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Hill supporters accused of manipulating poll

May 3, 2012

Adam Hill

In an apparent attempt to keep Adam Hill seated as 3rd District San Luis Obispo County Supervisor, several supporters allegedly used unethical methods to vote multiple times in a New Times poll. [NewTimes]

The weekly poll question asked, “Which of these candidates for SLO County Supervisor has your vote?” Answers included 3rd District candidates Adam Hill and Ed Waage and 5th District candidates Debbie Arnold and Jim Patterson.

On  April 28, Waage took a small lead over Hill with about 150 votes in. The Democratic Central Committee responded by sending an email to members explaining how to manipulate the vote by cleaning cookies and voting repeatedly.

Shortly afterwards, it appeared someone was using an automatic program. From about 8:30 p.m. until midnight, approximately three votes a minute were made in favor of Hill.

Waage supporter Kevin Rice, also a recipient of the committee email, checked to see if turning cookies off allowed a second vote, and then called several media outlets including the New Times and CalCoastNews to report the apparent crooked voting.

“It was very clear someone was using an automatic program because the votes were coming in consistently and then it just stopped,” Rice said “It looks like team Adam Hill shares the same ethics as their candidate.”

In the end, 86 percent of those votes, roughly 5,396, went to Hill with the other three candidates receiving between 4 percent to 5 percent of the vote.

In today’s New Times, the Shredder wrote that its “IT guy” discovered that 5,349 votes were made from just three IP addresses.


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Not surprising. This same sort of thing happens in NT’s “Best Of” annual survey. Restaurants and bars get customers and employees to fill out the ballots and vote for them.

Same thing happens with Dancing with the Stars and Ameican Idol, which last season had one week with something lke 250 million votes.

More than 5,300 votes from three IP addresses? Who’s got that much time?

Like all polls, you have to take the results with a grain of salt.

Voters need to make their own decisions and not be swayed by some poll.


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I have been to gatherings where a certain ice cream place invites everyone they know to attend these gatherings. Then they have stacks of New Times papers that they hand out for everyone to fill in their fav ice cream parlor. Then the owner of this parlor sends in all of the voter slips for everyone and encourages the people there to pass out more papers to their friends so they may vote for him as well. Does this mean that he has the best ice cream? Does the poll mean anything, of course not.


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Maybe not. But, especially with a business, it affects peoples’ actions, whether it be going to a certain ice cream shop or voting for a candidate that appears to have lots of support. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a calculated action.


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You are probably right pertaining to a business and this guy is a marketing genus. But I feel that at this point people have their minds made up regarding who they’re going to vote for.


As I’ve stated before, I’m on Hill’s mailing list and never has he asked us to vote more than once and I honestly don’t believe that he’s behind this. He has asked his supporters to keep it clean.


These days I don’t vote on someones personality, if I did I probably wouldn’t vote for anyone. I vote on issues, it’s that simple. If some is going to push for the same agenda that I agree with then they will have my vote. If they have 3 illegitimate children and get drunk on a Friday nights or had a BJ in a blue dress in the oval office,, I really don’t care. I just want them to do an effective job. Clinton has made some personal mistakes that are deplorable but that’s between him and his wife. I don’t know what Hill has done in his personal life and I don’t’ care but he’s done a good job at running this county. Look at the other counties around the state, they are hurting. Stockton is about to use or are already using the National Guard as police because they don’t have the money for a PD right now. Not many counties can match how well we are doing financially. I think it would be a terrible time to rock the boat, there’s too much to lose right now. We are very lucky to have the BOS that we have right now.


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As far as rocking the boat goes, if you’re referring to the 80+ mil reserve, that didn’t happen overnight. Many ex-Supes deserve credit, as well as the current. Waage is also a good money manager in PB. Personality doesn’t matter to me either, but character does. I always figure if they cheat on their spouse or in their business, why wouldn’t they cheat the public with whom they have no personal relationship.

Are you on the DCC mailing list? I have no reason to believe that Hill instigated the poll voting.


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I’m not sure about how good he is as a money manager, as with many other cities the staff handles all that. Also Pismo if very fortunate to have a lot of tourism so they haven’t been as financially challenged as other communities. Waage told us how well our city is doing but I watched the budget meeting where Rice looked pretty stressed about the future of Pismo’s reserves and overall finances. He warned the city to not hire anyone new and to consider other options to cut back on expenses. But of course Pismo is better off than some cities,,, thank you tourists!


Well as far as cheating on spouses, I used to believe what I read here and that Mr. Hill cheated on his spouse but I know better now, that simply wasn’t true. People need to learn that you can’t believe every piece of gossip that comes accross the press and what these posters say. So I don’t know of any cheating by Mr. Hill and I believe that anyone that says that is lying. For example lets take Cindy. She sounds very convincing in her posts. They will often read ‘I know this’ or ‘it’s a fact’. But when she’s questioned on where she got those facts she stops posting or just keeps saying ‘I know it’ and then becomes insulting for questioning her. People believe her, they believe the gossip and mean things that she spreads about others. I can’t counter the lies and that’s one of the reasons I’m outta here. But you are a smart person, I hope that you will look at the whole picture and will question people like here.


I will say this one last time. Mr. Waage is a nice man. Although I feel that Hill is also nice, they have complete different personalities. One is soft spoken, not very strong or opinionated. The other can come off a little crass probably due to the culture of where he was brought up but there’s nothing wrong with that, I like that Hill is strong and speaks his mind. But I still don’t believe that we should vote on personalities. Personalities can be fake. I feel we should vote on issues. As you know, stopping Price Canyon is my main objective and keeping the county financially stable is also important to me. So those are the issues that I will vote on. We have proven track records for both of those issues. We KNOW Hill has either been able to maintain or help create a good stable economy, I’m not so sure about Waage, he hasn’t been in that position and it’s a bad time to experiment. We know that Hill opposes the Price Canyon thing and we know that Waage doesn’t (no matter what he says there is a track record that demonstrates that he is supporting over developement) so that’s all I need. I don’t really care if Waage or Hill are Ashly Madison men.


I am not on the DCC list but I know someone that is.


I feel that if you want to believe that someone is bad or if it’s said enough that most people will believe it, even I have gotten caught up in that. If you didn’t hear it first hand or from a very reliable source then don’t believe it.


Tired, typed fast, sorry for typos.


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First off, by no means was I implying that Hill cheated on his wife. I was referring to my general feeling that someone who does so can’t be trusted on other fronts. I have no idea about Hill’s marriage or personal relationships, period. I was comparing those that would cheat to gather support (perhaps your business person example) on a poll to lack of character. To me, the poll thing is about ethics and character and was meant to persuade voters to vote with the huge majority and I just think it was wrong, whoseever idea it was.


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@Disgusted, just in case you didn’t read my response to Wiseguy I CCPed part of it because it pertains to your comment:


I haven’t heard one nasty thing from Adam Hill or Team Adam Hill (I am on their mailing list) about Waage, it just doesn’t happen. Every fundraiser that I’ve been to .Hill makes it a point to tell his supporters that he wants to run a clean raise and focus on the issues. He asks everyone to join him in making it a clean race, but he can’t control everyone.


In other words, I don’t believe that Hill had any knowledge of this silly poll thing. It’s not worth him taking a risk by fudging some silly poll. He’s well aware that everything he does is scrutinized.


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I agree that neither candidate can control their fans. I’m also not implicating Hill for the poll. I do think there is an expectation that when a political race is involved that the voters assume one vote per person is appropriate. This would reflect a true election, thus a sample of a true election results, which I assume was the goal. The Shredder refers to the “one-vote-per-computer rule.” He also labels the overvotes as ‘cheating.” It’s his magazine so he sets the rules. People shouldn’t partake if they can’t abide by the rules. My opinion of Hill is based on actions I’ve seen or heard him take. I’d like to thank you for your civil responses to me.


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Where do you get the idea that the New Times poll is “meant to persuade” people? You’re getting the weeky poll mixed up with the voting for the “Best of” issue.


But I think you are being disingenuous. Your earlier posts implied that this multiple vote issue somehow reflected on the character or ethics of HILL or his supporters. The problem is that we (including YOU) don’t know who orchestrated the multiple votes.


Certainly you and others have been trying to use this to impede the Adam Hll re-election campaign. What’s the “ethics’ on that?


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While I would hope by now everyone knows that internet polls are worthless, there are some people who still will walk by a stack of NTs in the newstand, read on the cover “Poll Shows 99% of voters will vote for Adam Hill in November,” and believe it. For some, even if they read it was only an internet poll, they would still be influenced on a subconscious basis.


THAT is why publications like NT have worthless internet polls–because the outcome influences people on many levels.


That’s what all published polling results are about–to manipulate the people. And we still have 6 months left of this current election season….


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When I read the poll results, I suspected something was afoul. 5000+ people never respond to those polls. I think the Hill campaign is also encouraging a letter writing campaign. His radio ads are well done. If I didn’t know a few things about Hill, I’d think he was the man for the job. I’m sad that so many don’t care about character.


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For all we know, it was completely made up by NT.


In a system that is easily corrupted, lack of transparency provides the energy to support distrust of the system and the outcome.


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Another example of the seeming lack of ethics of Adam Hill and some his supporters. This is really getting old. This guy needs to be voted out!


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I wish I could “like” your comment 5396 times!


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Internet voting / reviews are useless fiction? I’m crushed, it’s like I lost a fiver, but still stoked about all the polls showing Ron Paul as the next POTUS and the Yelp reviews of my business.


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Is anyone surprised that Hill would “game the system”?


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Reality Check,


I am surprised and disappointed to find a politician who feels the ends justify the means. What a bitter pill to swallow.


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Did Adam Hill do this, where did you read that?


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Waage: 3

Hill: -4


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I don’t know a lot about “cookies” and “clearing cookies,” but gaming the system seems like a real pain in the neck. He must have really wanted to win.


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Hey,


Where’d my other comments go?


“PoliARC Web Management” must have struck here, too, as they did in the New Times poll !!!


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Waage: 2

Hill: -3


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Waage: 1

Hill: -2


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Waage: 0

Hill: -1


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Racket,


Dishonesty 1

Ethics 0 (sadly)


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