::UPDATE: The winner is…::

Congrats to Scott Lohse, who got 44 percent of the more than 1,000 votes in our contest! We’ll post more details about Scott when I get them. And thank you all for participating and voting.

* * * * * *

Friends:

Several weeks ago, we announced a contest in Talk of the Day inviting readers to submit their plans for how they’d use their five minutes with a candidate, if they got the chance. Read more here about the details of the contest, rules and whatnot.

Here, we’re linking to the five contest finalists and, below, you’ll have the chance to vote on which one you thought was the winning entry.

Sally Grosswasser: Deregulation with no “value added” creates a layer of brokers who profit, don’t share the risk and don’t enhance the outcome. Not only finance but energy, agriculture, meat processing, transportation, news media and other industries are at stake. Will you continue this Republican trend or finally reverse it?

Marc Haynes: You have decided to run for President of the United States. I have been granted five minutes to express my opinion and ask you your thoughts on it. I will do this by covering specific subjects separately.

Scott Lohse: My general dialogue with you, if I got the opportunity to have one, would have to do with inquiring about your opinion of what religion adds to public discourse.

Donald Miller: An online Powerpoint presentation - “Provide at least one SPECIFIC component of your plan and offer one POTENTIAL drawback to it also.”

John Moynihan: In my observation we are living in difficult, frustrating times. I don’t claim these days are any worse than troubled eras of the past. I do know that there have been better times during my lifetime.

VOTE BELOW FOR THE ENTRY YOU LIKED BEST