Yesterday, I promised I'd return to reality today. Instead of more DOOM, here's something reassuring from Vox: Want to rig the US presidential election? Good luck.
Here’s why it’s nearly impossible.
A more complete explanation comes from the companion article on Vox's site.
Our system for casting and counting ballots is so decentralized, and has so many built-in safeguards, that you’d have to rig a whole lot of elections to actually sway the results. From regular maintenance of the voter registration rolls to poll workers overseen by both political parties to voting machines designed to catch anyone who tampers with counts, there are checks at every step of the process to ensure the election’s integrity.The election system is not "rigged" in the way Trump implies. There are other issues with the system, but voter impersonation isn't one of them. I'd be more worried about Trump's buddy Putin, who does have the resources to tamper with the machines in the system, messing with the tallies in Trump's favor, but that's a story for another day.
Enjoyed the video. I work as an election inspector. Anyone thinking the presidential election could be rigged has no idea how an election works. That may include Trump. It would have to be the 9/11 "conspiracy" at least squared.
ReplyDeleteI've been a poll worker, too, 32 years ago back in California. I couldn't recall any step in the process where anyone could have tampered with the voting in the precinct where I worked and gotten away with it. Mind you, there ways to manipulate the system, but those involve voter registration and voting access, not the actual casting of ballots.
DeleteGiven the truth of what you are saying, the chief means of Republican (is there any other side) vote rigging these days is preventing people from voting, either through illegal purges of likely Democratic voters, or of intimidation in Democratic districts.
ReplyDeletePlease do not forget that 80,000 people, largely black and Hispanic, were removed illegally from the Florida voter rolls in 2000, by George Bush's brother. This number dwarfs the difference of a few hundred votes between the candidates in that State, and absolutely gave the White House to the Republicans. This is the power of something like this in one single State, and the message was hardly lost on Republicans, who have a national campaign to do the same in many States this year. Of course, that has been essentially ignored by the mainstream press.
When I wrote "There are other issues with the system," those are exactly what I meant. All of them also work in Trump's favor, not Clinton. For what it's worth, the topic hasn't been completely ignored by the mainstream press; I've been posting articles on the subject to the Coffee Party's Facebook page almost every night for two months.
DeleteJust the same, here's to making the margin of victory so big the election can't be stolen.