INTRODUCTION<\/p>\n
Imagine: <\/b>It is November 5, 2024\u2014election night. All states but Wisconsin have declared their results. With the presidency hanging in the balance, Wisconsin\u2019s vote counting stretches into a second day. Suddenly, thousands of Donald Trump votes disappear from the election results websites of three Wisconsin counties. Wisconsin shockingly turns from red to blue on CNN, Fox, and MSNBC. On The New York Times\u2019s website, the election predictor needle swings wildly in the opposite direction from where it sat moments before. The Times announces that there has been a tabulation error, revealing that Trump has thousands of fewer votes than initially shown. Kamala Harris has won Wisconsin and, consequently, the election. Protests erupt throughout the country as Republicans insist the presidency has been stolen. Where did the missing Trump votes go?<\/p>\n
One week later, a preliminary investigation reveals the cause of this dramatic change: foreign actors hacked those three counties\u2019 election results websites, artificially inflating Trump\u2019s vote count in an attempt to muddy Harris\u2019 legitimate victory in the state. Fortunately, authorities discover the intrusion and correct it. No actual votes were impacted\u2014the hack merely altered the results shown on the counties\u2019 tabulation websites. But for the American people, who are now more divided and less trusting of governmental institutions than ever, the damage is done. Trump calls for a new election in Wisconsin, and the Republican Party stands behind him in those efforts. Lawsuits and unrest follow. In order to prevent the violent disruption of the counting of electoral votes, Washington, D.C., becomes a military encampment on January 6, 2025.<\/p>\n
Though we may want to believe otherwise, this is not a wildly unrealistic scenario. It is, in fact, shockingly realistic<\/em>. Unofficial election tabulations are critical to the media\u2019s ability to project election results\n\t\t\n\t\t\t