Voter Fraud of Another Kind

Extracts from a report in the The Sydney Morning Herald, filed under ‘World Elections’:

New Zealand's annual Bird of the Year contest has actual proof of electoral interference - and it's not for the first time either.

Organisers of the 2020 contest have revealed that 1500 fraudulent votes have been cast for the little spotted kiwi, catapulting the bird into first place in this year's contest.

The interference took place between 1am and 3am, with the organisation's digital detectives deducing all of the votes arrived, by email, from the one computer IP address.

Megan Hubscher, Bird of the Year spokeswoman for advocacy group Forest and Bird, said the interference wasn't the first time the election had been hacked, either.

In 2018, rogue Australian actors attempted to pervert the course of New Zealand's election with 310 dodgy votes cast from across the pond.

 

Meanwhile, The Guardian highlighted another development in this election:

The poll’s success has attracted commercial interests, such as the endorsement this week by Adult Toy Megastore of the hihi, a “polyamorous, sexually fluid bird with big testicles”.

The hihi, or stitchbird, is the only bird in the world to mate face to face, according to a statement released by Adult Toy Megastore as part of its campaign endorsement.