Hey Whyville! What did the ballot box say to the corrupt politician?

"No more! I'm stuffed!!"

The controversy behind the prom reminded me of that joke, and spazchick's articles (1, 2) made me want to know what the hard facts were. Did 11 really stuff the ballot box? How do we stop ballot stuffing when the City Hall voting booth opens?

To answer these questions, I took a hike up to City Hall's place for a surprise interview. I brought along the warrior's spear I received from a Masai chieftain in Kenya, because City Hall is always busy, and I didn't want her to duck out on me. Luckily, I didn't need the spear, because she had some spare time for lunch.

City Hall

Me: City Hall, can you explain exactly what happened with the prom king scandal?
City Hall: Sure! We know for sure that somebody helped 11 win. This person created at least a dozen identities, with names like qqqq and wwww. These extra votes went a long way to help him win the election.
Me: But how do we know if it was 11?
City Hall: We can't know for sure, but we tried to get a handle on it by checking what IP addresses the votes came from, exactly as 11 suggested.
Me: Now, I'm a little confused: what's an IP address?
City Hall: Well, IP stands for Internet Protocol, and whenever you are on the Internet, your computer is identified by a string of numbers that is known as its IP address. This number allows information to go back and forth between your computer and the websites you are visiting.
Me: Oh, I get it. So you can tell if people are coming to Whyville from the same computer by seeing if they have the same IP address.
City Hall: Yes and no; some computers stay at the same address all the time, while others that use Internet service providers like AOL have what's called "floating IPs". This means that almost every time you start an Internet session, you'll have a slightly different IP address.
Me: Hm. So what did you find?
City Hall: We found that all of the accounts, including 11's, voted from the same IP address, and most of them within a few minutes of each other!
Me: Doesn't this prove that 11 was stuffing the ballot box then?
City Hall: No, not quite. It's still possible that someone used 11's computer without his knowledge.
Me: I see. Like someone in his family or a friend who was at his house.
City Hall: Yes, exactly. So we may never know. What we do know is that something must be done to keep this kind of thing from happening again!
Me: Thanks for the info, City Hall!

Well, there you have it. While we have circumstantial evidence, we can't prove that 11 is guilty of stuffing the ballot box. There's this concept where everybody is innocent until proven guilty, and I think it's an idea we should follow here in Whyville. The ballot-box stuffer might really be somebody else. In which case, somebody in his house owes him a huge apology, as do those of us who just assumed he was guilty.

Even if 11 is guilty, I think he's been plenty punished what with all the bad press he's been getting in the last few weeks. I even heard that some people have really harassed him over this incident. Folks, whether or not he's guilty, harrassment is just plain wrong, and you should apologize.

Whatever the truth is, I hope we can all do the mature thing and accept 11 back into Whyville without holding any grudges or saying anything nasty. It's done, it's over. Let's move on!

In fact, let's move on to the big issue: ballot box stuffing. It's one of the ways that corrupt (or just overeager) people cheat to win an election. In the U.S., you need to be old enough and have proof that you're a citizen (with your own social security number) so you can vote. Right now, in Whyville, all you have to have is an identity, and getting an identity is totally easy, and getting a lot of identities is also totally easy.

I've got no problem with those of us who have multiple personalities at Whyville voting, as long as each of those personalities is a committed citizen of Whyville. If you're just making up somebody so you can cast an extra vote or insult someone or whatever, then this Big Foot has got a Big Problem with you.

City Management has come up with a bunch of solutions, which I talk about at the Let's Talk BBS, but they haven't found one that's really perfect yet. If you can come up with any other ideas about stopping ballot box stuffing, please let City Hall know! Remember, there could be the perfect solution out there, and you might be the one to figure it out!

From the political jungle of Bigfoot Bill's desk, this is Bigfoot Bill, saying keep clean and keep cool!

If you want to read spazchick's original BBS posting on this issue, click here, or you can click here for City Hall's post.