Tories rig local newspaper poll?

I think this is pretty self-standing...

-----Original Message-----
From: Sandes, Duncan [mailto:Duncan.Sandes@Conservatives.com]
Sent: 29 July 2008 13:59
To: 76 Tory constituency and councillor e-mail addresses across the South West;

Subject: WMN poll - please vote

dear all,
the Western Morning News is running an online poll to coincide with
David Cameroin's visit to Cornwall, asking if he would make a good
leader.
the bad news is that, as it stands, 76 per cent have said "no".
the good news is only 230-odd people have voted.
so, if you can spare 2 minutes can you please go on and register your
vote for "yes" - it shouldnt take too long to change the percentage
round.
if you follow this link:
http://www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk/news
and look for the large blue box to the centre right of the screen.
can you also please pass this on to all helpers, campaigner,s members
you can think of  so we can push the percentage the right way.

many thanks,

Duncan

Duncan Sandes

Conservative regional press officer - South West

Comments

[Simon]

Because online polls for local newspapers are always carried out with strict protocols to ensure sample balance is maintained

NOT

This isn't news, this is just what happens.

[Richard Freeman]

So the vote should only be restricted to non-Conservatives?

[Jim]

This is such a non-news story. Online polls are not regulated, and can be manipulated by all sides.

[Laura]

Anyone with political affiliations can go onto these silly online polls and vote as many times as they like. Non story.

[Simon]

Is it policy to publish email addresses quite so openly?

I suggest you delete all personal email addresses from this post - to leave them is to leave those on the list subject all sorts of potential problems

[Laura]

Anyone with political affiliations can go onto these silly online polls and vote as many times as they like. Non story.

[Laura]

Anyone with political affiliations can go onto these silly online polls and vote as many times as they like. Non story.

[Alex]

I suggest that you remove those personal email addresses immediately, otherwise it may land both you and them with serious problems.

[Alex]

I suggest that you remove those personal email addresses immediately, otherwise it may land both you and them with serious problems.

[Alex]

I suggest that you remove those personal email addresses immediately, otherwise it may land both you and them with serious problems.

[Richard Freeman]

Anyone with political affiliations can go onto these silly online polls and vote as many times as they like. Non story.

[Richard Freeman]

I suggest that you remove those personal email addresses immediately, otherwise it may land both you and them with serious problems.

[unseen]

These all seem to be people in the actual area of the local paper. so what's the problem?

[Simon]

Why did it take several complaints to get the personal emails removed? Very poor journalistic standards clearly exist in certain circles

[Alex]

'Unseen' Anyone, whether in the local area or not, can go online and vote as many times as they like and rig the poll.

[Rob]

The tories are notorious for playing with polls and, for that matter, the organised delivery of comments to any blogs perceived as negative to them.......

[ani]

Well it looks to have worked, there are more votes in his favour now.
If Labour chose to they could email their own contacts to change the result, but who'd be interested in being involved with a rigged vote?
Of course if this was a Labour scam, it wouldn't be rubbished as a non story, and posters here wouldn't be so forgiving.
We know about it now, and that's good enough, so no kudos for Dave - only a red face not caused by sunburn.

[Simon]

Well, I am not a member of any political party.

I just know how meaningless newspaper polls like this are.

[Giles McNeill]

And rolling my eyes up to heaven, to you the almighty father.....

Yes, it is silly season!

There's plenty of real news to blog about so why not go and find some and blog about that.

[ani]

Well, good for you Simon, but
I've just had another look and it appears that the poll is closed now, and to Cameron's advantage.
The fact that you think it's meaningless is not the point. Rigged polls like this, whether small local or national are all pushing the public in one direction - towards Cameron.
Obviously the Cons think it is meaningful, that's why they organise and cheat.
The local press is notoriously Cons inclined, that's why Cameron is all over the pages there.

[italo]

I do consider this news, some conservative party members that spammed the same messages might not like it known but there is something called honesty and integrity and to try to fix a little seen totally unimportant web poll makes me wonder what they would try to do with a general election vote if they found a way to fix that.
Mr Sandes should resign his job and say sorry for his error of judgment and Mr Cameron should tell his parties press officers to let the parties policies do the talking and let the people of the country decide what the best way to vote is.
All this underhand poll fixing does is show that the Conservative party still needs to clean up the corruption within their ranks.

[Richard Holloway]

Newsflash!
People urged to sign local online poll from a political group...
In other news...
Liberals claim "only they can win" in a very tightly contested seat
Bear shits in wood
Pope may be Catholic

I know it must be hard to come up with another story other than 'Brown's doomed' but this is just silly.

[thomas]

Did someone at Tory HQ also send out an email asking nutty tories to come on this blog and post wild comments...?

If so, job done!

[Mags]

Well , well, doing a bit of an Obama I think- hmm abit ahead of themselves too.

2008 politics smells bad, what will it be like in 2010?

Have they no shame?

[Alan]

And of course, no labour party activists (or lib dems for that matter) would even THINK of doing anything similar to try and influence a poll result...