Let the gaming begin; Rand Paul follows in his father's footsteps

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Ron Paul supporters made up for their lack of popular support by gaming the sort of unscientific instantaneous "polls" conducted by TV shows and websites. I put polls in quotes because these barely qualify as polls. They are presented as an unscientific snapshot of the audience's opinion, but they are not even that. They are so easily gamed by an organized group as to be worthless.

This was demonstrated by the Paul supporters, who won virtually all of these polls by wide margins, even as Ron Paul got mostly single digit percentages in the Republican primaries. This led many Paul supporters to allege a conspiracy to rig the vote. It also led to embarrassed explanations from CNN anchors.

Now comes news that Ron Paul's son, Rand Paul, a candidate for U.S. Senate from Kentucky, is going down the same path.

Check out the following post at the Daily Paul website organizing the gaming of a small instant "poll" conducted by the website Kentucky.com: *NEW* Rand Paul Poll at Kentucky.com - You know what to do! | Ron Paul Wins! | Campaign for Liberty at the Daily Paul

Posted July 28th, 2009 by Michael Nystrom

The poll is midway through the article:

http://www.kentucky.com/l...

So far, Rand is LOSING - 204 - 131 to Grayson! You know what to do!

This post is followed by comments tracking Rand Paul's sudden rise in the "poll" as his supporters game it. The last comment reads:

11:15 am
On July 28th, 2009 freeyourmind says:

Trey Grayson 226
44%

Bill Johnson 4
1%

Rand Paul 286
55%

Total Votes: 516

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The revolution will not be televised...

Here's a word to readers of Kentucky.com: I don't know whether or not the revolution will be televised, but I do know that it will not be reflected in instantaneous poll results on Kentucky.com.


(As of 6:00 pm on July 30, Rand Paul is ahead in the "poll" with 3841 votes, 77% of the votes cast.)


UPDATE July 31, 2009 11:00 pm

The Ron Paul campaign admits to gaming the polls in Kentucky to make Rand Paul look like he's doing better than he really is -- right here.

UPDATE August 1, 2009 1:15 pm

A member of the Ron Paul forum has posted the following on that forum's thread about the poll gaming:

"Check out the blogger Adam Holland's "worth reading" list.
Meed (sic) I say more?"

Answer: Yes, please. Say more.