Bigfoot seen in NY23!

Odds of a Hoffman victory (0.00 / 0)

Hoffman's letter is delusional. What's more delusional is the notion that there's even a snowball's chance in Hell of prevailing after the absentee ballots are counted. I ran some back of the envelope numbers last night -- this is a good problem for first year students studying probability -- and found the likelihood of his prevailing was so slim that my 14-digit-precision calculator couldn't display so small a number. Or to put it another way, the chance that Hoffman will prevail is somewhat lower than the chance that Joe Lieberman will convert to Islam and move to Mecca.

My diagnosis: the man is suffering from post losing an election stress. He'll recover, after which he'll need to be treated for a dysfunctional political philosophy.

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by: jrconner @ Thu Nov 19, 2009 at 20:44:28 PM UTC

I'd surmise (0.00 / 0)

That he's simply seeking to maintain political relevance with a group who believe that angry rhetoric is the most significant form of action.  We'll see how serious he is when he has to start paying the lawyers in this losing battle.

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by: Rob Kailey @ Thu Nov 19, 2009 at 21:01:29 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Or, he continues to be used (0.00 / 0)

by his conservative overlords with their onslaught of right wing noise. None of it has to be reality based. It just serves to rile the base and raise funds. A loser is just as useful to them as a winner, it appears. Especially when you're not really interested in governing.

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by: JC @ Thu Nov 19, 2009 at 21:12:23 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Shame (0.00 / 0)

Doug is fellow alum from North Country Community College and this letter attests to the fact that he has officially adopted the "If I can't win, I can certainly discredit the process" tactic. Shame on him.  What he is doing is completely selfish - and it undermines the value of the process, which he seems to know or perhaps care very little about.

When ballots are tallied, there are two election observers appointed to be at each polling place - one from each party.  No one else is allowed unless they receive permission in advance from the Board of Elections.  I used to do election night reporting in that district for the AP  - if you want to be at the polls, and you are an accredited member of the press with written permission, you are seated out of earshot while the tallies are made and observed.  They fax or call the tally into the county board of elections, then seal up everything into boxes, which are then transported by an authorized person to the election board in the county that night.  

Keep in mind, many of these folks who work at polling places are older, they only do this once a year, and the ancient Mechanical polling machines they use are sometimes hard to read.  

A preliminary tally is made at each county board of elections that night, based on the faxes and calls.  Of course mistakes occur - especially when there are suddenly a lot more out-of-town press pressing for updates and people are stressed and rushed. It's a very human process.  But, the validity of the results is rechecked, carefully and methodically, when each of those boxes is opened,again with appointed observers, and rechecked.  

The very notion that the results have been corrected is clear evidence of the validity of the process.  It isn't perfect, but it is VALID.  To say otherwise, based on no evidence and evoking "It's the unions!  It's the ACORNs!" hyperbole, is absolutely disgusting.  

ars longa - vita brevis

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by: NorthernFlicker @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 00:25:25 AM UTC