DC Theatre Scene announced this morning that it was rescinding its 2010 Fringe Awards after a canvas of the votes revealed widespread voting irregularities. DCTS will be giving no Fringe Awards in 2010.
DCTS launched an investigation after receiving complaints about cheating both privately and on the site. According to investigators, both winning shows and runners-up were the recipient of mass voting from single individuals. One show received 572 votes from one individual. One winning show received two hundred ninety-five votes from a single voter and ninety-five from another, while another received 150 votes from one person. Investigators reported that that practically every contending show benefited from similar practices to one degree or another.
There is no evidence that anyone associated with the Fringe shows was responsible for the voter fraud. DCTS has been unable to identify the defrauders.
“Obviously, a poll so badly contaminated is of no value whatsoever,” DCTS Editor Lorraine Treanor said in announcing that the awards would be rescinded.
“Those who defrauded the awards polls misunderstand what the DCTS awards are for,” Treanor said. “They celebrate the public’s recognition of artistic excellence. The sad thing is that the shows who won the DCTS awards because of fraudulent support were all excellent, and might have won on their own merits if the voting had been fair.”
“We’ve been using the same software for our polls for four years. This is the first year a problem has been found. We will find another vendor who can offer a higher level of security.”
Knox, while I agree with most of what you say, I have to disagree with the notion that Fringe should be juried. How would that even work? If you are a group who will be creating something during your process (as many do), how could they be screened ahead of time? So many great new theatres have gotten their start at Fringe (Nu Sass, for example), without a track record to speak of. And those productions that are slapdash are usually weeded out by reviewers. No, keep it open to all. Let Theatre Ring!
Sad, but unfortunately reflective of what Fringe has largely appeared to become over the last few years – a popularity contest and an indulgent exercise in simply throwing up on stage whatever was half-formed. Please note that in my opinion there were many excellent fringe shows this year, which showed a lot of care and effort; but were drowned out by a larger number of “productions” which seemed to have been written, rehearsed and that same morning.
Nothing wrong with off-the-cuff theatre, but DC is such a better and stronger theatre scene than I think Fringe reflects in the least. Isn’t it time for it to be juried?
I can guarantee that no one voted for The Perfect Chocolate Milkshake more than once.
Shouldn’t be necessary to tell people to vote only once.
A shame the results were tainted but good for DCTS for facing up to the problem.
Next year have all 20 of your writers hold conclave and pick a few awards. There’s already one popularity contest, so your award would be special. Then put up a poll just for fun including ALL shows, maybe name one award for most popular, and let the hackers have at it.
At 7:01pm on Sunday the vote count was 617 for the eventual “winner”. The vote ended at 11:00pm (4 hours later) at more than 1400 votes. That means that at least 800 votes were cast in 240 minutes. That’s 1 vote every 18 seconds non stop for 4 hours.
It was voter fraud not fan loyalty or dedication.
Thanks to DCTS for standing up for integrity!
I agree it’s a shame that this happened, but the point was that it was not a fair vote to begin with because the technology needs improvement. The “cheaters” did nothing more than point out a flawed system, so no one would get treated unfairly. As it is, anyone can vote for their “favorite” show, whether they attended or not, so the winner could end up being “which show has the most friends with internet access” even if there is a way to lock the ballot after one vote was cast.
Also, that the vote was held Sunday-Monday, while hundreds of thousands in the area were without power and internet access didn’t help fairness either.
At least the votes were being done by enthusiastic fans by hand, and no one was brilliant enough to write a computer script to auto-vote for them!
Also, DCTC might want to post a statement with their ballot next year explaining the point and the “rules” of the election. There was no disclaimer asking voters to only vote once. Your non-stated rules are only as strong as your computer programming!
I commend the DCTS for their decision to rescind the 2010 Fringe Awards for voting irregularities. It is a shame this happened.
Thank you Lorraine and DCTS for being a stand up organization and doing the right thing. I am very impressed.