‘Ballots have been stuffed’: voting scandal rocks Alaska’s fat bear contest

Katmai national park, which runs Fat Bear Week, forced to discount votes after irregularities in semi-finals discovered

A contest to determine the fattest bear in southern Alaska has been rocked by scandal, after organizers said a ballot box had been stuffed" in favor of a brown bear called Holly.

Katmai national park, which runs Fat Bear Week, a knockout-style online competition that allows people to vote on which brown bears have gained the most weight between summer and fall, said it had discovered irregularities in voting over the weekend.