Republican Candidate Supporters Cheat Polls/Digg.com
As much as it pains me to say this, several of the Republican candidates for President have a following that is playing downright dirty across the web. In fact, they’re flat out cheating, and we’ve caught them red handed.
What candidates have these cheating fan clubs? So far, we’ve been able to pinpoint large groups of cheaters who support Ron Paul, Tom Tancredo, and Newt Gingrich. Granted, we can’t start pointing fingers at the candidates themselves, because we have no way of knowing if they are indeed involved. My guess is that they aren’t. But we should certainly contact them and let them know we think they should condemn such actions.
The first group we’ll talk about is the Ron Paul “cyber following”. This group has been very aggressive over the past few weeks. They’ve slammed social bookmarking giant Digg.com with brand new accounts that were set up for one purpose… manipulating Digg results.
Right now, my estimates would show there are between 150 to 1000 people involved over all. It isn’t a large number, but they’re using IP masks and other dodgy methods that allow them to create multiple accounts, erase cookie’s and vote multiple times in both internet polls and social bookmarking sites.
In a recent online poll, Ron Paul votes came in hot and heavy. There were over 400 from a single block of IP addresses that are allotted to an aircraft manufacturer, 200+ from a single ISP in St Louis, and a few IP ranges that had over 100 votes each concentrated in a small geographic area (i.e. one person that kept getting new addresses).
By doing this they were able to manipulate results and make it appear as if Ron Paul was leading with ease.
And just today, fans of Newt Gingrich and Tom Tancredo were caught cheating the official Pajama’s Media Straw Poll.
our eagle-eye IT team has caught more cheaters spamming for two candidates (Tancredo, Gingrich). Those votes have been deducted.
On a private forum this comment was added regarding the issue.
They repeat both processes - and in some cases, using a unix/linunx system and the tools available there (perl, wget, etc), its possible to even automate the vote+reset+vote cycle, with delays in between to keep “spamming” alerts from hitting.
With this technique, 30-40 fanatics can throw several hundred to over a thousand votes onto any internet poll in a day or two. For a prime example of this go to Pajamas media - the main site. Check the poll results over all. Then check the “this precinct” votes. Nearly every vote for Ron Paul has come through the main PJ site, and has been cast in the past 48 hours.
Same thing does with the digg stories - nearly all of the hundreds of Diggs they stories got were from accounts registered within the last 3 days.
So while I’ve gone after “liberals” for doing this, I must be fair and go after “conservatives” for doing the same.
Knock it off! Cheating is cheating, and in the end it hurts everyone involved.
-Eric Odom
Cutkomp Says:
Why don’t any of these hit pieces about Paul supporters mention any other possibility than that of Paul supporters doing the ‘alleged’ gaming? It’s not like anyone would lose access to billions of easy dollars if Paul got elected or anything.
I’m still waiting for someone to put forth an honest effort in attacking Ron Paul on the issues.
Posted on March 29th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Eric Says:
Because those “other” issues aren’t relevant to this one?
Posted on March 29th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
You are a moron Says:
You can’t attack Ron Paul about the issues, because he is the only politician who is a real human being not a puppet controlled by corporations.
The only way to attack Ron Paul is to say that somehow his followers are gaming Polls, which most set IP restrictions so you can only vote 1 or 2 times which makes it impossible to game.
Whatever, anyone with rational brain cell left can see Ron Paul is the man to vote for in 2008.
Posted on March 30th, 2007 at 5:25 am
newrepublicans.us » Blog Archive » The game is a foot… [Updated] Says:
[...] Update: Eric Odom has more on the methods used to game the internet polls Written by RINO Hunter - Visit Website Filed under RINO’s revealed , Inconceivable , Bottom Feeders , War on Terror [...]
Posted on March 30th, 2007 at 5:48 am
Eric Says:
If one wishes to see a moron, he only needs to read your comment, moron.
Go back and read the post again. I wasn’t attacking any candidate.
Posted on March 30th, 2007 at 6:01 am
You are a moron Says:
By saying he is cheating on online polls, you are attacking him. Good doublethink though.
Posted on March 30th, 2007 at 6:17 am
Cutkomp Says:
Hmm… It seems you answered my statement and ignored my question.
The provided evidence is thin and also very suspect since it all comes from places that publicly support other candidates who just so happen to lack experience but have big money backing for their big gov’t ways.
Posted on March 30th, 2007 at 6:19 am
Eric Says:
Once again, and this is the last time I will point out the obvious, I never said he was cheating.
“Granted, we can’t start pointing fingers at the candidates themselves, because we have no way of knowing if they are indeed involved. My guess is that they aren’t. But we should certainly contact them and let them know we think they should condemn such actions.”
Posted on March 30th, 2007 at 6:19 am
Warner Todd Huston Says:
Regardless of whether you want to be thin skinned about who is attacking Ron Paul and who isn’t… I didn’t see Eric attacking a candidate, but attacking over zealous supporters.
But, no matter who is “at fault” with this particular issue, the MAIN point is that it reveals that NO poll on the internet can be believed in ANY way whatsoever.
Just like you can’t believe a word on Wikipedia, you can’t take an internet “poll” as indicative of ANYTHING true or measurable. And NO ONE should place stock in them.
The whole concept of an internet “poll” is untenable due to the fact that technology can so easily be used to tilt the results.
Posted on March 31st, 2007 at 11:22 pm
likwidshoe Says:
I suspect that many Ron Paul supporters are robots programmed to spit out a few sayings.
Witness.
Posted on May 24th, 2007 at 1:09 pm