Halloween 2008 Webcam - Electronically Stuffing the Ballot!
Every four years, there is a presidential election. So to add some more
levity to the halloween decorations webcam (which allows you to turn my halloween decorations on & off via zones),
I setup a running tally of "votes cast" for the Democratic &
Republican nominees ... plus the Green Party Candidate - Hulk for President! ;-)
Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the final results
In 2004, a Kerry-Bot electronically stuffed the ballot ... and perhaps not too surprising, more ballot stuffing occurred in 2008 which was setup
so that if Internet surfers toggled zones 1 & 2, a vote was cast for Obama,
zones 3 & 4 for McCain, and zones 5 & 6 for the Hulk!
Halfway through October, I noticed a couple of IP Addresses that were
making an excessive number of votes for a single candidate (PRO) or
ignoring a candidate (CON).
Here's the complete list and the
PRO IP's ended up numbering
4 for Obama, 9 for McCain and 3 for Hulk. On the flip side, the
CON IP's have numbered 4 against Obama, 3 against McCain, and 0 against
the Hulk - don't want to get the Big Green Guy angry!
Some examples of fishing voting patterns:
- On Oct 13th, 2008, IP Address 068.150.179.247 (from Alberta, Canada no less) cast 1,163 votes for Obama (in 25 minutes!), 277 votes for Hulk, and ONE for McCain - see log. I tossed the Obama and Hulk votes so that Internet surfer cast just one vote ... for McCain - D'OH! ;-)
- I did more extensive auditing of the voting to date as of Oct 16th and found several IP addresses that were stuffing the ballot for McCain. So I tossed a total of 2,897 votes cast from 09/30 to 10/16 that were attributable to them.
- On Oct 18th, 2008, a McCain Ballot Stuff returned casting 0 votes for Obama, 492 for McCain, and 14 for the Hulk. The Big Green Guy needs to do some catching up, so I left those 14 votes in, but invalidated the excessive 492 McCain votes.
- On Oct 20th, 2008, a single IP address cast 386 votes ... all for Obama! They were invalidated along another IP address that cast 177 consecutive votes for the Hulk - gotta be semi-fair, but hope the Hulk doesn't get angry!
- On Oct 21st, 2008, a single IP address cast 182 votes ... 173 for McCain.
- On Oct 23rd, 2008, the same IP address cast 161 votes ... 144 for McCain. Someone in Reading, PA is a big Republican!
- On Oct 26th, 2008, several IP addresses combined to electronically ballot stuff 497 votes for Obama and 320 for McCain.
- On Oct 28th, 2008, two IP addresses (1 & 2) combined for 673 votes for McCain ... so those were invalidated ... but I left in their one vote for Obama - D'OH! ;-)
- On Oct 29th, 2008, IP Address 072.081.061.027 returned yet again - our Pennsylvania voter. They cast 913 votes for McCain, 92 for Hulk, and 0 for Obama. The Big Green Guy needs some votes, so I left those in, but tossed the others.
- On Oct 31st, 2008, IP Address 071.179.095.191 cast 369 for McCain, 0 for Hulk, and 0 for Obama.
- On Nov 1st, 2008 (last day of voting), there were electronic ballot stuffers for all three candidates -
Obama,
McCain, and
Hulk.
Needless to say, I invalidated these types of votes and considered "banning"
those IP's from the webcam for this abusive and un-American behavior!
X10 Control Commands by Day for 2008 and Votes for Obama/McCain/Hulk
| Date | Sent | Overloads | | Obama | McCain | HULK! | (invalidated electronic ballot stuffing in parens) |
|---|
| 2008/0930 | 1,769 | 863 | | 454 | (407) 492 | 416 |
| 2008/1001 | 1,453 | 536 | | 430 | 487 | 536 |
| 2008/1002 | 4,582 | 3,507 | | 1,729 | 1,560 | 1,293 |
| 2008/1003 | 1,224 | 414 | | 360 | 424 | 440 |
| 2008/1004 | 1,039 | 237 | | 341 | 358 | 340 |
| 2008/1005 | 1,417 | 400 | | 466 | (25) 426 | 500 |
| 2008/1006 | 1,586 | 455 | | 584 | (84) 437 | 481 |
| 2008/1007 | 1,852 | 860 | | 557 | (150) 547 | 598 |
| 2008/1008 | 690 | 157 | | 215 | (48) 221 | 206 |
| 2008/1009 | 629 | 143 | | 184 | 217 | 228 |
| 2008/1010 | 633 | 107 | | 218 | 174 | 241 |
| 2008/1011 | 1,239 | 344 | | 388 | (94) 349 | 408 |
| 2008/1012 | 1,354 | 419 | | 435 | (158) 366 | 395 |
| 2008/1013 | 2,606 | 1,675 | | (1,163) 355 | 460 | (277) 351 |
| 2008/1014 | 2,043 | 853 | | 666 | (330) 581 | 466 |
| 2008/1015 | 5,216 | 2,560 | | 1,530 | (1,070) 1,324 | 1,292 |
| 2008/1016 | 4,366 | 2,012 | | 1,205 | (531) 1,361 | 1,269 |
| 2008/1017 | 1,435 | 541 | | 387 | 581 | 467 |
| 2008/1018 | 1,865 | 753 | | 418 | (492) 501 | 454 |
| 2008/1019 | 2,807 | 1,551 | | 482 | 783 | 1,542 |
| 2008/1020 | 1,791 | 586 | | (386) 482 | 403 | (177) 343 |
| 2008/1021 | 1,233 | 567 | | 303 | (170) 415 | 345 |
| 2008/1022 | 1,534 | 406 | | 598 | 518 | 418 |
| 2008/1023 | 1,812 | 613 | | 694 | (144) 566 | 408 |
| 2008/1024 | 1,016 | 252 | | 335 | 360 | 321 |
| 2008/1025 | 1,827 | 756 | | 748 | 642 | 437 |
| 2008/1026 | 2,493 | 1,114 | | (497) 460 | (320) 532 | 684 |
| 2008/1027 | 1,462 | 532 | | 465 | 395 | 602 |
| 2008/1028 | 2,065 | 853 | | 550 | (673) 452 | 390 |
| 2008/1029 | 2,699 | 1,408 | | 628 | (913) 595 | 563 |
| 2008/1030 | 2,947 | 1,184 | | 858 | 989 | 1,100 |
| 2008/1031 | 11,347 | 6,527 | | 3,758 | (369) 3,704 | 3,516 |
| 2008/1101 | 2,349 | 902 | | (128) 683 | (185) 601 | (110) 642 |
| TOTAL | 74,380 | 34,087 | | (2,174) 21,966 | (6,163) 21,821 | (564) 21,692 |
Sent is number of X10 commands (toggle power on/off) sent by web surfers
Overloads is number of times the X10 system was overloaded and the throttle engaged
When a web surfer clicks on a zone, that casts a vote for a candidate. Obama is 1 & 2, McCain is 3 & 4, and HULK is 5 & 6
Votes cast by Internet Bots to electronically stuff the ballot are invalidated as are unusually excessive one-sided voting
While McCain had the most votes in 2008, he also had the most "stuffing", so after removing those, Obama wins in a close one!
Hulk ends up third - better luck for the Green Party Candidate in 2012