Several readers of the OCNJDaily.com were kind enough to reach out to me and point out that Huntington Beach, CA, whom Ocean City is battling for the Best Beach in America, has an abnormally high amount of votes that have come from France, Germany and the Ukraine while the overwhelming amount of the votes from Ocean City are all from within the United States. Seeing this information would lead one to believe that the voting is being influenced by voting likely done by "bots" that are set to just continually set to "vote" for Huntington Beach, CA. This is something you see frequently online and servers in countries such as Germany and the Ukraine are primary locations for this sort of activity.
Looking deeper in to previous voting results, The Indiana Dunes, which was the last beach to lose to Huntington Beach, also lost by what appears to be a very high volume of votes from outside the United States.
Inquiries to Coastal Living magazine, which sponsored and promoted the contest, have gone unanswered.
Regardless of the outcome of the contest, I think Ocean City should be very proud of the fact such a large amount of actual votes were placed on their behalf. There is still time to vote...so please, if you haven't voted already, take the time to vote!
The URL for voting is:
www.coastalliving.com/beachbracket
