Sometimes, as a reader, I don’t need all the data in order to make a decision. A couple of tidbits will do just fine. Take the Nevada Caucus for instance: When they ran a tabulation, after numerous, and obviously pervasive problems with the data entry, there were totals for eight candidates. When there were only seven! But, that was when heads started to explode. Go back a little earlier, and you would see counters entering totals that they knew were correct, but going to the wrong candidate, or being from the wrong precinct. Or re-counting and re-entering from printouts.
Or using their personal desktop computer, or a laptop brought from home, to run the IBM provided spreadsheets.
Okay, I see a question forming in your mind: “WTF?” And I agree completely. But, there is a single simple answer: The Party made the apps themselves.
Now, there are a few problems with that! If the guys designing the system are all Democrats, then the one with the most seniority, but not necessarily with the most ability, would have made every decision. Seniority would have been a factor in every decision. Worse: the managers, and “owners” of the project were hacks (political). A team perfectly designed to fail. But, that brings us back to those “managers” and “owners,” who exist to make sure that problems, like we see in Nevada, cannot exist. But, they were likely not exactly the cream of the crop.
Let’s also talk about two, slightly more technical issues suggested here: “The freakin’ idiots had copies of the data floating around all over the place!” That’s neither secure nor is it “data normalization.”
Everything that could go wrong did. They had to abandon the system, and the hand count was at best an approximation – an assumption (they developed a system as they went along, with no testing at all; so they can’t know if they were completely successful). Even a university student caught the fact that their algorithm used, “rounding up,” and “rounding down;” something almost inconceivable in dealing with votes: rounding down deletes individual votes (and even sites?), and rounding up creates votes and voters (something that you or I would go to prison for).
Our electoral system in this country is shot full of holes. It is unstable, unreliable, and fragile. It is extremely vulnerable. It is unconstitutional because it is unfair. It is an embarrassment.
And, speaking of: There’s no question at all what the public mind is thinking today (and what Drumpf will say tomorrow:) “The Democrats can put up any candidate they want. It’s all rigged.” Of course that’s unfair and incorrect: but well deserved.
We take another hit. While Perez flies, “under the radar.” That’s a man to be admired.
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