Head Start: College Kid Gets Prison For Rigging Student President Election
from the get-'em-while-they're-young dept
We've covered mishaps with regard to e-voting in elections for quite a while now, but you may have noticed that these stories tend to revolve around the big leagues of politics. E-votes to hotmail accounts in national elections, experimental patches being applied to voting machines in Ohio, and Irish voting machines so horrifically flawed that they ended up being sold for less money than required to buy a pint of Guinness are all to do with, shall we say, professional politicians. And just as with the sporting world, the college ranks of amateur politicos are left untainted by this sort of malfunction, drama, and cheating.Actually, just like in the sporting world, the college ranks can be every bit as dirty, as shown by the story of how one former college student will get jail-time for rigging his school's elections for President of student government.
Matthew Weaver, 22, of Huntington Beach, Calif., stole almost 750 students' identities to try and become president of the San Diego County college's student government. His plan went awry when the school's computer technicians noticed an anomaly in activity and caught Weaver with keystroke loggers as he sat in front of the suspicious computer.Yes, the aspiring politician did what we all kind of assume professional politicians do: played dirty. In what was apparently a months-long plot to get something like $30k in stipends, Weaver bought keylogging software and installed it on university computers to get student credentials and vote for himself. His plan was to win Student President and then appoint a bunch of his frat brothers into roles to keep the stipends rolling in. You know, like pretty much all politicians do. And, to keep the parallel going, Weaver made matters worse by trying to cover up his fraudulent behavior by creating fake Facebook accounts for his stolen identities and then make it look like they were all supporting his campaign and alluding to a frame-job when the university began its investigation.
"He's on fire for this crime, and then he pours gasoline on it to try to cover it up," the judge reportedly said during Monday's sentencing hearing.When that bit of trickery failed, Weaver, as pro-politicians eventually do, admitted his guilt in court, got a year in prison, and the elections were voided and will be reheld. In the meantime, SDC College will be without anyone in its senior student political office, just for a bit of fraud and asshattery. I can only assume that after he's released from jail, he'll announce his candidacy for Governor of Illinois.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: college elections, elections, rigging elections
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
BAZINGA!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Only the DemoLibTards would EVER stoop to such tactics.
The GOP is above all that juvenile below the belt criminal activity. They are perfect in every way and are being ruthlessly attacked with baseless claims about activities they would never even think about.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
as pro-politicians eventually do, admitted his guilt in court, got a year in prison, and the elections were voided and will be reheld
In pro politics nobody is punished.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I don't get it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I don't get it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Voting Machines...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Somewhere out there
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Party?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Party?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Talk about misleading headlines...
Maybe I'm wrong - is there a criminal law on the books for rigging a college election?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Talk about misleading headlines...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Tim whats your excuse ???
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Tim whats your excuse ???
Hey AJ, when are you going to finally admit to cheating on your exams?
Still to gutless to come clean?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Tim whats your excuse ???
And what - exactly - might those reasons be?
Whilst waiting for enlightenment, might I suggest a few reasons?
1) complete lack of ethics or morals
2) financial gain
3) sex
4) additional power (over those less fortunate because that is much more enjoyable)
5) revenge
6) spite
7) just because
8) megalomania
9) sociopath
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Accuracy in reporting.. code of ethics
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Accuracy in reporting.. code of ethics
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Accuracy in reporting.. code of ethics
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Accuracy in reporting.. code of ethics
Sorry for calling you out for this lie, but it is what it is, try to hide it all you like.
It's easier if you ignore it after all, if you find the truth distasteful, then by all means avert your eyes, censor away !!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Accuracy in reporting.. code of ethics
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Accuracy in reporting.. code of ethics
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Accuracy in reporting.. code of ethics
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Accuracy in reporting.. code of ethics
Lets look at the title:
"College Kid Gets Prison For Rigging Student President Election"
now lets looks at the source post:
"http://threatpost.com/college-student-gets-year-in-prison-for-election-fraud/101365"
Is this person a a college student? Yes
Did he rig an election? Yes
Was it a student presidential election? Yes
Will his actions involve him going to prison? Yes, for 1 year
So where is this "lie" exactly?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
How is it a "blatant lie"?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So what you're really trying to say is SDC College will have the greatest year on record in the school's history due to the absence of a political office.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Basic tennant of REAL Journalism
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Basic tennant of REAL Journalism
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Truth might even be INCONVENIENT
Avoid it all you like,
Censor it all you can. At least have the balls to admit it, even if you don't feel obliged to state it. (truth that is).
And you wonder why TD will never be considered "mainstream media".
Truthfulness
ACCURACY
objectivity
impartiality
fairness
public accountability
just to name a few.. and to highlight your ongoing and continuous failure to even come close to a code of conduct.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Truth might even be INCONVENIENT
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
One day
Hear about the boy who called wolf ?
(motto, don't lie).
(or don't tell the same lie twice... DS9)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: One day
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: One day
[ link to this | view in chronology ]