June 28, 2016 10:17 AM UTC

Jon Keyser: A Hyperlink Metaphor

• 6 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: The link in question in the Keyser email has been broken since at least Monday, when a similar GOTV email was sent out.

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We’ve been increasingly amused over the last few days by last-minute get-out-the-vote missives from the star-crossed Jon Keyser for U.S. Senate campaign. As Keyser gets ready to ride Election Night out on the couch at home this evening, on course for fifth place in this five-man race, whatever is left of his campaign is busy sending out bizarrely confident messages to the email list about Keyser’s imminent primary election victory.

See the image to the right for the best analogy we can think of.

Today’s GOTV message was little different, cheering Keyser on to glorious victory in November after his win tonight:

We’re going to give Michael Bennet the fight of his political life this November, but we need your help getting over this first hurdle.

It’s time Michael Bennet be made to answer for his support for President Obama’s dangerous policies, like closing Guantanamo Bay and setting up a nuclear Iran with their “deal.”

It’s time Michael Bennet be made to answer for his support for Obamacare. He should have an answer on the impacts Obamacare has had in our state—forcing people out of the plans they like and making them pay even higher premiums.

I’m ready to take the fight to the Democrats this November, and I hope you are too. It starts now—please vote today!

But from there, things get a little technically…well, screwy:

If you have your ballot but haven’t sent it in, don’t put it in the mail – – there are ballot drop off locations all over the state.

When you click the link to get your ballot dropoff location, you’re taken to a blank white page with these two words (go ahead, try it):

Playing around with this, we realized that Keyser’s campaign was trying to link to JustVoteColorado.org, the voter information site run by Common Cause. The trouble is, their email software attached a long “tracking code” to the link that Common Cause’s website rejects with the above message.

In Jon Keyser’s particular case, an ironic, even tragicomic message.

For what might be the last message from Keyser’s once-promising campaign before his ignominious defeat this evening, it’s an unintended metaphor like few others we’ve seen in politics.

Nice try indeed, Jon Keyser. Nice try indeed.