| Hamilton County, OH | November 3, 2009 Election |
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Integrity Counts Even During an ElectionBy Kevin P. O'BrienCandidate for Trustee; Township of Anderson |
This information is provided by the candidate | |
The League of Women Voters hosted a debate between the 5 Candidates for Anderson Township Trustee on Oct 8th. A follow-up online poll by the Forest Hills Journal shows how far some will go to deceive the public.Thank you to the Anderson League of Women Voters for hosting the debate between the candidates for Township Trustee on Thursday, October 8th. As a candidate I participated in the debate. It was held at the Anderson Center in the Board room. Seating was set for about 150 people to watch it in person. An estimated 60-70 attended. The 2 hour plus program was available for viewing live on Time Warner cable and taped by Anderson Community Television for re-broadcast beginning Wednesday, Oct 14th. The moderator and time keepers did an excellent job of keeping the candidates and other participants on task. The event was informative and fun. I encourage every voter to watch the replays on ACTV. Following the debate, the Forest Hills Journal sponsored an online poll supplied by Vovici Online Survey Software where "voters" could vote for who won the debate. The survey vendor uses computer software called a "cookie" to protect against multiple votes by the same person. Under normal circumstances this safeguard is reasonably effective and contributes to the marketing and entertainment value of the unscientific vote. Monitoring the vote from my own computer was interesting for the first day or so. Then a strange thing happened. Vote tallies began to appear in groups of 10-20. This continued for several hours. Votes tallied an average of 2-3 per minute for only 2 candidates. A call to a computer software friend confirmed my suspicion that someone or a small group had figured out a way to circumvent the survey security safeguards. I was told it is child's play for an experienced software programmer. At one point over 2400 votes had been tallied. An unimaginable number considering no more than 70 people watched the debate in person and the re-broadcast did not begin until Wednesday Oct 14th. The spirit of a competitive political campaign has been broken. The Anderson League of Women Voters worked hard to hold a quality event. Their efforts have been tarnished. I'm convinced supporters of the Peter/Reis campaign willingly circumvented the safeguards of this unscientific poll, designed for marketing and entertainment value, to deceive the voters of Anderson Township. As a voter, you should keep this in mind when you go to the polls on November 3. Integrity counts even during an election. Kevin P. O'Brien kevin@obrienfortrustee.com http://www.obrienfortrustee.com 513) 659-1739 |
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