Nickelodeon says Kids’ Vote hacked

On Tuesday night, as it has during every presidential election year over the past three decades, Nickelodeon aired its “Nick News: Kids Pick the President” special and revealed the results of its Kids' Vote poll — an informal survey in which children vote for the president of the United States.

Except this year, the network said, the poll was attacked by bots.

The online poll was open Oct. 20 through Oct. 26, and on the second day of voting, Nickelodeon “detected cheating ... when threads on online forums began discussing corrupting the Kids Pick the President site with fraudulent votes,” the network said in a news release. The rules allow for one vote per household device so that families with multiple children can each cast a ballot.

“Subsequently, more than 130,000 bot-generated votes were detected,” the release stated. “Nickelodeon utilized a voter certification tool to identify these votes and to remove them, ensuring that only individually placed votes counted toward the total.” (NBC News reporter Ben Collins posted a screenshot of a 4chan thread in which users discussed ways to manipulate the poll.)

This is the first time a coordinated bot effort has attempted to interfere with the results of a “Kids Pick the President” poll, a

Nickelodeon spokeswoman confirmed.

Ultimately, nearly 90,000 virtual ballots were cast, the network said. Democratic candidate Joe Biden won with 53 percent of the vote, while President Trump received 47 percent.

Over the past eight election cycles, the Kids' Vote poll has correctly predicted the president six times: It was incorrect in 2004, when kids chose John Kerry over George W. Bush, and in 2016, when they chose Hillary Clinton over Trump.

Tuesday's “Kids Pick the President” special, hosted by actress Keke Palmer, educated kids about the history of voting, and discussed issues, including the coronavirus pandemic, the climate crisis and the country's reckoning over racial equality.

After talking to kids on Zoom about the first presidential debate disaster (10-year-old Rory: “Honestly, the debate feels like a reality show!”) and a discussion with a child psychologist about the impact of election chaos on kids, Palmer announced they were ready to share the winner of the poll. But suddenly, a voice-over cut in, announcing the interference. “After lots of vetting, we feel super confident in our results,” it concluded.

Palmer then revealed the winners of the poll: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. “There you have it,” she said. “The kids — the future — have spoken.”