[Wikipedia-l] Cheating on logo voting

[Alex R.]

From: "Erik Moeller" <erik_moeller at gmx.de>
> Daniel-
> > Christopher Mahan wrote:
...
> >> I personally welcome input from all people, since
> >> it is in fact readers we are trying to reach with the
> >> logo, not just editors.
> 
> > How exactly are we going to ensure each vote is legit then?
...
>...I encourage you and others to filter out non- 
> existent users from the voting results to see if the results differ  
> significantly.

Besides the valid point that the public should have a say in the 
 logo outcome it is not unreasonable to require some kind of 
registration before voting. That is done in practically all 
democracies including member and shareholder corporations. 
Otherwise someone with a lot of friends can stuff the ballots. 
There is the question of fixing the registration deadline date: 
has it past, is it now or is it a future date? Past dates prevent 
anyone from signing up under many names, a future date will 
allow more people to register effectively giving newcomers 
a voice.

Perhaps 2nd  round votes can be posted on the voting pages 
in two categories.  Registered or anonymous. The anonymous 
vote can be compared with the registered vote to see if  
they differ signficantly.  Having voting counted in two 
categories should not be very complicated and the results 
could then be posted so that Erick's proposal is embedded  
into the second stage voting procedure; someone will not  
have to spend lots of time analyzing data. We will see if there 
is a wildly differing outcome between registered Wikipedians  
and the public at large and can discuss it then.  There will  
also be some hard data to discuss beyond allegations.
What ever decision is taken then, we will know who was 
the significant voting block, registered users or anyone who 
comes onto the site and votes; objections to including the 
public votes can be discussed then. 

Alex756