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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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Adam…


If you and / or your supporters are going to cheat… do so in a manner that will dazzle us!


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There’s Roger again, shouting orders like a true Richard NIxon/Ronald Reagan Republican.


Now Roger, you are accusing a particular person of “cheating”. What, exactly, are you accusing Mr. Hill of doing? ANY specifics? Or are you just shouting typical BS to amuse yourself? Facts, please. Otherwise I think you owe Mr. Hill an apology.


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Internet polls are used by folks who want to either draw visitors to their website, as a crutch to draw attention to an article, or as a means to draw folks to a discussion board.


I think even facebook grannies know that internet polls are completely unscientific, without the kind of structure needed to actually demonstrate valid studies.


Over-voting has been going on since probably the first online poll was uploaded. It is pervasive and renders any internet poll un-credible.


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Can anyone name a single New Time’s “Best of” category winner where there were NO multiple votes cast? Does anyone here truly believe this only happened with votes for Adam Hill? If so, you are terribly naive. Right or wrong, that is the nature of this type of polling. Does that mean we should boycott every business that dominated their category?


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And is there anyone posting here who is certain that there were no multiple votes cast for Ed Waage? If I can prove there was, should Ed Waage be held responsible and make a public statement about it?


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Internet polls are well known to be without credibility. It is a waste of time to vote on them because you only prop up something that should have become obsolete decades ago.


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WiseGuy: Adam Hill would be better off if you just stopped keeping the subject alive by posting.


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You just don’t want to hear the truth,,that darn truth can be painful sometimes.


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Oh, you must be one of those dang Adam Hill supporters!


But to me this is not about Adam Hill. It’s about the extremist lynch mob mentality that defies logic. You make accusations w ith ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE to back up what you charge. Correct?


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OK, I will answer my own question. Based on the comments by the “Shredder”, there apparently is some sort of a rule that aims at limiting the poll to one vote per computer.


Fair enough. I wonder if anyone will find out who owns the computer responsible for the multiple votes.


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As I said below, I have a hunch that Hill’s campaign knows who owns the computer(s) responsible.


What I wonder is whether they will share that information with the electorate.


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What?? and rat his good friends out? They are like the Mickey Mouse Club, One for all and all for one. Meet the A-H Team, it’s gonna be fun…………..ny.


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Cindy, you don’t know what you are talking about. This is just your excuse to make wild accusations based on your own fantasies. You act like you actually know something, actually have evidence about what you are talking about, but you don’t. You are just making things up. And for what? A New Times poll? BFD.


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We should find out when the AH troglodytes have their mixers, and then attend a few.


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So, “racket”, you’ve got a “hunch”? And that justifies making wild accusations? For all we know, YOU could be the one who organized the multiple votes. Maybe someone has a “hunch” about you!


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I had to re-read my post to look for the “wild accusation.”


I can’t really quite find it, unless you mean that my “hunch” and my “wild accusation” are the same thing.


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Yes, you phrased your “hunch” in a way to accuse Hill of being responsible for the multiple votes. Re-read your posting again and get real, please.


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Sorry racket, I accidentally gave you a red thumb. I find it most amusing that when Adam Hill gets caught cheating, his camp goes into damage control and attempts to claim/blame the opposition as if it was a set up ! They tried to do the same thing with his “prank” phone calls until it came out that the tape had been retained and it was clearly Hills voice, ie: “I didn’t do that” and oppps, “I forgot that I did that”; how sickening. It seems that the Karl Rove political spin reference bible will be in full use during this campaign.


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I guess, I’m getting “hunchy” about you, too, Wiseguy.


I’m feeling like maybe you’re involved with the Democratic Central Committee, and perhaps had a hand in sending the “Vote Up Adam” emails across the DCC mail list.


I’m not saying it is so, nor am I saying that I have any evidence to support this. What I am saying is that I have a “suspicion” this may be the case, or a “hunch.”


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You are doing it AGAIN, racket. And what I mean by that is making accusations the tried and true sleazy way in the manner of “I heard WiseGuy is not beating his wife these days.”


Your use of hunch is simply a sleazy way of saying “I accuse the of…”


Get real, please.


By the way, you are showing yourself to be absolutely lousy with your “hunches.”


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They should share the IP address with the internet community.


There are ways to hide one’s IP, but there are ways to un-hide another person’s hidden IP, as well.


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And should we also share YOUR IP address with the public? Where do you draw the line? I’m seeing more lynch mob mentality here, Mary, Sorry.


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Is there or is there not a rule against casting more than one vote in the New Times poll? It’s long been my impression that casting multiple votes has been a tradition with the New Times poll and has in fact been encouraged by some members of the New Times staff in order to boost the profile (and revenue) from local businesses.


I truly don’t know the answer to this, although I think it is highly relevant to the issue.


Interesting how simply asking this question and pointing out relevant FACTS, leads to wild and erroneous accusations and assumptions about my political leanings.


Look at all the assumptions and accusations that are being made that have no evidence to support them. And these wild assumptions and groundless accusations are coming from people who are criticizing others of being unethical!


Don’t people realize this is a New Times Poll, NOT an official election? It’s all about selling more advertisements. Truth is NOT determined by an internet poll. Never has, never will be.


This is simply politics and its obvious that for most people who comment on this, the truth is irrelevant.


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Wise,

I notice that after I voted on the current poll, it said “you have already voted.” Does that signify a rule? I don’t know. As a test, I went off of the computer, back in and voted again, which was noted on the poll results. There was no warning that I had already voted. What about multiple family members registering votes?

I think what bothered me on this campaign was the concentrated effort to deceive. Of course it’s not a vote that matters for election purposes, but it does tend to influence people who see a popular candidate, assuming there’s good reason that candidate is popular. If it didn’t influence, they wouldn’t promote it, or do it.


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I’m on Hill’s email list and Team Adam Hill list, I have not received one email requesting or giving me the idea to vote more than once. You can’t always control the people around you. Adam has had some of his legally placed signs taken down or torn up but from what I’ve seen he’s making an honest attempt to make this a clean campaign. I honestly don’t believe that he personally had knowledge of this poll thing.


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What makes you believe there was a “concerted effort to deceive”? This was a friction’ New Times poll for gosh sakes. It’s common for people to vote multiple times in polls. I know people on this forum who routinely try to “juice” the “like” or “dislike” tally by using various techniques to post multiple votes. Who in their right mind takes these things seriously? For all we know, some person in Modesto racked up all those Adam Hill votes just to make the point that such polls are a bunch of B.S..


So, we have politics plus internet polling. What could possibly add up to more B.S. than that? Anyone who takes that so seriously is being ridiculous.


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A concentrated effort? Try 5,000 votes. And an email that went out to the party. Multiple times is one thing….this goes way beyond that. I repeat, when the reader sees this many votes for a candidate, he/she assumes that said candidate is popular for good reasons. If it didn’t affect people, the party wouldn’t have suggested it. But hey, if it doesn’t bother you, so be it.


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Then why didn’t I get one of those emails?


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You’re being way to reasonable and smart,,,, knock it off!


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I agree about the “decieve” part.


As Waage said in the NT article, it was Hill’s character that is the biggest problem.


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Is there a rule or law against voting more than once on the New Times Poll?


On American Idol, viewers are encouraged to cast as many votes as they wish.


It’s long been my impression that many businesses that get “honored” in the New Times Poll won because of individuals casting more than a single vote. It’s almost a tradition, one that I wager has even been encouraged by New Times advertising sales reps who want to boost their clients.


The New Times poll was concocted for the sole aim of selling more advertising in the pages of New Times.


By the way, one of Hill’s most vocal critics has no business criticizing others of unethical behavior. I have personally heard that critic make false statements many times in public meetings, and have heard stories of other outlandish and threatening behavior on his part.


By the way, do we have ANY evidence whatsoever that Adam Hill was personally responsible the casting of those thousands of multiple votes?


Finally, don’t people realize that nearly every and any “internet poll” is or can be manipulated? Has there EVER been one that wasn’t?


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Try as you might, you can’t excuse the bad behavior of the Democratic Central Comm. or the Adam Hill team. This was an attempt to deceive the voting public.


You should be ashamed of this incident, why aren’t you?


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They aren’t ashamed because of blind partisonship. If it’s their guy they don’t want to see it right or wrong. Look at all the excuses of this and that and no laws broken. True no laws broken except the spirt of fair play. Of course fair play is lost on a lot of people.


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Why in the world should I be ashamed of this? What do I have to do with any of this, other than asking a couple questions and pointing out a few relevant facts?


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Two points:

Poll winners that conduct businesses gain from the poll results, which explains why they do it.

I think the public holds their government representatives to a higher standard than, let’s say, American Idol.


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But there is not rule against voting more than once. Get real, please.


Again, you seem to be implying some sort of guilt on the part of Adam HIll. But, naturally, you present absolutely no evidence to support your suspicions and accusations. You are again demonstrating the Lynch Mob Mentality that harms our community so much.


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Please show me ANY of my messages where I accuse Adam Hill. They don’t exist because I’m not blaming him. Again, the Shredder refers to the “rule.” and “cheating.” Most people would understand that in a case like this, the goal was an honest sampling of readers’ choices, not a contest to see who can register the most votes.

I HAVE presented the evidence. You just don’t like to read anything that doesn’t support your views. The evidence is Rice’s email and the NT tech’s IP discovery. What do you need? A signed confession.


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Please cite this specific “rule” you keep claiming exists. Where is your evidence for THAT?


So, it’s refreshing to see you admit that you have no idea as to if or what Adam HILL had to do with any of this. Perhaps you could make some postings explaining that to Cindy, Downtown Bob and others who continually make this outlandish, unsubstantiated allegations and accusations.


As for Kevin P. Rice, i know him enough to say I have little or no trust in whatever he might say or do. i have personally seen him make too many false, self-serving statements in public to ever truly trust him regarding anything.


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I would wager that Team AH knows the perps.


It’s sort of incumbent on them to out the badboys, to gain their respectibility, and to gain some distance.


Do you think Adam will issue a statement?


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Kevin Rice commenting about cyber manipulation is akin to the steam locomotive calling the kettle black.


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