The Haunted Capitals Project: Voting Now Open!

Which city do you think is your state’s most haunted? That’s what the Haunted Capitals Project wants to find out.

It all started when I saw something from Destination Mansfield. They proclaimed themselves the Haunted Capital of Ohio. Columbus is Ohio’s state capital, but a haunted capital? That was intriguing.

The Objective

There are lots of lists that name what they think the most haunted cities are. Besides Mansfield, Ohio, however, I’m not sure I know of any that proclaim themselves most haunted in their state.

New Orleans, Savannah and Salem all own their titles as most haunted cities when places like Condé Nast Traveler and Travel Channel bestow that honor upon them and include them on their “most haunted” lists, but what do the residents think? Is there any list that lets people vote on what they think the most haunted city in each state is?

If not, there is now, because that’s what the Haunted Capitals Project is all about.

What Makes a City Most Haunted?

I’m forever wondering about all of the places, from hotels to houses and bars, that dub themselves “the most haunted.”

It’s actually pretty arrogant for something to label itself the most haunted, isn’t it? How did the management of the establishment come to that determination? What was their measurement? The amount of ghosts they have? Amount of social media likes? Amount of visitors? Amount of money they make from people coming to see them?

I’m seriously asking. If you know, use the Check-In below to leave a comment and tell me.

But self-designated most haunted city…that was a new one. How do you gauge that? Is it based on:

• How old or how much history a city has?
• How many murders have taken place there?
• How many Revolutionary War or Civil War battles were fought there?
• How many haunted places are within a certain radius?
• How many ghosts are rumored to haunt the area?
• How many people visit?
• How many paranormal investigators and/or teams are in that city?
• Creepiness factor?
• Some combo of all of the above?

Basically, how does something become the “most” haunted?

That’s really the million-dollar question, isn’t it?

A lot of places claim to be, and even a few cities contend they’re the “most haunted,” but at the end of the day, it’s all just an opinion. The Haunted Capitals Project wants yours!

How It Works

1. You visit the Haunted Capitals Project page: https://www.hauntjaunts.net/haunted-capitals-project/
2. Find your state’s poll.
3. Vote on which city you think is most haunted.
4. The Skeleton Crew compiles the results. (It’s really me. Those bunch of lazy bones don’t help much.)
5. Each year around Halloween I’ll announce which cities were voted that year’s Haunted Capitals of their states by the people of the Paranormal Republic of the Haunted States of America.

Easy peasy, right?

FAQs

Q: How are you defining most haunted? I’m confused.

A: We’re not defining it. You are. Yep. We’re leaving it up to you to decide which city strikes you as most haunted. However you decide to reach that decision, assess the parameters and make that determination is up to you. Have fun!

Q: The city I want is not on the list. What do I do?

A: Use the “Other” option in conjunction with the “Check-In” comments section to cast your ballot. Be sure to include not only the city but also the state so we know which state to credit. We can always add cities to the polls if they’re mentioned enough in the comments.

Q: Someone else already left a comment mentioning the city I was going to cast my ballot for. What do I do?

A: Feel free to leave a comment of your own too, or go ahead and like their comment. Either way that’ll let us know that city is one we need to add to the poll.

Q: I live in X now, but I used to live in Z. But I also have relatives in Y and am familiar with W too. Can I vote for more than one state?

A: Yes! You can only vote for one city per state, but you can cast a vote for all 50 states if you want to!

Help Get Out the Haunted Capitals Project Vote

Use the tag #HauntedCapitalsProject to share the Haunted Capitals Project state polls with your friends, family, and social media followers. Start a discussion and see which haunted city –or cities, if they’re that paranormally astute– that they’d vote for.

If you’re not into regular politics –or if you’re sick of it, along with all the COVID-19 insanity that’s dominating the news this year– this is something new and fun to talk about with friends and loved ones, right? (Or maybe not. That’s fine too. I am a little biased since I am orchestrating this experiment.)

But I would appreciate help spreading the word and getting votes because I am curious to see which cities people think are the most haunted in their states and if there are any close races or clear winners.

The ghosts of America thank you! (And so do I.)