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CNN: Green Party files for Wisconsin recount, audit

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Oemenia

Banned
All we need to remember is that Hillary let one of the worst candidates in political history take power.

YASSS MAH QUEEN!
 

Timedog

good credit (by proxy)
It's hard to believe the amount of good that could be done in the world if the $5 million specifically donated for this had been used for literally any charitable endeavor.
You can say that about any 5 million dollars spent on anything. This is pure entertainment.

I donated my money to the water protectors.
 

Elandyll

Banned
That is an example of something that would do more good in the world than this, yes.
When all is said and done, it looks like this election cycle will have seen an expenditure north of $5 billions.

$5m is nothing in the context, and if it gives some people closure, I'm all for it.
 

msdstc

Incredibly Naive
I agree that it's built on nonsense, but I don't think it's a waste if they do a full audit. There's nothing wrong with checking equipment and verifying the process was fair -- especially if it gives people confidence in such a process or equipment. Let's be honest, does anyone know exactly how much time and effort any state puts into checking these machines or overseeing security?

Sure there will still be folks that think it's never going to trust it, but they're a minority. If we have to wait for crazy folk to initiate an audit, to verify that these processes are secure, i think that's hardly a waste compared to shit we regularly waste money on.

How would you feel if this went the other way? During the election there were a ton of bullshit articles talking about the electronic voting machines being run by a soros owned company or some nonsense... Imagine some wing nut or tinfoil hat like Alex Jones raised 7 million to audit the machines... How would that come off to you? After all it would be Alex Jones (your crazy folk in this analogy) who got the audit to verify it was secure.
 

FStop7

Banned
I don't really see a downside to this. Hillary gets a recount without losing face or undermining the electoral process. Stein gets a recount and will become an instant star if anything illicit is uncovered. It's paid for with donations rather than taxes.
 

CHC

Member
Not holding my breath.

The fault lies with the information that the voters took to the booth, not the equipment itself.
 
what a complete waste and a scam. If this was such a concern, the Democrats would've filed for a recount. Nobody asked the fucking shitty Green Party to do this. Accept the loss, move on.

They're not going to find a hidden drawer with a shitload of Hillary votes.

Some people (computer scientists et al) believe that certain counties in three states don't make sense statistically. Others disagree. Stein is within her legal right to ask for a recount, so she raised the money and is doing it. There's no 'scam' here. Will they be able to get to the bottom of it with a recount? I don't know, but she's allowed to ask for it.

Everyone should want the democratic system to function properly. If there was vote fraud, we should know. Without being able to trust the process of our democratic system, it would no longer work for the people, and the country would become something no better than a banana republic.
 

Ryzaki009

Member
I never understand why people get so huffy about what others spend their money on.

"it could go to better causes!" well yeah so can the money you blow on video games and other crap.
 

Vestal

Junior Member
This isn't using peoples fear of electoral tampering, it's using peoples fear of Trump to go "SEE WE CAN CHANGE IT WE'LL GET A RECOUNT!" when, even if you account for a scale of fuckery never seen before in human history, is not going to account for a scalable difference of over 60K votes, which was the margin Trump won by.

Even if it does, she still lost Michigan and Pennsylvania, so Hillary still lost, no matter what.

So this solves nothing. It's just using peoples fear to bilk money out of them.

Just an fyi. In 2000 one machine in Florida at one point had gore at negative 30k votes. While I don't think much can come from this, keep in mind 60k votes is a drop in the bucket if something smart was done such as vote flipping using a limited random offset in a handful of high density counties.
 

HotHamBoy

Member
That's where I'm at. The result ain't changing. That money could be better put to use toward Planned Parenthood, Advocates for Children, the Anti-Defamation League... any one of the many organizations that will soon begin fighting a hard four years.

The people who donated the money could have chosen to donate to any charity of their choice instead. That's on them.

I never understand why people get so huffy about what others spend their money on.

"it could go to better causes!" well yeah so can the money you blow on video games and other crap.

Yuuuup. Put that $5 you spend on a latte or a pint into charity instead. Your body will thank you.

More fun to be a hypocrit, though.
 

HotHamBoy

Member
Yeah the destabilization of an entire country with a potential of civil war would be hilarious to see!

This is what scares me.

It's a very interesting dilemma. What would be worse for the country, Donald Trump or the destruction of democracy?

Because proof of mass voter fraud will break us.
 

Iksenpets

Banned
Does this in any way oblige Wisconsin to do anything, or is it just a petition? Because having the request get rejected, and then spending the next four years as the liberal hero who tried to force a recount with an election extra five million inher pocket sounds like the ideal result for Jill.
 
The people who donated the money could have chosen to donate to any charity of their choice instead. That's on them.



Yuuuup. Put that $5 you spend on a latte or a pint into charity instead. Your body will thank you.

More fun to be a hypocrit, though.

If it's just $5 then I see no point in criticizing some people that want a second opinion. Or would you rather they spend that $5 to a company that uses it's earnings to profit and make peoples lives miserable all over the world or a charity that mostly will pocket it anyway?

At least this is a specific cause
 

msdstc

Incredibly Naive
What do you think?

The us would never recover as it stands.... Ever. It would be decades of rebuilding and the world economy would collapse. So if you have to ask this question you may need to reconsider your belief system.

Donald Trump is a shit head who can do tons of damage. The country collapsing would be potential for end times.


Edit- ok sorry my meter is off these days. I mean seriously we just donated 7 million to a conspiracy theorist who is peddling snake oil. We also just elected a reality TV star to the whitehouse.
 

soco

Member
How would you feel if this went the other way? During the election there were a ton of bullshit articles talking about the electronic voting machines being run by a soros owned company or some nonsense... Imagine some wing nut or tinfoil hat like Alex Jones raised 7 million to audit the machines... How would that come off to you? After all it would be Alex Jones (your crazy folk in this analogy) who got the audit to verify it was secure.

Wouldn't change my opinion on the value of the process. I have zero belief that any votes are going to be changed. I do care about the security of these small districts, especially with regards to elections. I just wish it were mandatory nation-wide, and before the elections rather than after.

If huge companies can't prevent hacks, I have zero faith some underfunded tiny government arm can avoid them, and it's pretty important to me to at least try to check them. Current audit processes don't do this, however, so hopefully the additional scrutiny might surface some of this information and make the process better overall.
 

slit

Member
This is what scares me.

It's a very interesting dilemma. What would be worse for the country, Donald Trump or the destruction of democracy?

Because proof of mass voter fraud will break us.

If there really was tampering (there wasn't!) there would be no democracy anyway. You might as well start from scratch. The "let's not rock the boat" mentality that some are spouting really makes no sense to me.
 

msdstc

Incredibly Naive
Wouldn't change my opinion on the value of the process. I have zero belief that any votes are going to be changed. I do care about the security of these small districts, especially with regards to elections. I just wish it were mandatory nation-wide, and before the elections rather than after.

If huge companies can't prevent hacks, I have zero faith some underfunded tiny government arm can avoid them, and it's pretty important to me to at least try to check them. Current audit processes don't do this, however, so hopefully the additional scrutiny might surface some of this information and make the process better overall.

I find that commendable tbh. At least you have a strong value on what this actually is doing. Alex Jones running something like this would be laughed off the planet.(rightfully so imo). That being said if it was advertised as you put it fro. The get go? I'd have no issue with it.
 

Futureman

Member
what a complete waste and a scam. If this was such a concern, the Democrats would've filed for a recount. Nobody asked the fucking shitty Green Party to do this. Accept the loss, move on.

They're not going to find a hidden drawer with a shitload of Hillary votes.

Says right on Stein's fundraising page this has nothing to do with helping Hillary or flipping the vote. You are just uninformed.
 

msdstc

Incredibly Naive
To honest I've been nervous about this anyways.

At least Trump wouldn't be president?

You and others calling for this to happen are woefully misguided. Hell if we found Russian ties to hacking our polling systems it would likely lead to war with Russia, not to mention the millions of right wing nuts rising up against Trump being unseated. You need a reality check.
 

digdug2k

Member
I'm confused, if they think Hillary lost in these states because of hacking of electronic polling but can't prove said hacking of electronic polling, how will a recount change anything?
I think the idea is that the voting generates electronic and paper records. The recounts require checking the paper records to make sure they match the electronic ones. i.e. comparing the two could reveal if there was hacking. Even just comparing some subset of the two could reveal if there were irregularities.
 

msdstc

Incredibly Naive
Says right on Stein's fundraising page this has nothing to do with helping Hillary or flipping the vote. You are just uninformed.

No the vast majority of people donating to this are misinformed. You think it's a coincidence this is coming mere days after the article was released about suspicions from unnamed "top scientists" about Russian Boogeymen?
 
$2 million spent to confirm Trump won. People are literally giving these clowns stuff to crow about and be more nasty to the vulnerable, instead of helping those in need.
 

LotusHD

Banned
I never understand why people get so huffy about what others spend their money on.

"it could go to better causes!" well yeah so can the money you blow on video games and other crap.

But it's easier to be a hypocrite though!

But yea, no one in here should trying to do the whole "It could be spent on something more important" shtick, unless you want to throw those stones through that glass house of yours... Because let's face it, we all spend our cash on shit that other people don't consider to be important.
 

jerry113

Banned
The us would never recover as it stands.... Ever. It would be decades of rebuilding and the world economy would collapse. So if you have to ask this question you may need to reconsider your belief system.

Donald Trump is a shit head who can do tons of damage. The country collapsing would be potential for end times.


Edit- ok sorry my meter is off these days. I mean seriously we just donated 7 million to a conspiracy theorist who is peddling snake oil. We also just elected a reality TV star to the whitehouse.

I think if there's mass voter fraud then it must be unveiled no matter what. If foreign interests were powerful enough to influence election results then it was all over to begin with anyway.
 

soco

Member
I find that commendable tbh. At least you have a strong value on what this actually is doing. Alex Jones running something like this would be laughed off the planet.(rightfully so imo). That being said if it was advertised as you put it fro. The get go? I'd have no issue with it.

I agree, and I think the problem is that she probably wouldn't know anything other than the conspiracy theory rationale for motivating something like this. However, if she had positioned this as a computer security audit, I doubt she'd have gotten any attention or raised any money. We don't take computer security seriously enough -- especially not in smaller areas of government. So I don't care who funds it, or what their motives are, so long as these devices and the computer systems get at least a tiny ounce of oversight. So I think her motivations and Alex Jones' would also be, but I think the process it kicks off, regardless of what they want, is valuable.
 

msdstc

Incredibly Naive
I think if there's mass voter fraud then it must be unveiled no matter what. If foreign interests were powerful enough to influence election results then it was all over to begin with anyway.

Oh I absolutely agree. I'm not saying hide it, I'm saying hoping for that over Trump is sad. It would be the beginning of the end imo if a country of this status were to destabilize in that fashion.
 

Futureman

Member
No the vast majority of people donating to this are misinformed. You think it's a coincidence this is coming mere days after the article was released about suspicions from unnamed "top scientists" about Russian Boogeymen?

I didn't say anything about the vast majority of people. I agree with what you say. Whether it's shady or smart of her is up to you.
 
I never understand why people get so huffy about what others spend their money on.

"it could go to better causes!" well yeah so can the money you blow on video games and other crap.

or any other aspect of capitalism. Like fridges. And food. Can't have that!
It's literal Fox News logic.


Either way, if it is only for the peace of mind that at least America is dumb and stupid enough to elect Trump, I believe it is a worthy cause. And I would say that this is also a sign to the GOP that people are willing to block them for the entire run. That message is worth it.
 
You and others calling for this to happen are woefully misguided. Hell if we found Russian ties to hacking our polling systems it would likely lead to war with Russia, not to mention the millions of right wing nuts rising up against Trump being unseated. You need a reality check.

???

So what? Don't double check the election results? Would we be better off letting rigged results through? If Russia was involved in rigging the election, is it better to let that stand?

Frankly if the country is really divided enough that an election reversal would trigger a war, maybe war is inevitable. If not the election it'd be some other event.

It's not like I want that to happen either. There's this subtext that those calling for a recount are calling for anarchy or something that I don't agree with.
 
I thought Alex Halderman (the Michigan computer security prof pushing for the recount) was arguing that it's good to do a recount just as a sanity check. The idea is that if the information needed for verification is there, we should do the verification in order to ensure the integrity of the results and dissuade meddling with the election. So even if the people who donated were sold a lie, I don't think it's fair to say the money would have been better spent digging a hole.
 
It's hard to believe the amount of good that could be done in the world if the $5 million specifically donated for this had been used for literally any charitable endeavor.

This is for the greater good....if it actually amounts to anything....
it won't but Jesus Christ, Donald Trump is the President Elect of the USA, we need everything we can throw
 
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