“Just some quick news about The BOBs – our online voting system was hacked in an attempt to manipulate the outcome. We caught it and did our best to sort out the “false” votes but in order to insure that the voting process is an democratic one, we have extended online voting an extra 4 days until Nov. 19. The winners of the jury awards will be announced as planned on Nov. 15.”

It’s explained a little differently on their Web site.

“We have decided our only course of action is to remove all votes cast during the contaminated time period. But we will work to recover the valid votes to the best of our ability.”

And when WAS the contaminated time period?

I am flashing back to news footage of Florida pollworkers eying hanging chads.

So let me get this straight: “Because we are not sure your vote was counted correctly the first time, try voting again”? Vote early, vote often? Is that it? Quite an innovative notion of an democracy DW has evolved there.

I just voted three times myself (just clear the cookie and start over; no scripting needed), under three different pseudonyms, just to triple-insure that my global voice gets heard.

It reminds me a bit of the Brazilian newspaper that ran an item earlier this year (in the form of a “did you know?” push poll) tipping off its readers that if they REALLY wanted to help the cause of Rio’s Cristo Redentor in the NOWC “Seven Wonders” competition, they should be aware that THEY COULD VOTE EARLY AND OFTEN fairly easily (and of course, the contest rules also allowed THE BUYING OF VOTES IN BLOCS).

This is Internet democracy? It actually looks an awful lot like the Golden Age of Tammany Hall, or the Mexican national elections of 1988.