SEATTLE — An international design contest to repaint the Space Needle for its 50th anniversary appears to have been manipulated by computer hackers.
Then, in just a few hours, witnesses said "Trees" gained around 10,000 votes -- nearly doubling its month-long vote total.
However, contest rules stated Space Needle officials had sole discretion to declare a winner -- even if that winner failed to receive the popular vote.
"It was like watching a speedometer. The votes ran up about 50 ahead and stopped," Ward's longtime friend, Chris Smith told KIRO 7. Smith is a social media specialist who helped run "Deep Blue Sea's" voting campaign.
"All these people invested in this and to like see that shift happen so quickly--I just knew something was wrong. There was like no cooperation whatsoever. No 'we'll look into it.' It was -- 'you have a problem with us, contact our lawyers,'" Ward said.
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