Poll respondents overwhelm site (FreeRepublic vs DailyKos on Sheehan poll)

[sabra]

http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_2965679

Poll respondents overwhelm site

Web logs implore readers to vote again and again about Sheehan vigil
By DAVID HENSON, The Reporter, Vacaville

An online opinion poll by The Reporter over the weekend regarding Cindy Sheehan's high-profile anti-war protest went awry after at least two battling Web logs implored their readers to vote multiple times to skew the results.
A Times-Herald online poll also received similar attention from Web logs, or blogs.

On a Web site that typically receives only 12,000 visits a day, thereporter.com poll garnered around 93,156 votes - a number just shy of Vacaville's total 2004 estimated population of 94,303.

....

In the end, 54,572, or 59 percent, of the votes cast supported Sheehan, while 21,799, or 23 percent, of the votes opposed her protest. The remaining 18 percent were neutral on both her and the war.


On the right-leaning FreeRepublic.com blog, one reader posted instructions on how to bypass the one-vote, one-computer system.

....

In apparent response, readers on the left-wing Daily Kos asked others to swing the vote back in favor of Sheehan.

The article indicates that pro Cindy votes got the majority @ 59%.

* note: me thinks DU had a role in this too! :-)

[Rockholm]

1. Left Wing vs Right Leaning?

Call a spade a friggin' spade...FR is RIGHT WING. Jeez.

[Mairead]

6. And KOS is merely left-leaning. But that's rightwing reportage for ya. (n

[KansDem]

19. We need a poll!!! "Left/right wing" vs. "Left/right leaning."

;)

[obreaslan]

32. My thoughts exactly...

Calling FR right-leaning is like calling molten lava tepid. :grr:

Sometimes the MSM amazes me. FR is Right-Wing Radical at best. if they need a reference, this is right-leaning...

[IA_Seth]

39. "Calling molten lava tepid"

That line cracked me up!

[louis-t]

2. So there is hope that even when freepers cheat....

normal, sensible, logical people with real, normal sized brains and America's best interests in mind can still win?

[CottonBear]

7. We have strength in numbers. n/t

[no_to_war_economy]

3. we should definitely cheat on these polls, vote multiple times

this isn't a ballot box people, it is a stupid online poll, cheat cheat and cheat again

[Kelvin Mace]

11. Uh, no, we shouldn't

Never become your enemy. We should fight, and fight hard. But cheat? Leave that to the scum freepers. Notice we are still winning even with them cheating.

[kansasblue]

18. one person, one vote.

Kevin is right.

[rodeodance]

22. we do not win by being good--the REpugs have shown us that.

[Arugula Latte]

29. Amen.

Plus, it's significant that these polls a few years ago almost always skewed toward the right-wing answer. We've shown we've got power on the Internet now.

[calimary]

33. Amen, amen.

Nice guys finish last. Just ask Al Gore and John Kerry. YES, I know, before you flame me, Gore did actually win. It can also be argued that Kerry did, too (I refuse to believe he lost outright, when you consider the colossally large numbers of incidents of voter fraud, not just in Ohio, either, but in Florida and elsewhere). But they surrounded themselves with other nice guys who refused to fight for them, and fight HARD, and yes, fight DIRTY. To send Warren Christopher up against jim "The Fixer" baker in 2000 was tantamount to sending a newborn kitten out against a ravenous tiger.

We don't get ANYWHERE by being nice, and capitulating, and appeasing, and intoning over and over again about how we agree with our opponents or that our opponents do make a good point. NOWHERE. NOWHERE. NOWHERE.

NOWHERE.

[Zenlitened]

46. Agreed. These polls should be slammed so hard that "news" sites...

... will stop running them. They're garbage, and they're seeping into newscasts way too often.

[existentialist]

4. Doonesbury poll

There's a similar poll just started at the Doonesbury site this morning.

[Barrett808]

13. Link to Doonesbury poll on Slate

http://cgi.doonesbury.com/cgi-bin/view_poll.cgi

[rodeodance]

23. nice grafics

[Barrett808]

24. Currently 74% pro-Cindy (378 votes)

A. Leader. It took a bereaved mom to stand up to the avoider-in-chief. If he'd just given her his ear and a hug, we wouldn't still be trying to have this long-overdue conversation. Thanks for making another bad choice, Dubya.

B. Dupe. Destroying her family, dishonoring her son, encouraging his enemies – it's hard to overstate how badly she's been used and misled. And not by the president, by her so-called allies.

C. Placeholder. Offering herself as a mid-summer lightning rod, she's created a self-sustaining "story", allowing reporters, like Dubya, to "get on with their lives" for most of August. Your sacrifice is appreciated.

[mom cat]

34. I only voted once....today!

[Barrett808]

36. I admit: I voted once from home and once from work.

But that's a long way from hacking cookies to vote dozens of times, freeper-style.

[IA_Seth]

41. I love voting as a Republican for Sheehan for those... n/t

[ClusterFreak]

5. This sounds about right.....

"On the right-leaning FreeRepublic.com blog, one reader posted instructions on how to bypass the one-vote, one-computer system."

...these people are always at the forefront of electoral fraud, so....

[CottonBear]

8. We should point that out over and over again!

They're experts at election fraud!

[Toots]

9. Very misleading story

freepers give advice on how to cheat the polling but Liberals just ask that you vote and get others to vote. I never saw anywhere on daily KOS that said to vote more than once or gave instructions on how to do so. Only from the right wing sites do those instructions appear.

[sabra]

10. I have seen references on DU.... but it's very rare that it's encouraged.

Usually it's just get people aware of the poll, to vote, and relay to others.

peace.

[Kelvin Mace]

12. I just discouraged someone on this thread.

We should NEVER condone or encourage cheating.

[Rose Siding]

15. At least the Kos site citation doesn't indicate requests for multiples

You'd think they'd at least have shown the best "evidence" in the article.

[cally]

14. So, we won!

Just get rid of the biased online polls. Get a clue media. It's easy to fix them.

[habitual]

16. funny FR openly supports vote rigging

does it need to be any more plain???

[Terran]

25. You see that here sometimes...

People suggesting multiple voting in on-line polls is a good idea. I try to smack that down every time--I will NOT have this site associated with unethical behavior like that, even if these on-line polls don't really mean anything.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

42. I do, too, Terran

Voting in online polls is fine, but I will not delete my cookies, nor will I write any scripts (not that I know how) to vote multiple times.
If someone has a link to any Freerepublic.com post where they're encouraging that behavior on an online poll, I encourage them to e-mail the website and inform them that their online poll is being unfairly skewed. (Of course, it's an online poll, but still...)

[Terran]

45. Wow, nice avatar!

HKC, I think that's been done at least once--DUers have notified a web site that their poll was being freeped (may have been MSNBC) and the poll got pulled. As I recall it caused quite a public stink.

[zbdent]

17. Interesting verbage

"Web logs implore readers to vote again and again"

Then:

"On the right-leaning FreeRepublic.com blog, one reader posted instructions on how to bypass the one-vote, one-computer system."

Lumping the left with the tactics of the right, we just implore people to vote.

There's a sure sign of bias - making sure the image is that we're employing the exact same tactics as the freeptards . . .

[johnfunk]

20. Bottom line: Here's the NEW online poll math

"FReep this poll!" + DU rapid response = "FReep and LOSE this poll!"

[rodeodance]

21. I voted when the The Reporter (CA) had over 70% for Cindy-before it

started to get freeped.

[geckosfeet]

26. When these polls are so obviously manipulated, how are we

supposed to interpret the results?

Is it more of a reflection on readership, hits on the web log, reader responsiveness, mobilization effectiveness?

I see this all the time on DU and am sure similar activities take place on freeper sites (which I avoid). So what does this mean for the poll results?

In part, it turns them into some kind of mobilization contest. Which may be an interesting and useful measure in itself but it turns the original intent of the poll on its side if not on its head.

Because of multiple votes, networks of voter mobilization, and wide online access I consider the results of these polls with measured doubt.

What we need to do (in a legal way) is start applying these poll skewing techniques to local, state and national elections. I think the freeps and pugs are several steps ahead there.

[Stuckinthebush]

27. Web polls are the most idiotic things

Why would any news organization use them anymore? They have absolutely no credibility, they are not scientific, and therefore, the results are crap.

I am amazed when I see CNN or MSNBC even mention their stupid web polls. They mean nothing. But of course, they don't care about integrity.

[soup]

31. Yep.

They run a disclaimer that the poll isn't scientific, then report the results anyway.

I remember one from 2000, somewhere between the election and the selection asking if Gore should concede. The vote was something along the lines of 90% Yes, he should concede. At the time I was flat-out dumbstruck and wondered how I could be so far out of what I thought was the 'mainstream'.

[expatriot]

35. the only reason webpolls mean anything is... as you pointed out...

They ARE reported on. If they stopped reporting on them (as they should, you are right) then they would be utterly useless to us.

[Stuckinthebush]

43. Agreed

but they are still idiotic. But you are right, as long as the MSM reports them, than the gullible public will hear them and believe them, and they may change their views because 98.9% of the people responding in a web poll said George Bush is the next best thing to God.

[DS1]

28. It just shows how childish and irrelevant this online voting crap is

:shrug:

[defiant1]

30. Exactly....

Hit the nail square on the head.

[Endangered Specie]

37. This whole thing strikes me as childish sometimes.

[rocktivity]

38. I think this reporter needs to hear from us

[e-mail]

On the right-leaning FreeRepublic.com blog, one reader posted instructions on how to bypass the one-vote, one-computer system.

"I voted a few hundred times..." the posting reader wrote. "...Edit your security settings to refuse cookies...You will continue to get the 'vote' box without seeing the poll results."

In apparent response, readers on the left-wing Daily Kos asked others to swing the vote back in favor of Sheehan.

"A little while ago, the proportions were reversed," one wrote. "Let's use our power to fix that."

Aside from the "right-leaning/left-wing" comparision, I don't see in the article where anyone at Kos encouraged or instructed anyone to cheat. And the reporter has the nerve to complain that WE aren't being fair and balanced???

:headbang:
rocknation

[genieroze]

40. If they think they are so right, why cheat? They know they are going down

the country is putting down the Kool-Aid.

[AnnInLa]

44. Even if you only vote in polls ONCE....don't click on the link from DU

Copy and paste the link into your browser...it is not necessary to open a new browser window. Hundreds of votes coming from DU could cause them to be discounted, and if you click the link from here, they can tell you came from DU to vote.

All this info from another DUer....I forgot his name....are you out there????