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This is the first election where you were concerned about violence on e day? I guess you don't remember the odds on Obama surviving his first month in office.

This is the first election where you were concerned about violence on e day? I guess you don't remember the odds on Obama surviving his first month in office. Not only were assassination attempts expected, they were probable enough to have betting odds at Paddy Power. You probably don't remember Bush Jr's 2004 victory, either, where literally millions of people took to the streets. Also notable that it looks like the election really may have been rigged. From outside the country it's fascinating to watch. Half of the democratic party was accusing Hillary of vote rigging in the spring, and HN loved a couple of statistical analyses to that effect. But now that trump says it, HN says it is dangerously undermining your democracy. Another favorite is the recent explosion over the (brilliantly played) sexual abuse video and accusations against trump. It was a fantastic power punch, coming from the same people who forgive or ignore some 21 different accusations against bill Clinton of extramarital affairs and even 3 of violent rape. That he made frequent lewd comments is well established in court. Hillary herself is accused in something like 13 of those cases of slandering, threatening, or bribing the victims to keep quiet. None of this (on either side) is proven of course, but there are videos and accuser testimonies enough for everyone. Of course, this cuts both ways: trump supporters hate hillary for the same reasons hillary supporters hate trump, and the Americans seem completely blind to their own doublethink. Everyone thinks the other side is literally the American Hitler. Pao is totally within her rights to choose which brand of sexual abuser she wants to support. And I guess I'm within my rights to put a bag of popcorn in the micro for the last few weeks of the traditional, irrational 2 month hate leading up to November 8.

hiringmanager 10y ago
I care a great deal about the quality of elections in the USA and have been watching this issue since the 1990s. In 2001 there were real problems exposed, not just hanging chads but real problems with the way software counted votes. Result massaging is a real thing. In 2004 I worked for a third party candidate, who had a direct line to live numbers as they came in. He also called to thank me that evening. One of the things he related to me was that they were watching vote counts as they got announced and he was doing very well, but once he hit a certain threshold the software seemed to switch and he would start losing votes. This isn't a case of his percentage going down as more votes were counted, but his absolute vote count going down as more votes were counted-- something that should be an impossibility. And not just in one precinct but in dozens of them, particularly in areas of a particular software maker's machines. I don't consider the elections valid because the machines that count the votes have closed source software and come from two politically connected companies. The sad thing is that MIT described a solution that would allow online voting in such a way that anyone could independently audit the election without knowing who voted for whom (you could verify that your vote was in fact counted and that the total count is correct, but not know who your neighbor voted for)... they announced this in the 1990s I believe, but of course it wasn't adopted.
archagon 10y ago
I remember being slightly worried during Obama's election, but at least during that election one of the presidential candidates wasn't outright advocating aggression at the polling stations.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  To be fair, organized voter intimidation by one of the major parties isn't unheard of; Trump is mostly just unique in doing himself what would usually happen deniably at a lower level of the organization (which may or may not be related to the fact that Trump lacks most of the lower-level organization a major party candidate would usually establish.)
- serge2k 10y ago
  The thing is, the Obama worries weren't a result of McCain calling for him to be assassinated or telling his supporters the election was rigged. They were pretty much a direct result of people being scared some crazy racist would take a shot at him.
gohrt 10y ago
This is what I love about HN. A non-USAn can observe without being tarred and ignored as a partisan. A point of fact, though, Bill Clinton is not running for President.
serge2k 10y ago
> 21 different accusations against bill Clinton of extramarital affairs Who cares. He's a shitty husband, whatever. Do I care that Trump sleeps around? beyond thinking "gross", no. > 3 of violent rape Yes, those are worth caring about.

hiringmanager 10y ago

I care a great deal about the quality of elections in the USA and have been watching this issue since the 1990s. In 2001 there were real problems exposed, not just hanging chads but real problems with the way software counted votes. Result massaging is a real thing. In 2004 I worked for a third party candidate, who had a direct line to live numbers as they came in. He also called to thank me that evening. One of the things he related to me was that they were watching vote counts as they got announced and he was doing very well, but once he hit a certain threshold the software seemed to switch and he would start losing votes. This isn't a case of his percentage going down as more votes were counted, but his absolute vote count going down as more votes were counted-- something that should be an impossibility. And not just in one precinct but in dozens of them, particularly in areas of a particular software maker's machines. I don't consider the elections valid because the machines that count the votes have closed source software and come from two politically connected companies. The sad thing is that MIT described a solution that would allow online voting in such a way that anyone could independently audit the election without knowing who voted for whom (you could verify that your vote was in fact counted and that the total count is correct, but not know who your neighbor voted for)... they announced this in the 1990s I believe, but of course it wasn't adopted.

archagon 10y ago

I remember being slightly worried during Obama's election, but at least during that election one of the presidential candidates wasn't outright advocating aggression at the polling stations.

dragonwriter 10y ago
To be fair, organized voter intimidation by one of the major parties isn't unheard of; Trump is mostly just unique in doing himself what would usually happen deniably at a lower level of the organization (which may or may not be related to the fact that Trump lacks most of the lower-level organization a major party candidate would usually establish.)
serge2k 10y ago
The thing is, the Obama worries weren't a result of McCain calling for him to be assassinated or telling his supporters the election was rigged. They were pretty much a direct result of people being scared some crazy racist would take a shot at him.

gohrt 10y ago

This is what I love about HN. A non-USAn can observe without being tarred and ignored as a partisan. A point of fact, though, Bill Clinton is not running for President.

serge2k 10y ago

> 21 different accusations against bill Clinton of extramarital affairs Who cares. He's a shitty husband, whatever. Do I care that Trump sleeps around? beyond thinking "gross", no. > 3 of violent rape Yes, those are worth caring about.