Well, if there are two of you and you’re working off an existing app engine and you skip all the aspects you described in order to deliver some kind of a product in three months, then $60K might not be so bad. And it seems like that’s more or less what happened.
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When that clerk is the major single representative of your country (since the other branches are groups), who appoints other leaders and establishes policies that impact many aspects of our lives, you might not want to consider the person in that role to be a leader, but it’s what they become. Those of us who believe we’re currently stuck with a terrible one might wish he was just a clerk, because the government would’ve been far less damaged now if that were true.
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Wow, at 71% of results reported, it’s much worse. Only 123,232 votes reported, a Fargo ND sample size. If the rest have the same size trend, we’re looking a final sample size of Providence RI. They could have given everyone $250 and it would have still been cheaper and done more good.
Iowa caucus, the all important, highly reported, poll that samples less than 1% of national voters using a sample methodology that’s defective and selects for poor distribution vs reality.
Ugh, at least it’s over. 
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For all we know, the firm’s work has traditionally been good. I also heard yesterday, not sure if it’s true, that many caucus sites failed to train their local users into how to use the app properly, and this could have contributed to problems. We really just don’t know at this point.
it’s shit like this that makes me think they’re fucking this up on purpose.
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I think we are solidly past the point where we should be giving people the benefit of the doubt when they think software is a good way to run elections. If you know anything about software development, you know that modern development techniques rely heavily on third party libraries, and that makes it impossible to know that your software doesn’t have bugs. If you care about the integrity and perceived legitimacy of the elections, you wouldn’t want to take a chance on getting it wrong.
If you designed software in such a way that most of your users can’t use it due to “user error,” the problem does not lie with the users.
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Diebold and ES&S were contracted by Cheney, lets do the same thing! its totally legit! Our new friend Mike Bloomberg $aid $o.
-The DNC. probably
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My hope is that the head clerk keeps cycling from one cult to the other just like it has been for the past 4 cycles and every time they take office they do what this latest one did (that they all do but not as thoroughly as him) Take out a pen and undo all the decrees enacted by the last clerk. Once the head clerk, the congress of clerks and the rest of the US start to remember we are not a monarchy to be ruled by decree then maybe we start rebalancing the head clerk’s powers back to where they were before the Manhattan Project. A girl can dream…
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They also ignored repeated warnings from Ron Wyden.
For my money, that pretty much settles the incompetence vs malice debate.
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I’m not suggesting an app like this should be all that difficult to use, but that statement is pretty ridiculous. My Mom can barely use a computer, and she’s been using one for decades. Many people have difficulties using even basic software.
The bottom line is that the party in power wants to stay in power. Any change in the apparatus that elected the incumbents is going to be resisted. I would like to see Election Day as a national holiday. This year the frenzy surrounding the polls has reached the level of religion. “God is going to smite America unless we implement cruel policies that really only affect impoverished pregnant women in order to save the precious babies”. I recently rented a car in Washington DC and left the radio tuned to WMAL and got more than my fill of Rush Limbaugh. He couldn’t refer to the Democrats without preceding it with “baby killing”. These people can and will do anything to sway the election in their favor. I pin the fundies down every chance I get as to exactly how they will generate public policy to end abortion and point out the fact that anything other than subsidized birth control and childcare is going to be completely ineffective.
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The internet leftists have apparently decided that DNC is to blame for everything they don’t like about the Democrats. Even if the DNC has nothing to do with the matter. Feels over reals, man.
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I’m now for a revolution to bring about a socialist state.
I know you’re joking, but… please don’t. Revolutions almost never end well for anyone. Achieving change through democratic means is a lot of hard work, a long frustrating slog with inevitable compromises and backsliding, but it beats the alternatives.
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These guys charged about 60k for that app. That’s insane and it was absolutely doomed. First, it should have been coded as pure HTML5, not an installable app, because by doing that they would get Android and iPhone within the same app. Second, 60k? They need both the client side and a server side and administrative functions and auditing features (of some kind) in this thing, plus a helpdesk for the time period around the caucus. It simply isn’t possible to do all that for 60k. There’s no conspiracy, just the incompetence of someone not understanding that building an app isn’t necessarily cheaper than using paper. 60k will pay the fully burdened costs of one developer for about 3 to 4 months, and that’s not enough to result in an app with client and server sides and have sufficient left over for helpdesk, operational costs and everything else. Insane.
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The previous Secretary of State mandated the entire state of Michigan to use the scantron forms. For the entire 25 years I’ve lived in Washtenaw County, at multiple poling locations, it’s been a scantron ballot every time.
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(That could be my previous employer)
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Right, somehow or other make this comment thread about Bernie Bros.
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Again, I’m discussing them because they’re the most likely to view this debacle as part of a conspiracy against their candidate’s strong showing (which I can’t rule out 100% myself) and then over-react in their usual counter-productive way.
You can read my follow-up comments above for more details, but I’m done re-hashing this.
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There have been so many startling power grabs at various levels of government, that I hope reforms reflect the will of the people. Too many pols voted into office need a reminder that they are public servants.
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