Heath Haussamen
Five weeks ago I made a change so that only registered users of NMPolitics.net could vote in weekly, non-scientific polls. That was in an effort to stop people from manipulating the polls by voting over and over and over and over again.
It didn’t work. The word went out on Thursday to supporters of Democrat Mary Herrera about how to manipulate last week’s poll asking who would win the secretary of state’s race. I don’t know exactly what was said – or who said it – but people started going to mail.com and each creating multiple e-mail addresses so they could then register multiple times with NMPolitics.net and vote in the poll over and over.
Herrera went from significantly behind on Thursday to taking the lead by Friday.
How do I know it happened? On Thursday evening I started receiving notifications of several registrations within a few minutes of each other. For example (and this is a fake example) the registrations – one after another – would come from joe45@europe.com, joe45@usa.com, joe45@mail.com, joe45@consultant.com and so on. And the votes for Herrera would increase.
I e-mailed Herrera on Saturday to let her know I was aware of what was happening and ask her to tell her supporters to stop. She has not responded.
I’ve always intended these polls to be nothing more than fun. But they’re not. And they add nothing positive to the conversation about politics and government. In addition – despite what some seem to think – they have no sway over who wins elections.
The polls apparently serve only to bring out the worst elements of the political class – people who are willing to cheat to win.
It’s pathetic, really. And unfortunate for the rest of us.
Say goodbye to NMPolitics.net’s weekly polls. I’m putting an end to them, effective immediately.