Vote Early and Often

Last week’s blog revealed that some of those voting in an online poll stuffed the ballot box. On Jan. 7, an article about Mission Viejo’s Rose Parade float appeared on the Or. Co. Register’s Website. A poll within the article asked readers to vote on what Mission Viejo gained from the float. The choices were: 1) Nothing but the bills, 2) A greater sense of community, and 3) An improved image and a higher profile.

Early on Jan. 7, category No. 1 had an overwhelming lead. By midday, votes began to pour in – hundreds in a short time – for choice No. 2. A second surge for choice No. 2 came at approximately 11 p.m. on Jan. 7. Readers observing the jumping numbers suspected one person was adding hundreds of tallies with automated votes. Another surge with hundreds of votes came late at night on Jan. 8 for choice No. 3. After the heightened voting activity totaling 1,100 votes, the ranking was 1) just the bills – 21 percent; 2) sense of community – 51 percent; 3) image – 28 percent.

The surges as well as the times of day pointed to automated voting. A reader posting as Leoisin challenged the process in reader comments below the article. OCR editor Ron Gonzales responded on Jan. 9, “Leosin: We've referred the question of whether there's any kind of automated voting to our Web team. If there's anything to report, I'll let you know.”

As of Jan. 17, Gonzales had posted no further comment. A blog staffer followed up with a phone call to ask about the findings. Gonzales responded that the Web team had checked into the allegation, but he said he wasn’t obligated to reveal anything.

If no automated voting had been found, would Gonzales not have contradicted allegations that one person changed the outcome?

OCR readers who enjoy participating in polls might not be aware they can vote hundreds of times if they’re willing to sit at a computer for hours to vote manually. They can also create a macro – a set of step-by-step commands – whereby a computer votes hundreds of times. Without tricking the voting mechanism in the OCR polls, those who have voted see only the totals with no chance to vote again.

Disclaimers often appear alongside polls, “This poll is not scientific,” indicating the voting mechanism is either not secured or respondents can vote numerous times. Most folks understand that such polls are primarily for amusement.

A further issue grew from the Register’s poll. On page 10 of the Jan. 16 Saddleback Valley News, an article (without attribution) states, “In a poll at www.ocregister.com/missionviejo , a majority of more than 1,100 respondents thought the float provided a greater sense of community and a higher profile. As of Tuesday, about a fifth said it did nothing.”

Readers had already challenged the credibility of the poll by alleging that a single person may have added hundreds of automated votes. The surges alone totaled more than 700 votes for choices 2 and 3. At least three people told blog staffers that they voted multiple times. Despite the Register’s claim, 1,100 votes did not comprise 1,100 “respondents.” A computer churning out votes is not a respondent.

In order to level the playing field, this blog is publishing information on how to bypass the Or. Co. Register’s voting mechanism. To use the manual process to vote multiple times: 1) vote in the online poll; 2) go to your computer’s Control Panel; 3) select Internet Options; 4) under Browsing History, click Delete; this will open a smaller window; 5) click Delete Cookies; it will ask Are you sure? Click Yes; 6) return to vote screen; 7) Refresh the screen; 8) vote again. By using these steps, someone wishing to vote numerous times will always get a new screen with choices instead of just the totals.

Is publishing the step-by-step process enabling abuse of the polls? Blog staffers assert that the Register enabled the abuse by not having a secured voting mechanism. This blog is exposing the abuse. Additionally, the Saddleback Valley News staff implied it was a scientific poll instead of revealing that some readers know how to vote multiple times.