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Note to readers
The Daily Herald
Vote cheating in gun poll
Daily Herald online polls provide an interesting look at public opinion on various topics, but they are not scientific. But sometimes, special-interest groups or individuals skew the poll result so far that we decide not to publish the results.
This was the case with last week's poll asking whether Utah should allow anyone to have a loaded gun in a car.
Normally, we publish a graphic showing the results of the poll, along with some of the comments that came in via e-mail and phone. We're dropping the graphic this week because of an unusual amount of vote cheating.
While the loaded gun poll got plenty of online traffic, the results were heavily manipulated by organized gun advocates nationwide.
When the poll first opened on Feb. 12, the numbers were running consistently 60 to 70 percent against loaded guns in cars. By Feb. 14, however, the numbers had completely flipped, suggesting that the online ballot box was being stuffed. So we looked into it and confirmed that was the case.
The Herald's E-Media department tallied the computer addresses from which the gun poll votes were coming. The records showed heavy traffic coming from Internet domains hosted by gun groups, the largest being from ar15.com, a Web site catering to owners of the Colt AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. The site linked to the Herald poll and was followed 2,577 times. Many other pro-gun sites had links to the poll, including sigforum.com, glocktalk.com and thefiringline.com.
The Herald's attempts to disqualify questionable votes only inspired more robust cheating, further pushing the poll out of balance. Throughout the week, we wound up with more than 24,000 votes cast on the question.
It's a testament to how well organized the gun groups are. They communicate rapidly and effectively with their comrades in arms. Herald polls are designed to limit multiple votes, but the software is not ironclad. A person with knowledge can circumvent the blocks and vote more than once from a particular computer.
Congratulations, guys. We're not opposed to your guns, but we wish you wouldn't tamper with our polls. You've inspired us to install some enhancements that make vote cheating a lot more difficult.
Meanwhile, we continue to hope that people will read our Friday poll editorials to better understand an issue before casting a vote -- and that goes for the gun crowd, too.
-- Donald W. Meyers, Editorial Page Editor
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A7.
There are 123 comments on this story
Note to readers
The Daily Herald
Vote cheating in gun poll
Daily Herald online polls provide an interesting look at public opinion on various topics, but they are not scientific. But sometimes, special-interest groups or individuals skew the poll result so far that we decide not to publish the results.
This was the case with last week's poll asking whether Utah should allow anyone to have a loaded gun in a car.
Normally, we publish a graphic showing the results of the poll, along with some of the comments that came in via e-mail and phone. We're dropping the graphic this week because of an unusual amount of vote cheating.
While the loaded gun poll got plenty of online traffic, the results were heavily manipulated by organized gun advocates nationwide.
When the poll first opened on Feb. 12, the numbers were running consistently 60 to 70 percent against loaded guns in cars. By Feb. 14, however, the numbers had completely flipped, suggesting that the online ballot box was being stuffed. So we looked into it and confirmed that was the case.
The Herald's E-Media department tallied the computer addresses from which the gun poll votes were coming. The records showed heavy traffic coming from Internet domains hosted by gun groups, the largest being from ar15.com, a Web site catering to owners of the Colt AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. The site linked to the Herald poll and was followed 2,577 times. Many other pro-gun sites had links to the poll, including sigforum.com, glocktalk.com and thefiringline.com.
The Herald's attempts to disqualify questionable votes only inspired more robust cheating, further pushing the poll out of balance. Throughout the week, we wound up with more than 24,000 votes cast on the question.
It's a testament to how well organized the gun groups are. They communicate rapidly and effectively with their comrades in arms. Herald polls are designed to limit multiple votes, but the software is not ironclad. A person with knowledge can circumvent the blocks and vote more than once from a particular computer.
Congratulations, guys. We're not opposed to your guns, but we wish you wouldn't tamper with our polls. You've inspired us to install some enhancements that make vote cheating a lot more difficult.
Meanwhile, we continue to hope that people will read our Friday poll editorials to better understand an issue before casting a vote -- and that goes for the gun crowd, too.
-- Donald W. Meyers, Editorial Page Editor
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A7.
There are 123 comments on this story
