Ron Paul Wins In Most Internet Polls, Are They Cheating?

Posted on May 7, 2007 by Alan Cosgrove

Republican candidate Ron Paul leads in almost every minor internet poll out there I could find. Not only does he lead, but often he has 50% or more of the vote. They ask all kinds of questions, like who won last weeks Republican debate over at vote.com where Ron Paul has a slight lead over Mitt Romney. Over at the Daily Kos Ron Paul is second, with 30%, only to a Zombie Ronald Reagan with the same question. Doesn’t look like Daily Kos readers are satisfied with the Republican candidates. Over at Pajamas Media they even mention that they believe that Ron Paul supporters are cheating. At an ABC news poll they keep dropping Ron Paul off the list, but when he is on it he wins by a wide margin. They also have been deleting his supporters comments. Here at Fantasy Politics USA we have our own poll, a game called Presidential Idol. Each month we kick off the candidate with the least votes, and on November 08 we will pick the first Presidential Idol. We reset Presidential Idol each month, but since the start Ron Paul has blown away all the other candidates. This month he started the first day with about %98 of the vote. It really didn’t seem realistic, so we had to change a few things just to address this. The internet is where Ron Paul is popular, and many of his supporters must be pretty internet savvy. Finding little cheats to these internet polls is easy I’m sure. But unless these folks can figure out how to duplicate these results onto a real election, these results are senseless. To see a massive list of Political internet polls check out Ya Hooka’s list.
Alan Cosgrove

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15 Responses to Ron Paul Wins In Most Internet Polls, Are They Cheating?

  1. Robert P says:
    May 7, 2007 at 11:40 pm

    Just a thought for you. The top tier candidates have WAY more money and experts that can rig polls is possible. Maybe their supporters are too lazy to get off the couch and place internet votes. I don’t know, but most places like MSNBC have secure polls that can’t be rigged and with 80k votes Ron blew the rest away.

    The so called REAL polls go ask the same type of people that don’t know which countrys name starts with the letter “U” who the next pres should be. It’s all about name recognition. If Ron actually got fair media coverage you’d see him shoot up in those polls too. You’re a bad sport implying cheating, it’s simply media blackout because they just LOVE to tell us who to vote for.

  2. Robert P says:
    May 7, 2007 at 11:42 pm

    Just want to mention in also in the MSNBC poll, prior to the debate with the about 73k votes Ron was under 10% and after the debate he shot up to over 35%+.

    That my friend is people changing minds and being impressed. That’s the story that needs to be covered, not spilling milk over cheating.

  3. Gary J says:
    May 8, 2007 at 7:13 am

    The reason Ron Paul wins most internet polls is the genuine positive enthusiasm he generates among his supporters. They don’t support him simply because he’s the most electable or the least objectionable, but because they truly love his themes of peace, freedom and prosperity and they actively seek out ways to express their support. The only other candidate to garner this much support is Obama, but in his case it more a function of image and personality. People are attracted to Ron Paul because of his ideas.

  4. DigitalOmnivore says:
    May 8, 2007 at 8:25 am

    The internet skews either liberal or libertarian, especially websites like digg and slashdot. While some smaller polls might be overwhelmed by Paul supporters, the MSNBC poll had like 90K respondants. That is more then a few dedicated Ron Paul supporters putting him in first place.

    As for the accusations of cheating, I doubt it. While it may be easy to rig small time polls, anyone with a competent IT department can tell when a poll is rigged. Even if the votes were coming from different ip addresses, if they are coming at set intervals of time for the same candidate, or in one huge burst it becomes obvious.

    I seriously doubt the MSNBC poll was rigged. Paul had a very good showing in the debate, with the exception of the ‘what is a big decision you have made’ question. He hit it out of the ballpark when talking about spending, a national id card, and getting rid of the IRS. That is red meat to real Republicans.

    Pajama Media’s preposterous claims against Paul show a clear bias. They bring up the difference between how Paul polls on their website as compared to traditional media polls, but fail to talk about how McCain, Romney and Rudy all poll differently as well. They accuse Paul supports of cheating, but I sincerely doubt their accusations. I’d like to see them post some proof of this cheating, but of course, they could simply forge their logs and at this point I doubt they are above that. They’ve become the very thing they were created to counter, biased media.

    I know many media pundants like to pin the Republicans 2006 loss on Iraq, but I think it had much more to do with conservatives being disheartened with their leadership over fiscal policy, the borders, and bad behavior. Ron Paul appeals to the disheartened base.

    Ron Paul won hearts and minds on the third of May.

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  6. Elwar says:
    May 8, 2007 at 9:04 am

    Most of the small polls you can attribute to a small dedicated group of Ron Paul supporters that vote at all of his polls. You can see at those polls about 100-200 votes. Any poll beyond that is sincere interest in Ron Paul. Polls of 30k+ are not a concerted effort by Internet supporters. Those are people that like Ron Paul, who don’t know about these small polls.

    You say you have your own poll, do your own investigating in your logs.

    Pajama’s Media considers cheating or spamming as someone sending an e-mail out to all of their freedom loving friends with a link to their poll. I’ve seen them admit this on their discussion board after someone said “I sent an e-mail to *whichever group* of 300 people asking them to vote for Ron Paul on your poll.” The moderator’s response was “And that’s called SPAMMING”.

    I’ve always hoped that a libertarian would be allowed in the debates since Ross Perot. They’ve always been blocked until now. We are experiencing an excitement of people realising that there could be a candidate who’s truly for smaller government, not just candidate George Bush who said he wanted small government and we shouldn’t be the police of the world, or Bill Clinton who said “The era of big government is over.”.

    Ron Paul says it, he means it and he’s got a record since 1976 that shows it.

  7. Michael Wagner says:
    May 8, 2007 at 9:19 am

    Just take a look at the blog posts in the days after the debates, or look at the comments section of Ron’s MySpace page. Post after post hit on the theme of “I never heard of Ron Paul until the debate, but WOW, he has my vote.”
    THAT’s why he won the MSNBC poll, not because of cheating. When the people hear his message, they support him. His low standing in the “major” polls is simply of function of too few people being familiar with his campaign. This is a failure of the “major” media whose function is supposed to be to inform the people.

  8. gabe harris says:
    May 8, 2007 at 3:31 pm

    Ron Paul supporter here. I’m a person who loves america and I love the ideals it was founded upon, Respect For The Individual, Freedom, The Pursuit of Happines, love for all of mankind, even those who have different religions or points fo view. I am not a computer hacker who rigs internet polls. Why not report on ideas and philosophies and the impetus of a political movement instead of horserace reporting?

  9. oldestglory84 says:
    May 22, 2007 at 2:48 pm

    Has it occured to anyone that Ron Paul is winning because the vast majority of Americans are tired of the professional wrestling match that has become our democratic process. Could it be that supporters of Ron Paul are more politically active than your run of the mill Dems and Reps? Could it be that this accusation of cheating followers rigging polls is really just to cast doubt on a candidate that has to potential to swing the balance of power from the roving-despotic-machine to the people. And how exactly does the agenda of Digg – a site that’s been accused on more than one occasion of burrying pro-Paul articles on purpose – fit into such accusations against the People’s Canidadate?

  10. Jack Wood says:
    May 23, 2007 at 2:42 am

    What I find curious is the MSM blackout of the political story of the year. Congressman Paul is certainly that, and has been ignored in most cases, and flat out attacked by Hannity, Gibson, and Malkin of the supposedly conservative Fox News Channel. As obviously, the most conservative candidate amoung the Republicans, the attacks are very telling. As far as cheating on the polls, it’s ridiculous, as the other candidates have far more resources than Mr. Paul. Are we to believe that Guliani, McCain, and Romney supporters have no internet access or text messaging available to them. No, I think not, but rather their wishy washy canned answers don;t resonate with potential voters who watched the debates. The fresh and welcome ideas that were put forth by Paul did. He is obviously the one candidate that stands out from this pack of recycled Bushites.

  11. Amanda Moore says:
    June 11, 2007 at 5:10 pm

    Ron Paul is winning because he is a deliverer. He has a message people want to hear. He has a plan and it’s not business as usual.

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  13. KEITH CRAWFORD says:
    September 13, 2007 at 9:14 pm

    When you have no basis of argument, abuse the plaintiff
    EXACTLY what I was thinking Joseph. Dr Paul lives about 15 miles from me here in Texas. Is everyone here in a
    ronpaul.meetup.com..It isd a great way to get together with people in your area and makes progress in the campaign.

  14. Jennifer Alessi says:
    September 15, 2007 at 3:05 pm

    I see their accusations of cheating as a reflection of their fear. Think about it, this man’s popularity continues to grow with out corporate dollars or support from mass media. I think he has a real chance of winning. There’s a quote from Albert Einstein I think sums it up, “Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds.”

  15. huberdude says:
    September 30, 2007 at 2:57 am

    The powers that be need to start their infowar early. If the media admits to majority support for Dr. Paul it will look a little funny when the DIEBOLD machines tally up the votes showing otherwise. Some may say that this is just “conspiracy theory” I say it’s a fact. As supporters of Dr. Paul we cannot sit back and hope that the mainstream media will wake up. As supporters we need to keep the fires lit and make sure his message is delivered to as many Americans as possible. If Thomas Jefferson were alive today his name would be Ron Paul…George Bush would be King George or Benedict Arnold. I believe that Dr. Paul is America’s last chance to save face in the world and to save America itself. If not, we will not be able to recognize our own country in the next 5 years.
    God Bless America!

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