Man bytes dog

Unknown hacker tries to fix ugly dog competition, sending loyal fans a-howling

May 31, 2006

By DANE GOLDEN
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

The dearly departed Li'l Sam must be rolling over in his grave.

Election fraud has struck this year's World's Ugliest Dog Contest. Or, to be more precise, it has struck the new, online version of that contest.

The World's Ugliest Dog Contest is in its 18th year, with the official contest to be held at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on June 23. But this year, the fair decided to add an online contest to help ramp up publicity for the event. It worked, although perhaps not in the way organizers expected.

Even though the Web voting is not binding in determining the final champion, someone evidently thought it was important enough to hack into the Web site and erase votes from the top four vote-getters a few weeks ago.

When all was said and done, tens of thousand of votes had been surreptitiously removed from the totals of front-runners Munchkin, Victoria, Pee Wee Martini and Rascal, suddenly pushing fifth-placed Lucille Bald into the lead.

Loyal voters were incensed, particularly Victoria's supporters, said Sonoma-Marin Fair marketing director Vicki DeArmon.

"I got a ton of e-mails from her fan base, which is substantial," DeArmon said.

One group of Pee Wee fans, students from West Chester, Pa., e-mailed to say that they were very upset at the turn of events.

"There is obviously something wrong here and this is all rigged," they wrote. "We suggest you either start the voting over or give Pee Wee back his votes."

The fair chose to restart the contest. On May 22, they started the voting over again from scratch, with new, tighter security measures in place. And since new voting began, there have been no problems.

Last year's winner and three-time champion, Li'l Sam of Santa Barbara, passed away last year, much to the sadness of his many fans. They reportedly e-mailed his owner their condolences from all over the world.

Since Sam will not be defending his title, the race is wide open. Included this year are candidates from New York, Colorado, Florida and Pennsylvania, as well a local favorite from Santa Rosa, Munchkin.

Li'l Sam's owner has entered another dog this year, Tater Tot, Li'l Sam's longtime girlfriend, who insiders indicate may be too cute for the contest. So far, she lags far behind the other vote-getters.

At latest count, Rascal leads all contestants, with more than five thousand votes. Victoria and Pee Wee Martini are close behind.

Las Vegas does not currently place odds on the contest.

(Contact Dane Golden at dgolden@arguscourier.com)

WORLD'S UGLIEST DOG CONTEST

Visit www.yourfair.org to vote for your favorite ugly dog. One vote only, please. Results are non-binding on final outcome.

LI'L SAM'S UGLIEST DOG BLOG

samugliestdog.typepad.com