So you would only call it a crime if it was successful? Mackey clearly tried to trick folks into thinking they had voted by text. He sent thousands of these s

So you would only call it a crime if it was successful? Mackey clearly tried to trick folks into thinking they had voted by text. He sent thousands of these scam messages. He set up an infrastructure for doing this and sending it to folks likely to fall for it. You don't do that if it is just a joke.