[StJacques]

Salamander wrote:

"What kind of "scripts" do this and why don't websites block them, anyway?"

The "scripts" could actually be compiled code and are usually referred to as "spiders" or "robots" or even "automatons." Microsoft.NET and Visual Basic software developers create them using the Microsoft Internet Transfer Control, other development platforms use different code components.
,br> The way the code components work is that they send out a "page request" ping to the address of the server page that offers a vote and, whenever the server responds, they send a second "page request" ping to the "server response" page address which, under most circumstances, should enter the ping as a vote. Search engines use this kind of technology a lot, polling other search engines for their responses to search keywords for example.

When you ask why web sites don't block them, actually they try, but only to a limited degree. Most of these online polls store a cookie in the folder of the requesting machine to try to stop multiple voting. But you can write code to delete cookies as soon as they are stored. Some of these web sites may even check for the sender's IP address, but even that can be worked around by using a clustered server setup. When you get right down to it, it's not worth the investment on the part of the web sites conducting the online polls to guarantee their fairness.

[Gracey]

Solve the problem. Vote Kerry over and over and over again on line. Then vote Bush in real life.

[Salamander]

Thanks for writing an explanation even *I* can understand....:)