How the Oscars Gets Out the Vote

Esther Zuckerman

It's been a rough year for Oscar voting, but it all comes to close at 5 p.m. PST on Tuesday, the Academy's official deadline for ballots, whether electronic or paper. This has been the first year the Academy has let its members vote online, and as expected there have been some snags. Now, in the final hours of voting, Pete Hammond of Deadline reports the Academy has warned its members not to wait too much longer, lest they run into technical difficulties. "Although the deadline for voting is 5 pm PT on Tuesday," read an Academy email sent on Friday, "be advised that it can take up to two hours to reset your password if you do not have it. For that reason, we strongly advise against waiting until the last minute to vote." 

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That said, Hammond wrote that online voting seems to be working better: "It seems to be going much smoother than the first round, although with the security precautions it still is a complex system." Those who are voting the old-fashioned way should have mailed in their ballots already. That, or they need to hand deliver their ballots. 

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Per Hammond, the Academy has been doing their darndest to make sure everyone votes. Voters have gotten personal calls, robocalls, and emails with "Important message from Academy members Halle Berry, Bill Condon, Tom Hanks and Jason Reitman." Do it for Tom Hanks, if no one else, Academy members. 

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And Academy members also had to be reminded who to vote for. The Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday that Hollywood execs are saying this is the "costliest campaign on record" with Argo, now looking like a sure thing, and Lincoln each spending about $10 million. Over at The Wrap Steve Pond took a look at what some of these last minute campaigns look like. Here, via Awards Daily is an Argo Variety cover from Valentine's Day. According to Pond the campaign's message is "We're the winner." 

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