{"id":979,"date":"2016-11-17T16:20:49","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T20:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/?p=979"},"modified":"2016-11-17T20:11:39","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T00:11:39","slug":"its-rigged-i-tells-ya-rigged-redux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2016\/11\/its-rigged-i-tells-ya-rigged-redux\/","title":{"rendered":"“It’s Rigged, I Tells Ya! *Rigged*!!!” Redux"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, there are things I want to revisit\u00a0about\u00a0this post from October 20<\/a>\u2014specifically, as pertains to the sentence “this [election]\u00a0hasn\u2019t really been close for a year or so”, I’d like to punch the guy who typed that in the nuts until such time as his eyeballs fill with blood\u2014but I stand by the gist of this:<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing: at the national level the U.S. election system\u2014being a bass-akward county-by-county patchwork with little network connectivity and lots of different paper trails\u2014is broadly unriggable. Yes, many pockets are vulnerable to manipulation, but that can only tip a close election<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And would like to draw your attention to the added emphasis<\/em><\/strong> in the final clause\u2014because this was a very close election, and it was tipped.<\/p>\n

But I do not believe it was “rigged.”\u00a0 Check out this brief essay from Bruce Schneier<\/a> for reassurance of this. \u00a0\u00a0If you don’t know Bruce<\/a>, you can take my word that he is the guy to listen to on this. \u00a0He wrote the bible of modern cryptography,\u00a0vetted a lot of the documents Snowden obtained, and is basically unimpeachable in his writing on security, and on the grave threats posed by a surveillance state. \u00a0I’ve been personally following Schneier’s career for almost two decades, and absolutely believe that his call in these matters is solid.<\/p>\n

So, in terms of hacked voting machines and manipulated voter roles and Russian machinations, this election was not rigged.<\/p>\n

But was the outcome of this very close election tipped by gerrymandering and voter suppression?<\/p>\n

Well, let’s consider\u00a0Florida\u2014just hypothetically:<\/p>\n