The Press has confirmed that its website poll has been hacked by someone seeking to control the voting results.

The Press has determined the IP address of the person or entity involved, and it is from Woodstock, Illinois, just outside Chicago, according to The Press’ website provider. The situation happened from 3:55 p.m. until 4:20 p.m. on March. 8. During this time, the individual used an exploit to vote 3,071 times for the “No” answer. The Press removed those votes to change the vote back to 39 (as of that day) for “No” and the IP address was blocked.

The question, which still remains on the website, reads “Do you think Ohio should pass a bill that bans collective bargaining in state employees, similar to the one in Wisconsin?”

Answer choices are “No. Collective bargaining is the only tool workers have to make gains in salaries and benefits,” “Yes. The public can no longer afford to pay for the increased pay and benefits of public employees,” and “Yes. State employees have continued to seek raises during tough economic times when everyone else is sacrificing and need to be reined in.”

As of last Thursday “Yes. The public can no longer afford to pay for the increased pay and benefits of public employees” had 60 votes (53.1 percent); “No” had 42 votes (37.2 percent); and “Yes. State employees have continued to seek raises during tough economic times when everyone else is sacrificing and need to be reined in” had 11 votes (9.7 percent). The poll will run through this week and can be visited at www.presspublications.com.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed