There were a lot of votes cast in last week’s non-scientific poll on this site about who should be the next House majority leader.
Of 760 votes cast, 488, or 64 percent, went to Rep. Joseph Cervantes of
A note about these polls: They’re not scientific and are intended for fun only.
Here’s how they work: Only one vote can be cast in each poll from one IP address. In most cases, an IP address is assigned to one computer, but in some large offices, one address is assigned to several computers, so only one of those computers can be used to cast a vote.
That’s not ideal, but the other option is to not restrict how many votes are cast from an IP address. If I did that, one person could sit at one computer all day and vote over and over. The current system prevents that.
Unless someone is motivated to find several computers and vote on each of them (please, don’t do that), the way this poll is set up generally prevents an individual from voting more than once in a poll.
With that in mind, there are still other ways to affect these polls. Cervantes started this week winning the poll approximately 55-45 percent. Two days into the poll, Stewart told some supporters to visit my site and vote for her, and throughout the week her request spread. By Friday she had jumped up and was leading with about 60 percent of the vote.
“I told them this was their only chance to vote for majority leader,” Stewart told me last week.
But Cervantes supporters apparently had a plan of their own. About 300 votes were cast for him on Saturday, giving him a commanding lead in the poll.
The number of votes cast this week was about twice what any poll on this site has ever received, and about four times the norm.
So now you know how these polls work. In some instances, they’re simply a test of who has a better campaign machine. Take that for what it’s worth.
Don’t forget to vote in this week’s poll, located at the top of the right column on this page.