It can be both - the people are both the strength and weakness of democracy and republics.

Maybe some of them would like a viable alternative, but aren’t able to come up with one... and it’s hard.

Don’t forget church. Nothing like millenia of “just do what we tell you, and you’ll have a wonderful (after)life.” Luckily, we won’t have much difference going forward, if the new SecEd has her way.

A by-hand recount may, but several officials are opting not to do so. Given that it would have taken hundreds of instances of direct physical access to very distributed tabulating machines, direct hacking seems implausible. Possible, but implausible. If fewer machines were involved, the variation in percentages…

I’m wondering what kind of “stop oppressing me!” is being referenced here.

Print money for the related jobs for the people that voted for him, that otherwise wouldn’t have well-paying job prospects?

Permanent (unelected) undersecretaries take over is the possible worst case scenario, and depends on having a weak journalist corp, or an uninterested electorate, or structural protection like handy people to take the blame for things, like the actual elected officials. Smaller governmental bodies make it harder to…

I have a vague recollection of stories of his assaulting someone over calling him out... did I imagine this happening, or were those reports just buried in search results after all these years?

FWIW, the latest Paper Mario uses the tablet screen as a separate screen.

There is / are vaccines against rotavirus, have been for a few years now

The great thing about that system is that it’s fluid. The not so great thing about relatively recent history is how much power one of the branches has divested of itself to the ideal of a strongman executive. See also, signing statements sidestepping the chance for a veto, the broadening of executive orders...

Are they smart people? The smartest? Are they heard by other candidates perhaps?