As you may have noticed, our weekly poll has received a tremendous amount of participation. As of this writing, we've received just over 76,000 votes. We're flattered, really.
But the pace and style of 'voting' has raised some questions. At 4pm yesterday, there were approximately 11,000 votes. At 11pm last night, there were about 36,000 votes. And this morning, we're at 76,000 votes. Now, our traffic has been growing steadily, but it's unlikely we had 40,000 unique visitors overnight all of whom chose to vote for either Byron Brown or Mickey Kearns.
Instead, it appears some folks have figured out how to game the system. Multiple browsers, clearing caches - that kind of thing. This isn't exactly War Games level hacking, but it's something people would need to spend time and effort to manipulate. We're working on uncovering where many of these "votes" have come from and we hope to be able to share some insight over the next few days.
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But the pace and style of 'voting' has raised some questions. At 4pm yesterday, there were approximately 11,000 votes. At 11pm last night, there were about 36,000 votes. And this morning, we're at 76,000 votes. Now, our traffic has been growing steadily, but it's unlikely we had 40,000 unique visitors overnight all of whom chose to vote for either Byron Brown or Mickey Kearns.
Instead, it appears some folks have figured out how to game the system. Multiple browsers, clearing caches - that kind of thing. This isn't exactly War Games level hacking, but it's something people would need to spend time and effort to manipulate. We're working on uncovering where many of these "votes" have come from and we hope to be able to share some insight over the next few days.
it will be particularly interesting to see if any of the problem IP's originate within City Hall.
Particularly since both candidates work in City Hall and have factions within those walls.
I certainly hope the "Gang of Five," with greater force due to the sheer numbers in each of their districts, do not have a stronghold. And, going further, no one else, as well.