27th November 2018, 12:18 AM
https://www.pressherald.com/2018/11/26/p...by-golden/
Sore loser Bruce Poliquin thinks that if they just count the votes again, by hand this time, somehow he'll end up the winner. That isn't going to happen, though this hand recount he is demanding could waste a month of peoples' time for no good reason, so there is that.
That's not the crazy part, though. These quotes from a Poliquin spokesman about why this needs to be a hand recount... this is.
"“We have heard from countless Maine voters who were confused and even frightened their votes did not count due to computer-engineered rank voting,” said Brendan Conley, a spokesman for the Poliquin campaign.
“Furthermore, we have become aware that the computer software and ‘black-box’ voting system utilized by the secretary of state is secret. No one is able to review the software or computer algorithm used by a computer to determine elections,” Conley said. “This artificial intelligence is not transparent. Therefore, today, we are proceeding with a traditional ballot recount conducted by real people.”"
Look, of course computers are not always right and can be hacked and such, but there is absolutely no evidence of any foul play in this election. The election was held normally, and Golden won. Poliquin is just upset because he lost and because ranked choice is bad for his party in the future. Fortunately though, neither one of those things is likely at all to change just because he doesn't like them. But we did get some pretty silly quotes about how scary artificial intelligence is, so it's not all bad! Somehow the Excel spreadsheet that they did the final tally on in a livestream is AI now? Who'd have thought... :p
Sore loser Bruce Poliquin thinks that if they just count the votes again, by hand this time, somehow he'll end up the winner. That isn't going to happen, though this hand recount he is demanding could waste a month of peoples' time for no good reason, so there is that.
That's not the crazy part, though. These quotes from a Poliquin spokesman about why this needs to be a hand recount... this is.
"“We have heard from countless Maine voters who were confused and even frightened their votes did not count due to computer-engineered rank voting,” said Brendan Conley, a spokesman for the Poliquin campaign.
“Furthermore, we have become aware that the computer software and ‘black-box’ voting system utilized by the secretary of state is secret. No one is able to review the software or computer algorithm used by a computer to determine elections,” Conley said. “This artificial intelligence is not transparent. Therefore, today, we are proceeding with a traditional ballot recount conducted by real people.”"
Look, of course computers are not always right and can be hacked and such, but there is absolutely no evidence of any foul play in this election. The election was held normally, and Golden won. Poliquin is just upset because he lost and because ranked choice is bad for his party in the future. Fortunately though, neither one of those things is likely at all to change just because he doesn't like them. But we did get some pretty silly quotes about how scary artificial intelligence is, so it's not all bad! Somehow the Excel spreadsheet that they did the final tally on in a livestream is AI now? Who'd have thought... :p