New Jersey! George Washinton! Continential Army! Your Winner!

The final vote was 16-10. Thanks to everyone for voting. See the recap at our Quarter Battle page.

On my left, representing the Last Frontier of Alaska and the Western Conference, standing in at seven feet tall and weighing in at over 400 pounds, it’s a Bear!

On my right, representing the Garden State of New Jersey and the Eastern Conference, standing in at six feet two and a half inches and weighing in at 200 pounds, it’s George Washington accompanied by his Continental Army!

Finals – Alaska vs. New Jersey
	VS.

Let’s take a look how they got here:

Alaska
def. Idaho (Peregrine Falcon) 7-4
def. Wisconsin (Cow, Cheese, Corn) 4-2
def. Hawaii (King Kamehameha I) 12-9

New Jersey
def. North Carolina (Wright Brothers Airplane) 7-5
def. Pennsylvania (Commonwealth Statue) 5-3
def. Florida (Spanish Galleon and Space Shuttle) 12-9

And some fast facts about each of our competitors:

Alaska’s Bear

• Bears use a patchwork of habitats through the year, concentrating on different food sources as they come into season.
• They are omnivores. They eat plants like skunk cabbage, grasses, berries, acorns and nuts. They also eat bees, ants, termites, a variety of small to medium sized animals, and dead animals. Bears will also eat garbage.
• Although bears have poor eyesight, they have exceptionally good senses of smell and hearing.
• Alaska has more than 98 percent of the U.S. population of brown bears. Biologists estimate there are about 30,000 of these big bruins in Alaska.
• Bears are typically solitary creatures and usually avoid the company of other bears.

New Jersey’s George Washington

• Although he helped plan the nation’s new capital city that was named for him, he never lived there. New York City and, later, Philadelphia were the nation’s capitals while he was president.
• Toothaches bothered him for years. When he was 57, he had all his teeth pulled. From then on, he wore ivory false teeth set in a silver plate.
• Laid the cornerstone for the U.S. Capitol building in the District of Columbia.
• He was the only president to win a unanimous vote of the Electoral College.
• Washington’s 2nd inaugural address was the shortest ever delivered – 135 words.

And now, it’s time for you to decide the ultimate question: Which State Quarter Would Win In A Fight?

Voting is taking place until December 28th at 9pm EST.

No hype, no comments, just the quarters and the polls.  You can vote on both the East and West right now.  Polls close at 9pm EST on December 17th.

West Final – #1 Alaska vs. #6 Hawaii
	VS.
East Final – #1 New Jersey vs. #3 Florida
	VS.

…

Because they’ve tied, we’re going to have a run-off for 24 hours.  Polls will close at 9pm EST on December 11th.

VS.

Without any further ado, today’s matchup:

#2 Massachusetts vs #3 Florida – Eastern Conference
Massachusetts			Florida
	1788	Year Admitted	1845
	Minuteman	What’s on the Quarter	Spanish Galleon and Space Shuttle
	The first U.S.Postal zip code in Massachusetts is 01001 at Agawam.	State Fun Fact	Key West has the highest average temperature in the United States.
	Orange Blossom	State Flower	Trailing-Arbutus
	Mass Trooper Gives Ticket to Woman in Labor	State In The News	Sea Cow Rescue in Florida

And now onto the voting:

Without any further ado, today’s matchup:

#1 New Jersey vs #5 Pennsylvania – Eastern Conference
New Jersey			Pennsylvania
	1787	Year Admitted	1787
	George Washington and the Continental Army	What’s on the Quarter	Commonwealth Statue Representing Justice
	The first intercollegiate football game was played in New Brunswick, in 1869. Rutgers beat Princeton, 6 to 4.	State Fun Fact	Little League Baseball’s first World Series was held in 1946 in Williamsport.
	Violet	State Flower	Mountain Laurel
	New Jersey Woman Gets Stuck In Toilet, Sues	State In The News	Bear Attacks PA Hunter

And now onto the voting:

Without any further ado, today’s matchup:

And now onto the voting:

Without any further ado, today’s matchup:

And now onto the voting:

Now that the Shiny Sixteen battles are complete, we are moving on to our final eight competitors.

Here’s the current bracket:

And here’s the lineup for the Elite Eight battles:

West
#1 Alaska vs. #4 Wisconsin (12/06/08 9pm EST)
#6 Hawaii vs. #7 Colorado (12/07/08 9pm EST)

East
#1 New Jersey vs. #5 Pennsylvania (12/08/08 9pm EST)
#3 Florida vs. #2 Massachusetts (12/09/08 9pm EST)

One thing of note:  I’m looking at the poll results of Massachusetts vs. Ohio, and it is saying that there is a 2-2 tie.  However, I logged into the control console of my polling software, PollDaddy, and I see that Massachusetts won 3-2.  Here’s a screenshot:

Therefore, I am giving Massachusetts the win.

Complaints can be writen to your local senator.  Meanwhile, I’m writing a complaint to PollDaddy.

Without any further ado, today’s matchup:

And now onto the voting: