitan's Quarters
Platform: The unusual peace efforts of Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Danny DeVito, Jason Alexander, and Edward Norton.

Candidate: Patriot Paradox
Platform: Using Terri Schiavo case, the Patriot shows the silliness in starving a person to death when we wouldn't even do that to a prisoner.

Candidate: Earthly Passions
Platform: Satirical look at why Fox chose NOT to sue itself, using Ann Coulter to defend "The Simpsons".

Candidate: Useful Fools
Platform: Dogs and global warming. They're like peas and carrots…

Candidate: Practical Penumbra
Platform: An ode to Glenn Reynolds.

Candidate: A little Aardvark never hurt anyone
Platform: What scares you?

Candidate: Curmudgeonry
Platform: Jordana Adams finds out what happens when good dogs go liberal.

Candidate: Bad Money
Platform: New words for the new millennium.

Candidate: The People's Republic of Seabrook
Platform: Have we sunk to the point where we find our greatest enjoyment in the pain and suffering of others?

Candidate: Wicked Thoughts
Platform: American perceptions of the British.

Candidate: nikita demosthenes
Platform: Metrosexuals: We're here! We're not queer! But we're close!...

Candidate: Madeleleine Begun Kane
Platform: Song Parody about President Bush's political spin, to be sung to "Spinning Wheel".

Candidate: Blackfive
Platform: If you are boycotting the French, do you have to boycott lingerie?

Candidate: physicsgeek
Platform: Pamplona is lovely this time of year… Oh my, I've fallen and I can't get up! Sorry to disappoint, but this is an urban legend, albeit a funny one...

South Carolina's Representative Grady Brown paid the utility bills of some Bishopville voters. With campaign funds. He'd been doing it for "four or five years." He denied there was anything wrong with this and said, "A person is not going to vote for you for that reason."

Candidate: The Tears of Things
Platform: The hypocrisy of a major New York art dealer, as pictured in this month's Vogue.

Candidate: apropos of something
Platform: Interested in an extreme fishing show called "The Masked Fisherman?"

Candidate: ham fisted theatrics
Platform: Halloween NYC style, a photo montage. Late night pizza is served too…

Candidate: Red Ted
Platform: Toasting - the nineteenth-century drinking game.

Candidate: Outside the Beltway
Platform: An examination of Naomi Wolfe's contention that the easy availability of pornography has dampened men's enthusiasm for "the real thing."

Candidate: Parkway Rest Stop
Platform: Simplify your life. Drink black coffee, and avoid being a modern-day, morning alchemist and packet shaker at the local 7-11.

In 1932, FDR ran on an election platform that promised to cut the federal budget. By 1936, the the budget was more unbalanced than it had ever been in history. The first major speech of 1936 was going to take place in Pittsburgh, where four years earlier he had promised to balance the budget. He asked an adviser to prepare an explanation for the discrepancies between his promises and his performance. "Mr. President, the only thing you can say about the 1932 speech is to deny categorically that you ever made it."

Candidate: Happy Furry Puppy Story Time with Norbizness
Platform: Ideas for Old Testament inspired monuments and/or statues.

Candidate: The Raving Atheist
Platform: The Raving Atheist is busting on the Pennsylvania miners prayer-based efforts to rescue their trapped Russian counterparts.

Candidate: Seebach Exhibit 7
Platform: Are morals and values extinct?

Candidate: Porphyrogenitus
Platform: Combatting Bad Philosophy - Detailing the fight against the bad ideas that are growing all around us.

Nancy Kulp, the actress who played Jane Hathaway in The Beverly Hillbillies, ran for congress in 1984. Her opponent recruited Buddy Ebsen to make radio commercials calling Nancy "too liberal" and declaring his support for the other candidate. Nancy lost the election.

Candidate: Susie Joy
Platform: How Sleeping Beauty found her Prince.

Candidate: Southern Musings
Platform: This Southern Girl Needs a Date and why not use her blog to get one?

Candidate: Jay Solo
Platform: Do you believe in love at first sight? Answer Jay's Question of the Week.

In 1920, Socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs received 920,000 votes despite running his campaign from jail.

Candidate: A Single Guy In The South
Platform: "For The Love Of A Dog." A short piece inspired by the victims of the wildfires whose remains were found with or next to their dogs.

Candidate: Quibbles And Bits
Platform: A strange tale of the quest for a baby.

Candidate: Writer's Noose
Platform: This blog is a short horror story played out in real time via weblog entries. Very cool…

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That's all of them (I hope). Next weeks Carnival is hosted by Dead Ends.

Remember: As Bill Daily may have said, "Vote early, vote often."