# Tinfoil Time: If the voting machines were hacked, would we know?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tinfoil-time-if-the-voting-machines-were-hacked-would-we-know/924724
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [November 4, 2020, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tinfoil-time-if-the-voting-machines-were-hacked-would-we-know/924724 "2020-11-04T08:52:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2020, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tinfoil-time-if-the-voting-machines-were-hacked-would-we-know/924724/1 "2020-11-04T08:52:53Z")
Not saying there’s any evidence or reporting to this effect right now, but just thinking about worst case scenarios.
The polling last time was way off. The polling this time is on a different planet. They can talk all they want about margin of error…but that error should average out across states and across polls. These results are pretty uniformly running 6-8 points in the direction of Trump in almost every precinct. One explanation is that the results are being manipulated. If that were to happen, apart from a manual recount of paper ballots, how exactly would this be uncovered?
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### Author:  [@cieskokid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cieskokid)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2020, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tinfoil-time-if-the-voting-machines-were-hacked-would-we-know/924724/2 "2020-11-06T01:44:48Z")
This was 1]my greatest fear b4 the election and, 2] my strongest suspicion 2explain how D.T. could have received so many votes. I have a VERY hard time believing that so many people in the U.S. are that ignorant, either willfully OR because of the brainwashing the Republican party & Fox News so skillfully gives them OR are that they’re so unaware of all the damage done from the slow-motion train wreck we’ve been riding for 4years.
After studying the intelligence on the 2016 elections the CIA & FBI concluded that Russia and/or other entities DEFINITELY threw some monkey wrenches into our voting machinery.
> **[Timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections)**
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> Pages for logged out editors learn more
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>
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> This is a timeline of events related to alleged Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.
And I NEVER read or heard that ANY of this was fixed. Again, I find it VERY difficult 2believe that anyone who’s lived in this country the past 4long years could vote for such an obviously unqualified sub-human as D.T. Your thoughts?
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2020, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tinfoil-time-if-the-voting-machines-were-hacked-would-we-know/924724/3 "2020-11-06T02:00:31Z")
I would want to correlate voting machine brand with poll errors before making any accusations.
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### Author:  [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2020, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tinfoil-time-if-the-voting-machines-were-hacked-would-we-know/924724/4 "2020-11-06T02:15:22Z")
Beginning with this election, here in Georgia the voting machines generate a printout (for early in-person voting and–I assume–in-person voting on “Election Day”) which the voter then takes over and puts into a scanner. (You don’t get to take the paper ballot with you.) So, if there were some suspicion of anything wrong with the machinery, in principle human-type people _could_ double-check the paper copies with their Mark I eyeballs and wetware brains.
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### Author:  [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2020, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tinfoil-time-if-the-voting-machines-were-hacked-would-we-know/924724/5 "2020-11-06T02:16:51Z")
I assume that if a recount is needed in several of these states that the recount is more than just re-feeding the ballots into the same machines. But honestly I’m not sure.
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### Author:  [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2020, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tinfoil-time-if-the-voting-machines-were-hacked-would-we-know/924724/6 "2020-11-06T03:04:27Z")
Wrong thread
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2020, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tinfoil-time-if-the-voting-machines-were-hacked-would-we-know/924724/7 "2020-11-06T03:06:46Z")
I’ve wondered this and wondered if there are certain counties or districts where the polls are far off from the results while in other counties the polls match the results.
nate silver was dead on in 2008 predictions, but he’s been wildly inaccurate since and I’m not sure why.
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### Author:  [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2020, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tinfoil-time-if-the-voting-machines-were-hacked-would-we-know/924724/8 "2020-11-06T03:29:21Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
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> I’ve wondered this and wondered if there are certain counties or districts where the polls are far off from the results while in other counties the polls match the results.
From the results I’ve seen, the one place I wonder about is Miami. It’s hard to believe that Biden did that much worse than Clinton did.
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### Author:  [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2020, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tinfoil-time-if-the-voting-machines-were-hacked-would-we-know/924724/9 "2020-11-06T04:06:11Z")
I’ve got to admit I have been thinking about this for a few days. I have hope that after the fact analysis will uncover evidence if something like this happened.
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### Author:  [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2020, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tinfoil-time-if-the-voting-machines-were-hacked-would-we-know/924724/10 "2020-11-06T04:07:33Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#):
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> From the results I’ve seen, the one place I wonder about is Miami. It’s hard to believe that Biden did that much worse than Clinton did.
Yeah, I struggle to believe that THAT many Cubans bought the socialism narrative and flipped on Democrats and none of the polls recognized it. I know it was reported that Biden was a little soft with Latinos, but this is a total collapse that should have caused an all out panic for the campaign.
The shift in Miami-Dade is weird, but the shift with Mexicans in the Rio Grande valley is flat out shocking. I half wonder if ICE was going around collecting ballots or something.
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### Author:  [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2020, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tinfoil-time-if-the-voting-machines-were-hacked-would-we-know/924724/11 "2020-11-06T05:17:03Z")
Could be selection bias. We glommed on to Silver because he nailed it but maybe he was the lucky one that year. It’s like rolling 5 dice and declaring the one that came up 6 as the “best” one.
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2020, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tinfoil-time-if-the-voting-machines-were-hacked-would-we-know/924724/12 "2020-11-07T13:17:55Z")
I’m tempted to write to Silver and suggest he investigate. He might learn more about polling bias in general, or her might uncover evidence of fraud.
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2020, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tinfoil-time-if-the-voting-machines-were-hacked-would-we-know/924724/13 "2020-11-08T14:49:54Z")
> [@Omniscient](#):
>
> These results are pretty uniformly running 6-8 points in the direction of Trump in almost every precinct.
If so, that’s evidence _against_ it being fraud. It would mean the super-secret evil conspiracy would have to be _everywhere_ affecting _every_ form of voting.
We have a pretty terrible and antiquated election system, but one benefit of the extreme amount of decentralization is that it would be very hard to pull off some kind of nationwide fraud scheme.
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2020, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tinfoil-time-if-the-voting-machines-were-hacked-would-we-know/924724/14 "2020-11-08T14:55:38Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
>
> nate silver was dead on in 2008 predictions, but he’s been wildly inaccurate since and I’m not sure why.
His forecasts are probabilistic, so if they were “dead on” every time, that would mean they were wrong.
(Also, in the final forecast this year, only two states and Maine’s 2nd district seem to be going against its most likely outcome. A lot of the rosiest polling for Biden was a few weeks ago.)