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They are impressive but I often ask myself why so much effort is spend here. While people are curious about results, a bit of waiting for the counts shouldn't matter.

The most "sensible" application would be for betting markets I thought.

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One modern need is to avoid people using the well known patterns of vote reporting to inflame conspiracies about "mysterious" and "sudden" reversals in vote tallies.

Trust me, telling people the vote will look weird ahead of time does not quiet the vote consipuracistst. Heck I'd say it gives ammo. They call it predictive programming. The lie is revealed and normalized.

True but for example in California we have it extra bad where it takes weeks for votes to get counted. Even the most idealistic person with respect to how people should process election results must admit that it taking this long either:

a) Undermines trust or

b) Creates a more fertile ground to undermine trust

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