WHO YA GOT ★

About Who Ya Got

In honor of 250 years: America, ranked by everyone

There is nothing Americans love more than sitting around naming figures. Buzz Aldrin or Chris Tucker. Dolly Parton or Teddy Roosevelt. There is no criteria and there never will be — that's the game.

Every matchup is a ballot. Every ballot moves an Elo rating, the system chess uses to rank grandmasters. Out of millions of gut calls comes the Ladder: America, ranked by everyone.

No accounts, no tracking beyond an anonymous ballot cookie. Rankings are collective and permanent. Your own picks live at Your Ballot.

The Daily Ballot

Every day opens with a ballot the whole country shares — the same ten matchups, in the same order, for everyone who plays. The first nine are a wide draw across the cast: presidents beside outlaws, astronauts beside athletes, whoever fate pairs up.

The tenth is the heavyweight bout — a headline clash between two of the top fifty on the Ladder. One marquee name against another, same for the whole room.

Cast all ten and you're into free play — endless random matchups that still move the rankings. When a new day's ballot rolls in, you can look back at exactly how everyone voted on the one before.

Portrait credits

All portraits are sourced from Wikimedia Commons and used under their respective licenses.