The response to my letter:
Several clues led to the decision. First, a large, unprecedented number ofvotes, extremely skewed to one side. Second, an e-mail from the other sideurging its supporters to respond in kind (by individuals voting multipletimes). Third, a number of complaints from participants, saying their votesfor some reason had tallied to the wrong side.This is not the first time that someone has messed with our poll; apparentlyit¹s not all that hard to do. It matters little to us which side waswinning, or which side started the manipulation. But we were convinced theentire exercise had become a contest between interest groups, and not a pollat all. This is just for your information, and not for public consumption,please. Rick CarrollManaging Editor