No Quarter: Hack the Vote

Yah know, when something seems too good to be true, it usually is:

Case in point, the selection of the state quarter voting. When I first recommended it, it was at about 500,000 votes, which surprised but did not alarm me. Oddly enough, the quarter I favored (the Native American Orca) was significantly ahead.

Now, I am many things, but a finger on the pulse of the popular mood is not one of them. I thought most of the voting public would jump for the middle design (Fishzilla), which is nice but not as risky. Surprised but with no sense of unease, I turned to other matters.

Then I checked in today - even more votes, and the Orca was ahead by even more. At this point my shennanigans-detector was fully alerted, and I mentioned that something seemed wrong with the voting to my fellow inebriants at the Alliterates.

Well, it turns out someone hacked the vote. The story is here, again one of those stories brought forward by local bloggers. Now, I LIKE the orca, but even I'm not going to buy that it was such a hands-down favorite. Kudos to those who brought it out to light of day, and I hope the state gov fixes the problem and then makes sure we aren't using the same software in the next election, mmmmkay?

More later,