I warned them. I’m going to be removing Ron Paul’s name from any further LGF straw polls, because his supporters are deliberately spamming our polls to make it appear as if Paul has more support than he does. Be aware that his results in the poll immediately preceding are not legitimate.

They aren’t “cheating,” as in voting multiple times, but they have sent out emails and posted the link to our poll at several spots on the web, urging people to go vote for Paul. The end result is the same—the poll results are skewed, and it’s not an accurate measure.

Internet polls are not scientific anyway, but when the gaming is this obvious I’m not going to let it slide, or to let our poll be misused by supporters of a man who, in my opinion, is nuts.

Even if they weren’t doing this pathetic maneuver to artificially pump up Paul’s support, I’d very seriously consider removing him anyway, because I found his remarks last night about 9/11 insulting and dangerous, and highly offensive. But make no mistake, he’s not being removed simply because I disagree with him—he’s off the LGF poll because I don’t want my site being used to falsely inflate his popularity. Ron Paul’s supporters are becoming notorious for sleazy, essentially stupid tactics like this.

UPDATE at 5/16/07 12:18:21 pm:

It doesn’t take much to fool Andrew Sullivan these days; he actually seems to believe the internet polls spammed by Paul’s supporters are an accurate reflection of reality: The Daily Dish: Misreading Ron Paul.

They’re scared, aren’t they? The Internet polls show real support for him. Fox News’ own internet poll placed him a close second, with 25 percent of the votes from Fox News viewers. We have a real phenomenon here...

UPDATE at 5/16/07 5:03:28 pm:

The bottom line: if Ron Paul supporters weren’t spamming, he would still be in our polls. I really don’t have any nefarious motives here; I just don’t like being gamed, and since I run these silly unscientific polls I don’t have to put up with it. Those readers who choose to believe that I do have a nefarious motive, or that I’m scared, or that I’m a Zionist neocon Nazi fascist (as someone just emailed), knock yourselves out.

UPDATE at 5/19/07 5:33:36 pm:

OK, I give up: Ron Paul Back on LGF Poll.