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Submitted via IRC for chromas
The Clinton presidential campaign used a complex computer algorithm called Ada to assist in many of the most important decisions during the race.
According to aides, a raft of polling numbers, public and private, were fed into the algorithm, as well as ground-level voter data meticulously collected by the campaign. Once early voting began, those numbers were factored in, too.
What Ada did, based on all that data, aides said, was run 400,000 simulations a day of what the race against Trump might look like. A report that was spit out would give campaign manager Robby Mook and others a detailed picture of which battleground states were most likely to tip the race in one direction or another — and guide decisions about where to spend time and deploy resources.
Of course, the results are only as good as the data. Since the outcome of the election was different than most poll predictions, it seems like Ada may have had a Garbage In, Garbage Out problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @11:56AM
To an outsider in the modern age, it looks like the originators of the Electoral College system took a look at the first past the post system and asked themselves "how can we make it worse?". I don't have skin in the game beyond if the US farts my country has to either hold its breath or berate the dog, but not a single candidate from *any* party is worth a damn. Sanders was the best of a bad lot but look what happened to him. Clinton was the status quo personified and if people were happy with the status quo, Sanders wouldn't have got a look-in. Every single Republican candidate is batshit crazy. If they want to get back to normal, they'll need to take the likes of Cruz (and opportunist shit-stirrers like Palin) et al out the back and send them to the Great Congress in the Sky. Both mainstream parties are simply ultra-distilled versions of themselves and no, none of them are in the slightest bit politically left wing. Sanders is centre-right, the rest are further and further to the right. The US is fast turning into Turkey, albeit with an interchangeable talking head as president.
Never mind, in 50 years or so you'll all be crushed under the Chinese steamroller, though only if they can work out how to build them without important parts falling off first. Thank fuck I'll be dead.