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Comment by izzydata | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if his actions managed to change the outcome of any election.

He was changing on the order of 40 votes at a single precinct for local judgeships in primary elections.. It could have swung things but only for very small races when there's exceptionally low turnout.

Wonder what that small of a change would do for the right location in a Presidential election... Maybe like the year 2000 for Florida where Bush won by just over 500 votes lol.

Makes you wonder what the point was if it was so lacking in impact.

The plea agreement makes it sound like he was trying to get local judges elected who were using his consulting services -- so he was bribing some small fish with a few thousand dollars to get people elected to local office to get further consulting business. Gross and obviously illegal but not remotely relevant to the broader election security discussion.

He clearly thought so or he wouldn't have taken the risk/spent the money.

It's a small drop in the bucket of corruption that plagues the US election system. It likely has little impact compared to other well known forms of fraud: gerrymandering, lobbying, ads / social media, etc.

The fact these are all known yet nothing is done to change things means that those in power have no incentive to do so, and the public doesn't care or is misinformed enough to not care about it.

Would he get bribed if they didn't?

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