Today, January 23, 2023, the election to choose the names of the Streets and Engineering Division’s plowing vehicles begins on the Wisconsin Salt Wise webpage.

The election will be available from January 23 until February 3, 2023 at 8:00pm.

The opening of the election corresponds with Wisconsin Salt Awareness Week, where you can learn more about the deleterious effects salt has on our waterways and infrastructure, and ways to limit your salt use in your
winter maintenance.

The Candidates
Over 1,200 names were submitted for consideration and the suggestions were excellent across the board. 

The decision to narrow the lists down to the finalist candidates was so difficult in fact we decided to have 15 finalists for each snow removal vehicle vehicle instead of the originally planned ten.  (Edit: The brine truck actually has 16 name options.)

The candidate names for each vehicle were selected by Streets and Engineering Division staff.

The finalists are as follows:

Quad-Axle Brine Truck

• Snowdium Clearride
• Saline Away
• Brinestone Cowboy
• KeaNo Freeze
• Albert Brinestein
• Barbara Salters
• Pavement Pickler
• LaBrine James
• Sweet Carolbrine
• Haline Dugan, PhD
• Saltimus Prime
• Brine of Tarth
• Eb-brine-eezer Scrooge
• Deputy Briney Fife
• Brine Cranston
• Master of Brine Arts

Double-Wing Plow Truck

• Dual-wing Banjos
• Dolly Plowton
• Blizzo
• Plowie Walnuts
• Pushy McDriftyflakes
• Willem DePlow
• Snowsferatu
• Justin Timberflake
• Kung Plow Chicken
• Winged Victory
• Bring Da Truckus
• Drifity Do Dah
• Robert Plowney, Jr
• Wing Crosby
• A Plow Me to Introduce Myself

Loader with Plow & Wing

• Giannis Intent-to-Scoop-Snow
• Slyvester Snowlone
• Scoopy Doo
• The Shovin' Scoopful
• Flakemingo
• KaPlow
• Jean-Luc Plowcard
• Mustard Sidewinder
• JD Plower & Associates
• Speed-the-Plow
• Plowedly Whitford
• Brrrrt Reynolds
• Cindy Plowford
• Fighting Bob La-PlowIt
• Seymour Pavement

Trackless MT7 Bike Path Plow

• Polar Troll
• Icecycle
• Plowdy Doody
• Slush-a-bye, Baby
• Snowbi Wan Kenobi
• Aldo Leocold
• Plowaton
• Pennyfarthing McChuckalot
• Spokes’man
• Peddle Plower
• Cycle-Ops
• Clyde Shovelfield
• Claire DeWay
• Snow Pesci
• Austin Plowers

 
The Election
This will be a ranked choice election.  You will rank your top five choices from the names available for each piece of equipment.

While it is beneficial to choose your top five from the available choices, you can decide to vote for fewer candidates if you prefer.

The candidate that receives a majority support by the close of the election will be the winner.

Here’s how ranked choice works to find which candidate receives a majority.

The first step is to count up all of the first choice votes each name receives. If a candidate receives a majority of the votes in this phase, the election is over and that candidate has won. And to be clear, a “majority” is one more than half of the total votes cast.  For example, if 20 ballots are cast, a majority would need to be 11 votes.

If no candidate receives a majority from counting the first choice votes, then the ranked choice counting begins.

The candidate with the lowest first place vote totals is eliminated.  The votes from the eliminated candidate are then moved to the next ranked choice on those ballots.  Then this process repeats itself until one candidate has received a majority of the votes.

For further explanations, there are many helpful videos that show how ranked choice works to determine who received a majority support.  Minnesota Public Radio and the New York City Board of Elections are two examples that provide a clear, visual, and brief explanations of this process, as does the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

About Wisconsin Salt Wise
Wisconsin Salt Wise is a coalition of several organizations with the goal to reduce salt pollution in our water. Their website has numerous resources for both homeowners and winter maintenance professions to be sure you are using salt correctly in the winter months. Their web address is www.wisaltwise.com .

Additional Information
More information about City of Madison winter operations can be found at www.cityofmadison.com/Winter.