Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Electoral-vote.com Under Heavy Load; Attack?

Posted by timothy on from the get-your-provisioning-on dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Electoral-vote.com (and mirrors electoral-vote2.com through electoral-vote8.com) seem to be very slow at the moment. Votemaster ( A. Tanenbaum) just posted 'All the servers appear to be under attack now, also DNS. I added another large multiprocessor but it doesn't seem to help much. I don't this is going to work. Sorry.' Massive attack or just a large flash crowd? Anybody up for some mirroring so votemaster can concentrate on the polls?" Reader fishwack writes with word that as of 3:46GMT (10:46 PM Eastern time in the U.S.) "the Federal Electoral Commission's Web site is down."

31 of 603 comments (clear)

  1. The Oldest Slashdotting.. by Renraku · · Score: 4, Funny

    Political zerg.

    --
    Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
    1. Re:The Oldest Slashdotting.. by websaber · · Score: 4, Funny

      " Electoral-vote.com Under Heavy Load; Attack?". Great let's slashdot it. That will make their day!

      --
      "A good friend will bail you out of jail. A true friend will be sitting next to you saying, 'damn....that was fun!'"
  2. Web site maybe being ddos'd by StudyOfEfficiency · · Score: 5, Funny

    Let's post it to Slashdot with a link.

    1. Re:Web site maybe being ddos'd by pyrote · · Score: 4, Funny

      Let's post it to Slashdot with a link.

      Or even Double it or Triple it!

      --
      THE WORLD IS GOING TO END!!!! eventually.
  3. Seems fine to me by DJ+Wipeout · · Score: 5, Informative

    I got to the FEC with no problem. electoral-vote.com seemed fine too.

  4. Yeah by Tyndmyr · · Score: 4, Funny

    It must be under attack, probably by terrorists, who seek to quash our freedom and replace it with...evilness! Because, you know, it doesnt make sense that a site could go down because of insane numbers of people using it. Us slashdotters cant imagine such a thing happening. Besides, who would be going there now, anyhow?

    --
    Support more choices in goverment-Vote 3rd party.
    1. Re:Yeah by Xepo · · Score: 4, Informative

      He specifically put up the mirrors because his servers were getting attacked before. It's not just from mass visitation.

  5. There's an election today by Peter+Cooper · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think these sites might be slow because the US is voting in a Presidential Election today, so people are checking out those sites for the results so far, etc.

    1. Re:There's an election today by RealProgrammer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Presidential election?

      Who's running?

      --
      sigs, as if you care.
    2. Re:There's an election today by ktakki · · Score: 4, Funny
      Who's running?

      Darl McBride is running against Richard Stallman, with Theo DeRaadt as a third party candidate.

      k.
      --
      "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." - Anne Frank
  6. Under attack by Slashdot editors? by stoborrobots · · Score: 4, Funny

    What's this? like the fourth direct link to the site today?

    --
    "Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
  7. MicroKernel by diablobsb · · Score: 5, Funny

    quick!
    switch to a microkernel based OS and webserver we all know would stand up to this attack nicely...
    jk :)

    --
    I for one, welcome our new hot grits... PROFIT!
  8. who cares! by seanadams.com · · Score: 4, Interesting

    right now they're calling florida as "weak kerry" which is nowhere near the case if you look at the figures in so far. Why is this site important?

    1. Re:who cares! by DataPath · · Score: 4, Informative

      He updates the site maybe once a day, and based upon a wide number of polls. He's not doing hourly updates as the results come back from different precincts.

      --
      Inconceivable!
  9. Electoral-Vote3.com - Electoral-Vote8.com by marktaw.com · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.electoral-vote3.com/

    through

    http://www.electoral-vote8.com/

    If one doesn't come up, use another.

  10. Internet load today by aacool · · Score: 4, Informative
    netcraft reported this already earlier today http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2004/11/02/mirro rs_help_electoralvotecom_blunt_ddos_attacks.html

    Mirroring helped

    Aljazeera was also down, per Netcraft

    I've blogged live about Internet Load all day on my blog today

  11. Gad you gave us a link to slashdot by aardwolf204 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Its good that you provide us apache-crash-happy slashdotters with a link to Electoral-vote.com, come on troops get in there and get that server smoking!

    More seriously, can anyone tell my why at this moment the reports are so uneven among the major networks:

    NBC: 207 / 199
    Yahoo: 237 / 199
    Fox: 210 / 144
    CBS: 246 / 207

    Answer that, then continue to F5, F5, F5...

    And do it in firefox, maybe the major news sites will notice in their logs.

    --
    Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the /.crowd.May ur days b merry & bright & may al
    1. Re:Gad you gave us a link to slashdot by Peyna · · Score: 4, Funny

      Okay, so now it's down to Ohio and New Mexico. If Bush takes Ohio, Kerry takes New Mexico (and NH, the rest of the states follow the trend from 4 years ago), there will be a tie.

      Which means we would probably end up with President George Bush and Vice-President John Edwards. That'd be a hoot.

      --
      What?
    2. Re:Gad you gave us a link to slashdot by TopShelf · · Score: 4, Informative

      Go here and you can see the states getting called by each of the networks as it happens. It's been my favorite site to follow tonight...

      --
      Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
    3. Re:Gad you gave us a link to slashdot by Peyna · · Score: 4, Informative

      In the case of a electoral tie, the currently sitting House of Representatives picks the President, the Senate picks the Vice President; yuor talk about the Supreme Court doesn't come into play.

      --
      What?
    4. Re:Gad you gave us a link to slashdot by demachina · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Its interesting exit polls have historically been pretty accurate which is why networks have relied on them for so long, until the Republicans started winning elections and especially as electronic voting came on the scene. As you recall in 2000 VNS exit polling predicted Gore won and he didn't. In 2002 the VNS exit polls mysteriously failed in a massive way and the Republicans had a big win. It was disbanded and an all new AP system was used today.

      Today apparently the exit polls were massively swinging to Kerry and it now appears he is losing the election. Curious that exit polls have gone completely south in just the last 4 years.

      It leads to two possibilities.

      1. The exit polls are really innacurate or maybe Democrat leaners were rigging them, of course rigging exit polls is kind of stupid since they don't count for anything other than maybe putting a little psychic pressure on late voters. Maybe they are just consistently bad but they are a pretty big sampling and its odd they would be as far off as they were apparently today. This is the message Fox and the Republicans were pounding on all night. The exit polls were all wrong and you need to fix them or get rid of them. Unfortunately at this point the exit poll are the only checks and balances we have on the truthfullness of the polls and especially electronic polling.

      2. The exit polls were accurate and someone was rigging the vote. Needless to say with widespread use of electronic voting machines, without paper trail, if someone rigged them to skew the vote to the Republicans you would see what we've seen today and it would be hard to prove thats what happened. The exit polls say Kerry wins and the voting machines say Bush wins. Unfortunately with no paper trail we may never know.

      If exit polls are wrong it should be setting off alarm bells that either they are wrong or the vote counts are wrong. You should not leap to the conclusion that it must be the exit polls as the media and Republican were tonight and probably will be from now on.

      One interesting thing to do would be to lock up a all the electronic voting machines in precincts in Ohio and Florida (Broward and Miami-Dade in particular where there is huge Democratic vote to suppress). Look in particular for precincts where exit polls said one thing and the machines said something else. Be sure to set the date back to the day of the election, set them exactly like they were on election day, and start entering votes on them in a semi random way at about the same rate voters would on all or most of the machines, and see if after a full day of voting they report an accurate vote.

      Another interesting exercise would be to correlate the map of precincts with electronic voting with precincts with bogus exit polls and see if there is a correlation.

      I think much of the data on them can be found on electionline.org.

      --
      @de_machina
  12. In Other News by Jakhel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Check out the exit polls. Scroll down to what people believe are the most important qualities in a president. Only 7% said intelligence!!!!! HOLY FUCK!!! JESUS CHRIST, is this the country that I'm living in?!?!?!?

    1. Re:In Other News by kfg · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There are very, very many 'intelligent' people with little to no wisdom.

      However, there are very, very few stupid people who do.

      KFG

    2. Re:In Other News by Rhys · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The scary thing is that more people are concerned about the president's religious preferences/beliefs than his intelligence.

      That should scare you.

      --
      Slashdot Patriotism: We Support our Dupes!
  13. *sigh* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't understand why Slashbots assume that people who support Bush are dumb. I don't support Bush; I voted for Kerry. But I don't think that people who voted for Bush are dumb. They just have different priorities, values, and opinions than I do. I just don't get it: I understand Bush bashing (he's a public figure after all), but why bash people who voted for him? Attacking someone who holds a different opinion than you does not help your cause...

    1. Re:*sigh* by mcrbids · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't understand why Slashbots assume that people who support Bush are dumb.

      Choosing to drive a VW bug is not stupid, unless you're going to haul cement by the ton.

      In much the same way, choosing to go with George Bush is not stupid, unless you're trying to run a country.

      Now, assume that you're sitting at a construction site, with contractors everywhere. Somebody shows up in a VW full of concrete bags, promsing to make a run to get more.

      VW != stupid.

      Concrete != stupid.

      VW + concrete == stupid.

      Simple math, no?

      --
      I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
    2. Re:*sigh* by PMuse · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's the reason America is the way it is today.

      Right. Because if the US had direct popular presidential elections, that would have fixed this mess. [Bush 51%, Kerry 48%]

      Face it, Americans have voted to deny their shame. Bush told them that the US had done right. Kerry told them it had done wrong. They drank the koolaid. It's going to take another full Vietnam-sytle awfulness for Americans to change course; they're incapable of seeing disaster until after it's happened.

      --
      "We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
  14. Re:Thunderdome!!!!! by Kenshin · · Score: 4, Funny

    I hope they play that "dramatic battle" music from when Kirk fought Spock on Star Trek...

    --

    Does it make you happy you're so strange?

  15. Obligatory Futurama Reference... by supermonkeyball · · Score: 5, Funny
    On the TV, candidate Jack Johnson is debating candidate John Jackson.

    Johnson: It's time someone had the courage to stand up and say: I'm against those things that everybody hates!
    Jackson: Now, I respect my opponent. I think he's a good man. But, quite frankly, I agree with everything he just said!
    Fry: These are the candidates? They sound like clones. [Squints] Wait a minute. They are clones!
    Leela: Don't let their identical DNA fool you. They differ on some key issues.
    Johnson: I say your three cent titanium tax goes too far!
    Jackson: And I say your three cent titanium tax doesn't go too far enough!

    Script found Here

    --
    My sig can beat up your sig
  16. In case you think this is over tonight by Peyna · · Score: 4, Insightful

    just some of the problems that went down today.

    It won't be over at least a week if not longer. So long as it's decided by inauguration day, we'll be okay.

    --
    What?
  17. One more option by Shihar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Last election I watched an exit poller. He had no method of randomly selecting people to poll as far as I could tell. The only pattern I could see is that he seemed to be more inclined to ask pretty young woman.

    Conspiracy theories aside, I think it is just bad polling. Democrats are generally younger. Younger people are generally prettier and look more approachable. It might be a small effect, but do it a few thousand times and it adds up. I am not saying that it isn't worth looking into, but my gut guess would be that it is simply poor random selection.