DID THE RUSSIANS "HACK" OUR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION? (no)

As this is being written we are watching some guy on Chicken Noodle News (CNN) going on and on about how the charge that Russia may have gained access to the vote-tallying infrastructure and manipulated the 2016 election to be so serious as to warrant a complete (and politically noisy, which is the real point) investigation.  

Let's take a look at some facts.

The United States of America consists of 50 states plus several territories having from 3 to 55 "electoral votes". Each of these States are divided into Counties, with over 3,000 counties in total. Each of these counties is further divided into voting precincts, with some having hundreds. So a conservative estimate would put the total at 30,000 precincts. 

Each of the counties (or independent cities like Alexandria, Baltimore, St. Louis and Carson City) establishes how votes shall be cast. The methods used range from simple paper ballots in a box through those old clunky lever-actuated voting machines through marked paper ballots which are electronically counted right up to totally electronic voting machines (which are self contained and not directly connected to cyberspace). 

Typically, precincts transmit the vote tally by some secure means - with observers from both parties monitoring the process - to the County or City. The Counties and Cities then transmit the totals - after verification and again under the observation of poll watchers - to the Secretary of State for the State in which the votes were cast. The State Secretary of State then certifies the vote and passes it to the Federal Election Commission using secure facilities and verification procedures. 

For any entity foreign or domestic to "hack" the vote so egregiously as to affect the outcome , the effort would entail doing so in a way that the aforementioned secure procedures would not detect such a massive discrepancy at one point or another. 

We are not saying here that the Russians might not have tried  such shenanigans. But here in America we have the world's best hackers. And most of them come down on the side of Hillary Clinton and her ilk. If anyone in the world tried to electronically corrupt our election, they - and not the Russians - are the first suspects. 

Finally, we find it surprising that these accusations come from the same bunch of American Statist Progressives who are so opposed to requiring a valid photo identification to ensure ballot integrity. if there is a problem with the integrity of the vote in America, it lies with the domestic threat thereto, and NOT with "The Russians". 

Case closed.