The Winners of PJM's Election Contest

Drumroll, please …

With the news that the state of Missouri has now certified John McCain the winner of its presidential race, we can declare the winners of PJM’s Election Contest.

All told, we had 725 entries, which included some very interesting guesses. In the interest of not wanting to embarrass one of our editors, we won’t list those who ended up farthest away from the final tally. We will only say that our Chicago editor was under the undue influence of our Washington, D.C. editor and got a little overconfident about McCain’s chances. He probably should have know that McCain wouldn’t take Illinois — but he really thought the Arizona senator had a chance in Hawaii. So missing Obama’s total by 355 votes isn’t so bad, all things considered.

We do, however, have a winner. Reader Renee Arena was the only entrant who guessed Obama’s total of 365 electoral votes on the button. (PJTV’s Ian Schorvitz guessed 364 votes for Obama. Unfortunately, employees are not eligible to win prizes.) Renee will receive the grand prize: a Logitech Harmony One universal remote.

Runners-up are:

Mary Soares — 360
Margaret Iheme — 361
Derika Moses — 367
John Dittman — 368
Sarah Small — 369

Our runners-up will receive a lovely limited edition box set from Encounter Books.

Thanks to all for participating.