Curb your enthusiasm
In Ohio, an Iraq war veteran is running for a congressional seat against a typical Evil Party apparachik, and, at least if you pay attention to the polls, is actually doing quite well; in a district that traditionally follows their local Evil Party candidate like they were Christ incarnate, he's polling within 5% of the Hon. representative from Mount Doom.
Needless to say, this is making quite a few people in the lefty world quite giddy, and so the campaign donations are pouring in (from individual donors on the left, from corporate shakedowns on the right) as the battle heats up in the usual way of the Iraq war veteran saying that they can do better than the Evil Party parasite, and the Evil Party starting yet another nasty smear campaign against the Iraq war veteran. But the polls are good, the candidate is good, and many people are smelling victory in a really Red part of the country.
Even the best has donated (is thinking about donating?) to the Iraq war veteran's campaign.
There are only a few little problems in this rosy-looking scenario in Ohio. There are, indeed, about 10,000 of them. In particular, is there even the slightest chance the election will be counted fairly in a state which certified a result that was as far off from the exit polls as the recent election in the Ukraine was (that election was thrown out and reheld, and the new election, oddly enough, did not have the same large gap between the exit polls and the certified results), and which had a list of 10,000 happy coincidences that all favored the Evil Party candidate?
Oh, and the Evil Party has vowed to "bury" the Iraq war veteran, too. So that's worth about a 10% swing between the exit polls and the cerified election results right there. Purely by happy coincidence, you understand.
I hate to be the bucket of cold water, but I don't think the Iraq war veteran has any better chance of winning this election. Ohio has proven that the votes don't count, and the same "careless" administrators still hold power there. The Iraq war veteran would have to get 80% of the real vote to overcome the margin of happy coincidences that will all favor the Evil Party apparachik. I'd love to be surprised, but, at least in the United States, electoral surprises favor the party that controls the voting machines.