The E Pluribus Hugo system had several goals. One goal was to dampen the influence of bloc voting. A second goal was to create a system that presented a nominating voter with a means of voting that was substantially similar to the one that voter had under the old system. The third was to create a system that would return results that were as close as possible to those that the old system did in a year in which there was no bloc voting. To test this third goal, the system was used on the 2014 Hugo ballots, which was a year in which there was a Sad Puppy campaign, but no slate in any meaningful sense, and therefore no real bloc voting.
An ideal result would be that using E Pluribus Hugo would result in no changes to the final ballot. Applying the new voting system to the 2014 nominations doesn't yield an ideal result, although they are close. Three categories see their finalists change under the new system, with one finalist changing in one, and two changing in two others - although the changes in the latter two categories are mostly the result of the new system's antipathy towards tie results. Out of seventy-six finalists on the 2014 Hugo ballot, seventy-one are unchanged under the E Pluribus Hugo system, meaning that ninety-three percent of the results are the same under both systems. Given that the perfect is often the enemy of the good, this seems to me like an acceptable volume of change.
Best Novel
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Neptune’s Brood by Charles Stross
Parasite by Mira Grant
Warbound by Larry Correia
The Wheel of Time (The Eye of the World, The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn, The Shadow Rising, The Fires of Heaven, Lord of Chaos, A Crown of Swords, The Path of Daggers, Winter's Heart, Crossroads of Twilight, Knife of Dreams, The Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight, and A Memory of Light) by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
Removed Finalists:
None
Added Finalists:
None
Notes: E Pluribus Hugo results in no changes to this category.
Best Novella
The Butcher of Khardov by Dan Wells
The Chaplain’s Legacy by Brad R. Torgersen
Equoid by Charles Stross
Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. ValenteWakulla Springs by Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages
Removed Finalists:
None
Added Finalists:
None
Notes: E Pluribus Hugo results in no changes to this category.
Best Novelette
The Exchange Officers by Brad R. Torgersen (reviewed in 2014 Hugo Voting - Best Novelette)
The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal (reviewed in 2014 Hugo Voting - Best Novelette)
Opera Vita Aeterna by Theodore Beale (reviewed in 2014 Hugo Voting - Best Novelette)
The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling by Ted Chiang (reviewed in 2014 Hugo Voting - Best Novelette)
The Waiting Stars by Aliette de Bodard (reviewed in 2014 Hugo Voting - Best Novelette)
Removed Finalists:
None
Added Finalists:
None
Notes: E Pluribus Hugo results in no changes to this category.
Best Short Story
If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love by Rachel Swirsky (reviewed in 2014 Hugo Voting - Best Short Story)
The Ink Readers of Doi Saket by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (reviewed in 2014 Hugo Voting - Best Short Story)
Selkie Stories Are for Losers by Sofia Samatar (reviewed in 2014 Hugo Voting - Best Short Story)
The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere by John Chu (reviewed in 2014 Hugo Voting - Best Short Story)
Removed Finalists:
None
Added Finalists:
None
Notes: E Pluribus Hugo results in no changes to this category.
Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Work
Queers Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the LGBTQ Fans Who Love It edited by Sigrid Ellis and Michael Damian Thomas
Speculative Fiction 2012: The Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary edited by Justin Landon and Jared Shurin
We Have Always Fought: Challenging the Women, Cattle and Slaves Narrative by Kameron Hurley
Writing Excuses, Season 8 by Mary Robinette Kowal, Brandon Sanderson, Jordan Sanderson, Howard Tayler, and Dan Wells
Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff VanderMeer with Jeremy Zerfoss
Removed Finalists:
None
Added Finalists:
None
Notes: E Pluribus Hugo results in no changes to this category.
Best Graphic Story
Girl Genius, Volume 13: Agatha Heterodyne & The Sleeping City by Phil Foglio and Kaja Foglio
The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who by Paul Cornell, art by Jimmy Broxton
The Meathouse Man adapted and illustrated by Raya Golden from the story by George R.R. Martin
Saga, Volume 2 by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Fiona StaplesTime by Randall Munroe
Removed Finalists:
None
Added Finalists:
None
Notes: E Pluribus Hugo results in no changes to this category.
Best Professional Editor: Short Form
John Joseph Adams
Neil Clarke
Ellen Datlow
Jonathan Strahan
Removed Finalists:
Sheila Williams
Added Finalists:
Bryan Thomas Schmidt
Notes: Applying E Pluribus Hugo to this category results in one change, removing Sheila Williams from the list of finalists and replacing her with Bryan Thomas Schmidt. This seems to me like a relatively minor alteration, and one that can be reasonably accepted as a side effect of changing the voting system.
Best Professional Editor: Long Form
Ginjer Buchanan
Sheila Gilbert
Liz Gorinsky
Lee Harris
Toni Weisskopf
Removed Finalists:
None
Added Finalists:
None
Notes: E Pluribus Hugo results in no changes to this category.
Best Professional Artist
Julie Dillon
Daniel Dos Santos
John Harris
John Picacio
Removed Finalists:
Galen Dara
Fiona Staples
Added Finalists:
Joey Hi-Fi
Notes: In the Best Professional Artist category, the application of E Pluribus Hugo results in two finalists dropping from the ballot and being replaced with one. In reality, this is only one change - Fiona Staples is pushed off of the list of finalists because E Pluribus Hugo makes ties much rarer, and as a result, there will be fewer ties for fifth place necessitating an expansion of the finalists in a category to accommodate those tied finalists.
The other change engendered by E Pluribus Hugo moves Galen Dara off of the final ballot, and replaces her with Joey Hi-Fi. In the original voting, Dara had 50 nominations, while Joey Hi-Fi had 48. This kind of switch is likely to happen every now and then under E Pluribus Hugo, especially when the difference between the number of nominators is as close as these two were. I will note at this point that we won't know what the vote "would" have been under the old system after the new one is implemented, so we won't know what the vote "should" have been. We will just have the list of finalists as voted upon by the eligible voters.
Best Semi-Prozine
Apex Magazine edited by Jason Sizemore, Lynne M. Thomas, and Michael Damian Thomas
Beneath Ceaseless Skies edited by Scott H. AndrewsInterzone edited by Andy Cox
Lightspeed John Joseph Adams, Rich Horton, and Stefan Rudnicki
Strange Horizons edited by Rebecca Cross, Shane Gavin, Niall Harrison, Anaea Lay, Brit Mandelo, Abigail Nussbaum, An Owomoyela, Julia Rios, and Sonya Taaffe
Removed Finalists:
None
Added Finalists:
None
Notes: E Pluribus Hugo results in no changes to this category.
Best Fanzine
The Book Smugglers edited by Ana Grilo and Thea James
A Dribble of Ink edited by Aidan Moher
Elitist Book Reviews edited by Steven Diamond
Journey Planet edited by James Bacon, Christopher J. Garcia, Colin Harris, Helen J. Montgomery, Lynda E. Rucker, and Pete Young
Pornokitsch edited by Anne C. Perry and Jared ShurinRemoved Finalists:
None
Added Finalists:
None
Notes: E Pluribus Hugo results in no changes to this category.
Best Fan Writer
Liz Bourke
Foz Meadows
Abigail Nussbaum
Mark Oshiro
Removed Finalists:
None
Added Finalists:
None
Notes: E Pluribus Hugo results in no changes to this category.
Best Fan Artist
Brad W. Foster
Mandie Manzano
Spring Schoenhuth
Steve Stiles
Sarah Webb
Removed Finalists:
None
Added Finalists:
None
Notes: E Pluribus Hugo results in no changes to this category.
Best Fancast
The Coode Street Podcast by Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe
Doctor Who: Verity! by Erika Ensign, Katrina Griffiths, L.M. Myles, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Deborah Stanish, and Lynne M. Thomas
Galactic Suburbia Podcast by Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, and Tansy Rayner Roberts; produced by Andrew Finch
The Skiffy and Fanty Show by David Annadale, Shaun Duke, Stina Leicht, Julia Rios, Mike Underwood, Paul Weimer, and Jen Zink
Tea and Jeopardy by Emma Newman and Peter NewmanRemoved Finalists:
SF Signal Podcast by Patrick Hester
The Writer and the Critic by Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond
Added Finalists:
None
Notes: The changes wrought by E Pluribus Hugo in the Best Fancast category aren't really changes due to moving some nominees up to the list of finalists and removing others, but are rather the result of the fact that ties are exceedingly rare under the new system. SF Signal Podcast, The Writer and the Critic, and Tea and Jeopardy all tied for fifth place under the old nominating system, and as a result, the category had seven finalists in 2014. Under the new system, there is no tie and both SF Signal Podcast and The Writer and the Critic fall below the cut off, and the category has only five finalists.
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
Wesley Chu
Max Gladstone
Ramez Naam
Sofia Samatar
Benjanun Sriduangaew
Removed Finalists:
None
Added Finalists:
None
Notes: E Pluribus Hugo results in no changes to this category.
What Are the Hugo Awards?
Go to the 2014 list of Hugo finalists: 2014
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