UPDATE: It’s been a rough 12 hours from me. The editor of the Fremont Bulletin just informed me that voting has ended even though the ballot is still available online. Ugh.

It’s time again for the Fremont Bulletin’s Best of Fremont balloting. This is a way of buttering up advertisers that unfortunately provides further evidence that a lot of folks in these parts have a yen for chain stores. Last year, Costco, McDonalds, Starbucks and P.F. Changs outpolled most local eateries.

For more grumblings on those results, click here.

Also last year, Fremont Councilman Bob Wieckowski won for Best Politician. I can’t say whether there was an organized effort to get out the vote for him, but apparently politicians do take this seriously.

Wieckowski is running against Ohlone Gollege Trustee Garrett Yee for State Assembly this June, and one Yee supporter told me he/she got an email asking him/her to vote for Yee in the Bulletin’s poll. It’s probably a safe bet that one of them is going to get the accolade alongside other Fremont institutions like Olive Garden and Chipotle.

So who will it be? Not sure why, but it reminds me of the Simpsons soccer spoof: Mexico or Portugal: