IGNORE THESE FRAUDULENT, DECEPTIVE, USELESS POLLS
As the August 2026 elections are approaching, we will start to witness a deluge of polls. There’s desperation for those losing popularity to try to choke up their standing and suppress that of their key competitors. They will even try to boost the standing of political nothings to undermine the standing of their real competitors. This is what is happening with these polls you are seeing. They are nothing but a fraud, a lie. It’s all rubbish and not worth participating in or paying attention to.
It’s important to be aware that many of these, particularly online, might be influenced by automated bots.
These bots are programmed to sway public opinion on various topics or political candidates and are prevalent on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Discord, Reddit, and others. Their results are often picked up and circulated by news organisations, amplifying their impact.
With advancements in AI, poll bots are increasingly able to replicate human voting behaviours, making them more challenging to detect. Understanding poll bots is crucial for maintaining an informed perspective in the face of potential manipulation in online polls and surveys.
What is a poll bot?
A “poll bot” is a software programme or bot designed to automatically participate in online polls. These bots can be programmed to cast votes repeatedly in an online poll, usually to sway the results in favour of a particular option. Poll bots are often used in situations where the outcome of an online poll is seen as significant or beneficial to certain groups or individuals.
They can skew the results of a poll, making it unreliable as a measure of genuine public opinion or preference. In some cases, their use can also be illegal, especially if they are used to manipulate public opinion or for fraudulent purposes.
The technology behind these bots can vary, but they typically operate by simulating human interactions with a website, such as clicking on a specific option or filling out a form. Advanced poll bots might use techniques to bypass security measures like CAPTCHAs or IP address checks, which are designed to prevent automated voting.
To make multiple votes possible, poll bots often employ tactics to bypass common online poll security measures. These measures might include CAPTCHA tests, which are designed to distinguish between humans and bots, or systems that track IP addresses to limit the number of votes per user. Advanced poll bots might use optical character recognition to solve CAPTCHAs, or they might employ a network of proxy servers or VPNs to mask and change their IP addresses, allowing them to vote repeatedly without being detected.
In some cases, poll bots are part of larger networks called botnets, which use many computers to generate a high volume of votes. This scalability makes them particularly effective at swaying poll results.
Ignore these useless, rubbish, and fraudulent polls.
Fred M’membe
President of the Socialist Party