A Strange Election Grand Tour

The Long Distance GT Option

The Nuts and Bolts Explanation:

You will be provided with red and blue GT flags. You will take these GT Flags to as many of the 50 states (plus Washington DC) as you like. When you arrive in a state, you will take a photo of your red and/or blue flag, along with your motorcycle at a state line/welcome sign or visitor’s center or State Capital building (Capitol building for Washington DC).

You will display the red flag in a photo if you think a Republican candidate will win the state in the 2016 Presidential Election. You will display a blue flag if you think a Democratic candidate will with the state in the 2016 Presidential Election. If you think an independent candidate or a candidate from a third party will win the state you will display both the red and blue flag in a single photo. Got it?

Use the red flag for a Republican win, the blue flag for a Democratic win and both flags for an independent or third party candidate to win the state.

If you make the correct prediction, you will earn points based upon our Strange Electoral College system. If your prediction is incorrect, you will not earn any points. The riders with the most points wins, but there are several finishing levels discussed below.

But what, huh? What is the Strange Electoral College system? Points are calculated by multiplying the Electoral College votes for each state by the number of square miles in each state.

Point Values per State

For example, Maryland’s 10 Electoral College votes multiplied by its land mass of 9,774 square miles is worth 97,740 points (Electoral College votes x square miles). Missouri, which also has 10 Electoral College is worth 688,860 points due to its much larger land mass of 68,886 square miles. In this example, Missouri is worth more than seven times as many points as Maryland. As it should be in this Strange GT, where larger states take longer to ride through. You will earn points for each state correctly predicted based upon our Strange Electoral College system. Points and points alone will determine your finishing level as follows:

President The rider with the most points.
Vice President The rider with the second most points.
Senator Any rider with 20 million or more points.
Representative Any rider with more than 10 million but less than 20 million points.
Professional Staffer Any rider with less than 10 million points but completing three or more states with correct predictions.

 

Photo Rule Rundown:

  1. Motorcycle (check)

  2. State line/welcome sign or visitor’s center or State Capital building (Capitol building for DC) (check)

  3. Red and/or Blue flag based upon the party that you think will receive the most votes in the 2016 Presidential Election (check)

  4. If you cannot get your flag, motorcycle and State line/welcome sign or visitor’s center or State Capital building, in a single photo, you may add no more than two additional photos for clarity and validation. Oftentimes this means including close up photos of signage and distance photos of the motorcycle and flag.

  5. You can submit up to three photos for each stop if needed. If one photo will work, then just send one photo. Please do not send extra photos. You will confuse the judges and slow scoring.

  6. Be safe. If a stop puts you at risk, move on. For example, you do not need to stop on a busy freeway to get a state limit/welcome sign. You can move on to a visitor’s center or State Capital building or make the stop when there is less traffic. Safety first. There will always be another GT. There will ever be another you.

  7. Our judges are simple folks who only score what they see. Grainy, hazy, and incomplete photo documentation can harm your score. Check your photos for awesomeness on location whenever you can.

 

Completing the Long Distance GT:

  1. To finish the Long Distance version of this GT you must meet or exceed the requirements to be a Professional Staffer.

  2. Your submission must include a list of your stops and corresponding photos. The list can be in an e-mail, Excel, Word, PDF, it does not matter. Just provide us a simple list of the names of states for which you are submitting a photo.

  3. We prefer all photos be submitted electronically/digitally. However, print photos, pen drives and camera cards are accepted. Please contact teamstrange@live.com for details if you want to submit photos manually.

  4. All photos (or links to digital photo albums) must be submitted to teamstrange@live.com or postmarked on or before September 30, 2016.

  5. The top finisher in the Long Distance version of this GT (based on point totals) will receive a plaque to commemorate the achievement.

  6. All finishers will receive a finisher’s pin or something similar as a memento. Finishers will also receive a single entry into a prize pool for each point they score in the Long Distance GT. There are separate prize pools for the local and long distance versions of this GT. Prizewinners will be drawn at random.

 

Riffs, Notes, and Clarification:

  1. The land mass of each state was determined using World Atlas. It is just the land mass and does not include water areas. Sorry Michigan.

  2. We do not have a scoring system for the split electoral college prospects of Nebraska or Maine. It is winner take all by percentage vote in each and every state. Sorry Nebraskans and Maineiacs.

  3. DC is a state for the Long Distance version of this Grand Tour.

  4. State Capital buildings are easily identified. Don’t worry about having an identifying signage in the photo. Just tell us which state it is from and we will verify the photo.

  5. We know that savvy riders are going to take a photo with both a red and blue flag in the swings states and then wait until the last minute to submit their choice. That is why we are requiring submissions more than a month before the actual election.

  6. What if there is a tie between one or more riders? No worries, we have a plan for that and will be asking each finishing rider to make a final prediction after the submission deadline as a tiebreaker.

  7. Decisions by our judges are final.

  8. See the list below for the Strange Electoral College points by state.

 

Questions? Ask teamstrange@live.com

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