While there is still plenty of arguments in the US about unproven allegations of fraud in the presidential elections, in New Zealand it appears that an election has indeed been tampered with. At least 1,500 fraudulent votes would have been cast to help the little gray kiwi win the bird of the year title.
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“Fortunately, we discovered that this little kiwi at night and midnight was trying to secretly get 1,500 extra votes,” a spokeswoman for the organization joked, according to local media. Those votes were cast via email addresses that are all linked to the same IP address. The spokeswoman does not think any foreign power has tried to influence the elections.
“If you really love the little gray kiwi, then campaign for it,” said the spokeswoman. “We don’t want to see cheating anymore.” The leader of the campaign for the bird also stressed, according to the newspaper The New Zealand Herald not approve the casting of illegal votes.
The bird election has been held for fifteen years. New Zealanders get to vote for their favorite birds every year. Politicians and all kinds of organizations also speak out publicly for their favorite candidate. Sex shop Adult Toy Megastore, for example, supports the yellow-belt honey eater, because it is said to practice ‘polyamory by mutual consent’. This year, a total of around 35,000 votes have already been cast.
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