Voter Fraud in Weblog Awards Uncovered

Voter Fraud has been uncovered in the Weblog Awards for best Asian Blog:

The total votes for Xiaxue have been reduced by 5048 votes for cheating committed from the following the 220.255 subnet. Nine individual IP addresses have been banned.

The total votes for Mr. Brown have been reduced by 9944 votes for cheating committed from the following the 218.186 subnet. Three individual IP addresses have been banned.

I doubt losing the 5048 votes will do much to stop the Xiaxue juggernaut from winning the best Asian Blog award. However, one blogger is complaining of disenfranchisement:

Kevin at Wizbang has banned the IP addresses of the cheaters. Unfortunately, based on comments at mr brown, this may have shut out all users of Starhub cable broadband ISP Maxonline, one of the city state’s main providers. AP hopes that this is not the case or, if so, that it can be rectified quickly.

If not, tens of thousands of Singaporeans will be effectively disenfranchised.
Of course, given that the People’s Action Party has effectively intimidated the opposition to such a degree that many ridings are uncontested in parliamentary elections, as well as the presidential ‘vote’, being disenfranchised is something that Singaporeans are pretty used to.