by Bright Ewuru | Sep 12, 2024 | Articles
Voter fraud can happen beyond political contexts—and can, unfortunately, occur in awards programs and corporate processes where votes decide important outcomes.
Just take this year’s edition of the Hugo Awards—an awards program honouring the best science fiction and fantasy works of the previous year, where more than 350 votes were deemed fraudulent and consequently disqualified.
It’s an important reminder for awards managers to work diligently to prevent fraudulent voting and create a safe public voting experience.
Fraudulent voting refers to any intentional illegal or unethical action taken to influence the outcome of a voting process and benefit a particular candidate or option.
In the context of public awards programs, voter fraud can take the form of vote stuffing through automated bots, multiple-account voting or cross-platform voting. Fraudulent voting can also be done via mail, exploitation of technical weaknesses, coercion or monetary compensation.
Such manipulative tactics can have an array of negative effects on your awards program including damage to the program’s reputation, devaluation of the recognition, loss of sponsorship, reduced participation and potential legal and ethical consequences.
The first step towards preventing fraudulent voting in your awards program is to make a clear position on fraud. Declare a zero-tolerance policy for fraudulent voting and emphasise the penalties—revocation of the fraudulent votes or disqualification of entrants who received them.
Ensure that the voters and entrants know about these terms and conditions by publishing them in bold text on your website, voter registration form and voting page. It’s also vital to educate your voters about the importance of fair voting practices and the risk of engaging in voter fraud.
Communicating your stance, emphasising the consequences of voter fraud and raising awareness can deter potential miscreants and boost the credibility of your voting process.
Avoiding voter fraud in your public awards program can be as simple as using the right voting software. Such platforms offer robust security measures that ensure a transparent and auditable voting process.
These measures include user verification, anti-bot mechanisms, real-time monitoring, voting data encryption which protects such information from unauthorised access, automated fraud detection and post-vote audits.
To curb voter fraud, make voter registration mandatory. Requiring voters to register before they vote can help keep track of voters and their votes. Consider asking them to create accounts with unique identifiers such as email addresses or phone numbers; implement authentication to confirm that they own the account.
Complement the public voting process with other judging modes or voting systems to ensure a fair and balanced outcome. Consider having a panel of judges who ultimately make the final decision after the public voting. A weighted voting system—one in which different votes have different weights depending on the voter’s history and engagement with the program—can be of help too.
We believe there’s more than one way to pick a winner, so Award Force features four online judging modes. These judging modes can be used independently or in combination and can be very effective in building integrity into your judging process.
Being transparent about your voting process, criteria and rules can help prevent voter fraud in your public awards program.
One way to ensure transparency is to provide a public log of votes to show that votes are counted credibly. Sharing detailed results, vote counts or trends in real-time or after voting demonstrates your unwavering dedication to transparency.
It’s equally important to provide clear channels for participants to report suspicious activities. Participant confidence and vigilance grow when they know that the concerns they raise will be addressed satisfactorily.
It can be helpful to use voting limitations to keep voting in check. This helps control the number of votes any one particular voter can give. Another helpful strategy is time-restricted voting; setting time limits on voting sessions prevents vote stuffing where a voter will attempt to cast multiple votes in a short timeframe.
It might be necessary to hide the number of votes per entry so that entrants don’t feel pressured to influence the outcome if their votes are low. Hiding the number of votes can also prevent any bias on the part of the voters.
If the award and votes are region-specific, consider implementing geo-fencing to prevent voters outside that region from participating. Requiring region-specific authentication in the form of documentation can also help verify their eligibility to vote.
Track the voting process in real-time to identify unusual patterns that suggest suspicious activity.
After the voting process or if you suspect foul play, you can audit votes to ensure the votes are legitimate.
Voter fraud can be a real threat to awards program and proper diligence is required when opening up a program to public voting. Try these tips above to help safeguard your awards programs from being influenced by mischievous actors.
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