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Massachusetts election guide links to medical marijuana spoof site

Opponents of a Mass. medical marijuana measure forgot to register their domain name, so a pro-marijuana prankster decided to use it for a spoof site instead.

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Mike Fenn

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Opponents of a Massachusetts measure to legalize medical marijuana now have something else to be angry about.

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A coalition formed to campaign against the ballot measure, called Question 3, mailed their information to the Secretary of State for inclusion in the Massachusetts state Voting Guide. They listed their official website as votenoonquestion3.org. There was just one small problem.

No one with the coalition had bothered to register the site.

Scott Gacek of Boston instead took that liberty. An advocate of marijuana policy reform, Gacek filled the site with spoof material, including headlines like  “FACT: Marijuana is the Gateway Drug to Twinkies” and “Local Drug Dealers’ Union Says ‘Vote No On Question 3’.”

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“This shows how disorganized they are that they don’t even register a website. You would think you would try to make sure that website was accurate, and buy the domain,” Gacek told the State House News Service.

“We ended up registering a site under a different name, neglecting to tell the Secretary of State’s office. But as a result of other people buying up the site and making a spoof out of it, people will be misled,” coalition spokesperson Lisa Barstow told the Worcester Telegram and Gazette.

The coalition has since registered mavotenoonquestion3.com and begun publicizing the new URL to voters.

Photo via Goodnight London/Flickr

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