Academics claim electronic voting machines “hacked,” but Michigan is all paper ballots
An effort by computer scientists and lawyers to pressure the Clinton campaign into pushing for an election recount in closely contested states over “hacked results” has been debunked before it even got off the ground.
As the NY Mag reports, “The group, which includes voting-rights attorney John Bonifaz and J. Alex Halderman, the director of the University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society, believes they’ve found persuasive evidence that results in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania may have been manipulated or hacked.”
Despite conceding the election, the Clinton campaign is also very keen on hearing them out, with chairman John Podesta and campaign general counsel Marc Elias holding a conference call with the group last Thursday.
However, as pollster Nate Silver (hardly a fan of Trump) points out, the claims are already on thin ice.
The group claims that Clinton received 7 per cent fewer votes in counties that used electronic voting machines in comparison with those that used paper ballots and optical scanners.
But as Silver points out, “Michigan has paper ballots everywhere, so not even sure what claim is being made there.”
And Michigan has paper ballots everywhere, so not even sure what claim is being made there. pic.twitter.com/4YKrZEhTJl
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 23, 2016
As the Detroit News confirms, “Michigan uses paper ballots that are fed into scanning machines not connected to the internet,” eliminating any chance of “hacking”.
In Wisconsin, when the numbers are controlled for race and education levels, “the key factors in predicting vote shifts this year,” the disparity between votes cast via paper ballots and electronic voting machine disappears.
…the effect COMPLETELY DISAPPEARS once you control for race and education levels, the key factors in predicting vote shifts this year. pic.twitter.com/NYOINx9lEz
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 23, 2016
“Maybe a more complicated analysis would reveal something, but usually bad news when a finding can’t survive a basic sanity check like this,” writes Silver, adding that the same outcome is also seen in Pennsylvania.
Nothing in Pennsylvania, either, whether or not you control for demographics. pic.twitter.com/25moBhv3Zm
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 23, 2016
If the Clinton campaign was to do the unthinkable and claim that the election result was rigged – after lambasting Donald Trump for making that very same argument – they’re going to have to be quick.
As NY Mag notes, “The deadline in Wisconsin to file for a recount is Friday; in Pennsylvania, it’s Monday; and Michigan is next Wednesday.”
Meanwhile, Huma’s sister Heba Abedin is asking that people call the Department of Justice to demand an election audit.
“A shift of just 55,000 Trump votes to Hillary in PA, MI and WI is all that is needed to win,” she writes.
Hopefully, any pressure put on DOJ officials won’t include the death threatsthat electors are being bombarded with from Hillary supporters.
On Facebook, Huma Abedin's sister, Heba Abedin, encourages her followers to call the Justice Department to have vote in key states audited. pic.twitter.com/y4BPazFPmL
— Yashar (@yashar) November 22, 2016
Ref.: http://www.infowars.com/clinton-recount-effort-debunked-before-it-even-began/
Comment:
“The group claims that Clinton received 7 per cent fewer votes in counties that used electronic voting machines in comparison with those that used paper ballots and optical scanners.” What does that mean? In the counties she didn’t get to rig the election she got 7 per cent fewer votes?
That means she need to tell us which counties she’s talking about ..
