Last week we looked at BetaVote, an online voting booth for the US presidential race that allows voting by country. Earlier today Wired News’ Louise Witt pointed out that political parties are counting on the votes from online polls to make that minute difference needed in a race that is apparently so evenly matched that viewers are being directed to game post-debate media polls. The democrats got in the first licks, emailing supporters to stuff the online ballot boxes prior to the first debate. Witt says it worked. The republicans shot back emails to their supporters to vote after the vice presidential debate. The facts that these polls are incredibly vulnerable to fraud and spin doctoring doesn’t faze media moguls. Steve Bromberg of Fox News told Witt: “How can anybody think that in a poll where you can vote a billion times that it is in any way representative of public opinion?” and “It’s just entertainment, strictly entertainment.” The problem is that these pop polls are not scientifically valid, but what does that matter when the end results are all about the voting public’s perceptions of the candidates?

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