Those of you paying attention during the 2004 Weblog Awards may remember the little controversy of hacking of the polls, details of which were published at Daily Kos. In Zephyr Teachout’s latest narrative on the Kos/Dean controversy (which is worth a read in and of itself) I noticed this little section on Kos’ candidate poll.
Some time around 10 PM, the scream came. Kos had put up an online poll, comparing the candidates, and Dean was not winning. I think Kerry was, but I’m sure its all on record.
“WHAT THE HELL” he [Joe Trippi] came screaming into the cave.
“Look at Daily Kos” he said.
“How long as that poll been up. How could you miss that poll.”
“He’s trying to fuck us.”
“He’s doing his poll right while everyone’s at Meetup. He’s trying to fuck us.”
During the next day, we went to every listserv and contacts we had and asked them to get on that poll.
If you walked by his office the next day, he wouldn’t talk to you, but he’d sit there, with his back to the door (you could see the computer screen from the door), hitting refresh on the Daily Kos poll. You could hear him seething that it wasn’t moving.Is gaming polls (or at least trying to game them) some sort of genetic thing with Democrats?
Yea it is, but for some reason we call it ‘freeping’ the polls. I wonder how that started? I’ll have to look it up some time…
I think poor Zephyr should seriously consider getting a ccw.
I demand a recount!
Well, if gaming online polls is Trippi’s idea of good campaign strategy, rather than spending his time getting Dean’s actual ideas (assuming he had any) out to voters, it’s no wonder Dean did so poorly.
Jeff: Yeah, I’m not sure why he thought influencing the Kos crowd would result in anything substantial. I had to laugh when I read the rnc had people in their own communities registar voters where the dnc would bus all these kids in. Guess, which one was the better strategy. I didn’t have to deal with it this year, but in 2000 these kids with tattoos and piercings all over their faces would knock on my door and attempt to lecture me on politics. Bleh.