Someone cheated on NIRI’s Nasdaq poll

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SOMETHING strange happened shortly after I posted an update to our story about Nasdaq’s controversial move to bundle website hosting and newswire services with its listing fees.

Yesterday, I updated our original story to add interim results from a NIRI member poll asking if they approved of Nasdaq’s move.

The screenshot below shows that around the time I posted the update (4:00 pm EST, October 10), 38% of those voting said they approved while 62% said they disapproved.

These were the results at 4:00 pm on October 10, a few hours after the poll was opened via an email to members.

But a short while later, something odd began to happen. The votes in favor suddenly started to ratchet up. By late last night the score stood at 55% in favor 45% against.

This is very suspicious because there’s no reason for such heavy voting in the evening when, presumably, NIRI members have better things to do.

The favorable voting has continued today. About 15 minutes ago, at 4:21 pm EST, the poll results were as shown in the screenshot below — 64% in favor and 36% opposed. A complete reversal.

These were the results at 4:21 pm on October 11.

This is all rather funny. Clearly, someone isn’t comfortable with a vote against Nasdaq’s plans and wants to rig this poll.

So who could possibly be sitting at their computer voting “yes” over and over again? Your guess is as good as mine, but it’s clear they need to get a life.

If I were to place bets on what the true opinion of NIRI members is, I’d say the results as of 4:00 pm EST yesterday are likely most representative. And they were 62% opposed and 38% in favor.

Update: Talk about a tempest in a teapot. This morning I had voicemails, emails and heaps of web traffic over this post. Why all the fuss? It’s not like these polls are designed to provide accurate results, nor would or should anyone rely on them. NIRI itself points this out in the disclaimer that appears below the results. Seems to me they’re provided more for entertainment than any serious attempt to measure member opinion. According to my own tests, anyone can skew the results because the polls are open to the public and don’t have any mechanism to prevent repeat voting.

So why did I write about it? Because I thought it was funny in the grander scheme of things IROs have to worry about.

If you would like to discuss this, please do so in the comments below. I’m not taking calls on this. Seriously.

Dominic Jones

Dominic (bio & disclosures) is IR Web Report‘s founder and an online investor relations consultant. He advises leading public companies and investor relations service providers worldwide on using the web for disclosure, engagement and profile building. You can contact him via the contacts page.