Who Stole Super Tuesday

Written by Moe Zilla

It was a chilly Tuesday in February, and Amy felt like everyone in America was watching her.

She was voting proudly for a candidate to run for President. That election was nine months away, but the Democrats and Republicans both wanted to ensure they'd selected the best possible candidate for the race. Amy was one of millions of voters who'd vote today in a primary election indicating which candidate she'd prefer. The blue California sky seemed to be smiling on her.

Amy knew she wasn't alone: twenty-two states were holding their primary today, and the newscasts were calling it "Super Tuesday." But out of them all, the most votes would be cast in California. Amy walked across the college campus, still proud of the role she was playing.

But someone was trying to cheat.

"It was on the internet," her friend Barry insisted. "A web page showed instructions for hacking into the computers that store the votes." Amy was irritated at Barry, who was always telling her things he'd read on the internet. Besides, Barry was only a freshman, whereas Amy was in her second year at college.

"That couldn't happen," Amy insisted. "The hacker would have to be alone with the computer."

"Only for a few seconds!" Barry responded with excitement. "They'd fake the results that they'd like to see, and store them on a special data drive. If they can get to the computer, they can insert their drive and replace all the original votes with fake ones!"

Amy didn't think that a hacker could try that trick without being spotted, but Barry sounded sure. "I heard a prankster talking about it in the computer lab. He's going to have all his sneaky friends distract the workers at the polling place while he tries to hack its computer!"

Amy was alarmed. "Do you know who it is?"

"I'd never seen him before," Barry said. "But if he was in the computer lab, he has to be a student here. I heard the conversation ten minutes ago, during my lunch break at noon. If we hurry, we can stop them!"

Two fraternity brothers rode past them on bicycles, each with a bumper sticker naming their favorite candidate. All around her were people hoping for someone to win. Could a hacker really interfere with America's democracy?

Amy was struck by an idea. She told Barry to follow her to the science building, where the computer lab was on the second floor. Every student entering the room had to write their name on a sign-in sheet. "We can figure out who you saw by checking the list!"

To the right of the computer lab's door was a low cardboard table, where a bored geek stood watching over the sign-in sheet. Amy said hello, but he didn't answer. He was wearing tiny earbuds in his ears so he could listen to music from his iPod.

There were only three names on the list besides Barry's. He studied the list while Amy searched around for a pencil. The names on the list were:

Ricky Churrelo Xavier Ericksen Simon Knowles

"I've heard about Ricky Churrelo!" Barry said. "He's been talking about politics all month." Amy seemed interested, and they hurried towards the stairs that led down to the campus lawn. "Ricky wrote an editorial for the school newspaper, saying that he thinks the best candidate is Ron Paul. Ricky's angry that his candidate didn't get included in some of the debates."

By the door of the science building was an empty phone both, and Barry spotted a phone book inside. Turning quickly to the "C" page, Barry looked up Ricky's address. But had Ricky already left to try his trick at the voting booth? Amy and Barry started running past the green lawns of the campus.

Ricky's dorm was like a cube, filled with long hallways of tiny rooms. Ricky lived on the fourth floor in room 45F. Barry knocked loudly on the door, then waited nervously. "I'll know the hacker when I see him!" Barry whispered to Amy. But unfortunately, it was Ricky's roommate who answered the door—Ricky wasn't there.

"Do you know where he is?" Amy asked quickly.

The roommate yawned. His hair was messy, and it was obvious he'd been taking a nap before Barry banged on the door. "Ricky had a final exam this morning. He was going to study first in the computer lab, because then the test was going to last from ten until one."

Suddenly, a silly song started playing loudly in the hallway. "That's my cell phone," Barry said, a little embarrassed. Amy gave Barry an annoyed look as he opened the cell phone and began talking to one of his freshmen friends.

But then she overheard Barry asking an important question: "Do you know a student named Simon Knowles?" There was a mysterious silence. "No, Knowles," Barry repeated. "With a K." Amy watched Barry's face, hoping to read the answer in his expression. Barry saw her gaze, and shook his head no.

The door closed, and Ricky's roommate returned to his nap. Barry's face looked angry now. "Yes, I still think that it's possible to steal votes in an election," he argued over the phone, "and that's why I've been warning people about it for the last four weeks!" Two students passed in the hallway, talking excitedly about their own favorite candidate, Barack Obama. "What about Xavier Ericksen?" Barry asked into the phone. His eyes lit up, and he turned his face to Amy, nodding yes.

"Xavier lives in the building next door!" he told Amy. They rushed toward the elevator and rode down to the lobby. It seemed like everyone they passed in the dorm was also talking about the primary election.

"Xavier's in the same class as my friend," Barry explained as they hurried next door. "And Xavier's very anxious for John McCain to be the Republican's candidate for President."

Inside the dorm, Amy and Barry looked around. There was a list of the students and their room numbers, and Xavier's was on the first floor. This time Amy knocked on the door. No one answered at first, but there was music coming from inside. Suddenly the door swung open, and the doorway was filled by an enormous athlete wearing a bright football jersey.

"What do you want?" he asked. Barry decided to let Amy do the talking.

"Is Xavier here?" she asked.

"No," the athlete said, more politely. "Right this second, he's with his tutor."

"Why does he need a tutor?" Barry asked.

"He's not stupid, if that's what you're thinking!" the athlete said defensively. "He's really struggling in school, and it's making him really insecure, but he doesn't have any friends, so no one's helping him study. He needs to pass two tests this week."

"Do you know Simon Knowles?" Amy asked him. Luckily, the athlete did, but unfortunately, Simon lived in a house on the other side of the campus.

There was a shuttle bus which would drive past Simon's dormitory. Barry said he'd head over to the student center, where the polling station was set up for the students to vote. He'd watch for the hacker while Amy investigated Simon Knowles. Sitting on the bus, Amy had a horrible thought: what if Barry was the source of all this mystery? Maybe he'd invented this whole story about a voting conspiracy. It'd be just the sort of creepy thing a freshman might do to impress the older students.

Simon lived off-campus, in a small house he'd rented with five of his friends. Amy knocked on his door, but no one answered. An old man watering his lawn next door said there was nobody home. "Yes, Simon and five of his friends have rented this house, but about ten minutes ago, I saw them all leaving in a pickup truck."

Amy stood on the sidewalk, knowing now was the time to protect everyone's votes. But who was behind this conspiracy to steal them?

Suddenly, she knew the answer.