Twisting the facts 180 degrees

[xela]

At least the people getting the "wrong" result on their gay marriage poll, mentioned in kareila's journal a couple of days ago aren't as sleazy as the United States Senate Republican Conference. From the current Risks Digest:

Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 07:58:42 -0500
From: "Keith C. Ivey" <kcivey@cpcug.org>
Subject: Online poll rigging

The Senate Republican Conference has a Web poll on its front page about the
capture of Saddam Hussein.  Apparently the results weren't turning out the
way they like (what a surprise for a Web poll!), so they changed the form to
switch the way two answers are recorded.  Now if you choose the 1st choice,
it's recorded as the 2nd, and vice versa.  But there's no feedback to let you
know it's happening.  The change has been confirmed by checking Google's
cache of the page.  Here's the story:
  http://atrios.blogspot.com/2004_01_11_atrios_archive.html#107414565730750569

If politicians are willing to tamper with something as insignificant as a
Web poll, how much more tempting is it to tamper with the results of a real
election?

Keith C. Ivey, Washington, DC <kcivey@cpcug.org> 

  [Added note: There was something very similar in November 2003 
  on Bill Frist's Senate site, too:
    http://reason.com/hitandrun/003421.shtml
  KCI]