Virtual election cheaters ruin fun of online poll

Frontiesman editorial board

The calls and e-mails poured into the Frontiersman offices last week. "What's going on with your online poll?" "Hey, did you know something's wrong with your online poll?" "You may not be aware of this, but someone's trying to cheat on your online poll."

Yes, we knew.

It's important to first point out that the Frontiersman online poll is for entertainment purposes only. It is not scientific. Legislators do not write law based upon the results of the Frontiersman online poll. In fact, the poll does not accurately reflect public opinion, let alone alter public opinion. That said …

Someone in our virtual readership apparently took exception to last week's question, "Should Sen. Scott Ogan be recalled from office?" Our poll is protected by a simple security measure that is supposed to discourage people from voting twice -- because we believe the democratic process works better when everyone votes once -- and only once. Our disgruntled online ballot-box stuffers figured out that by eliminating the cookies from their computers, they could vote over and over again in our poll.

That's right, we're telling you how to beat the system. That's because we figure if you're the sort of person who likes to stuff virtual ballot boxes, we'd rather have you stuck in front of your computer than attending public meetings where you might do some real damage. The sad thing is that these ballot stuffers ruined the fun for the vast majority of our virtual readers, who understand that the poll is just a fun way to get a sense of which way the breeze of public sentiment is blowing, and nothing more.

One particular Frontiersman surfer, with a speakeasy.net account, voted at least 118 times in one day. He or she was apparently opposed to the notion of recalling Ogan. It's a good thing the state polling precincts are not cookie-driven, or this person might single-handedly put Ogan in the Oval Office.

Of course, the Frontiersman has no opinion whether or not Ogan should be recalled, or whether or not he should be in the Oval office, for that matter. Further, the recall process is already in motion, in spite of the 141-percent "no" vote on the Frontiersman poll. What we're saying is, please just vote once when you visit our site, and spend the rest of your time with friends and family.