Still Shaken By The Voter Fraud In Fat Bear Week

It seems that any place some people think they can cheat—and get away with cheating—they will. 

And be cheered on by their fellow travelers or acquiesced to by the meek.

From The Independent via Yahoo Finance, October 11:

One of America’s most beloved elections has been the victim of a voter fraud scandal.

That’s right — Fat Bear Week. The annual March Madness-style tournament where people vote for their favourite rotund grizzly bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park has reported an apparent attempt at election rigging.

Katmai National Park said on Twitter that the race between the bears 435 Holly and 747 was hit by a spam attack, apparently to tip the scales in favour of 435 Holly.

“Like bears stuff their face with fish, our ballot box, too, has been stuffed,” the park tweeted.

Amber Kraft with the National Parks Service told Rolling Stone that while 747 was in the lead all day on Sunday, 435 Holly seemed to get a sudden boost of thousands of votes, drawing suspicion from election officials.

The votes all seemed to come from fake email addresses connected to a few IP addresses, she added, so the team was able to filter out all the fake votes.

In the end, 747, a favourite to win the tournament this year, came out victorious against 435 Holly, the 2019 champion.

The National Parks Service reviewed previous rounds of voting and did not find any additional evidence of fraud, Rolling Stone reports....

....MUCH MORE

Bear 747, also known among the cognoscenti as Bear Force One is a fine specimen but this victory will always have the taint of corruption associated with it 

From Popular Science, a head-on view of the winner:

  

And from Smithsonian Magazine, a three-quarter pose:

He is a chonky boy. 

Our posts on the 2022 competition: 

It's Fat Bear Week At Katmai National Park (and on Wall Street) 

North to Alaska: The Fat Bear Junior competition, AKA Chubby Cubbies, has ended with an horrendous decision by the crowd....

Heads-Up: "Get Ready, Fat Bear Week 2022 is Coming From Katmai National Park"