What if we had an election without electronic voting machines?

[merrily]

2. Yes, Massachusetts distrusts voting machines, which is why we went to paper ballots after 2000. Why

else would the state have changed its entire system, absent distrust of the existing one?

The Coakley Brown outcome, however, was more than consistent with what polls had been showing for a while before the election--that Coakley was going to lose to Brown by a lot. If fact, IIRC, she did better on election day than the polls had been predicting.

If Coakley had been stunned by the outcome, she probably would have challenged it. Had she done so, the ballots would have been available for a recount, as they have been starting with the 2004 Presidential, which would not have been the case with the pre-2004 system. However, there was no challenge because the only question was just how badly she was going to lose.

Anyone who believes Coakley won that election is dreaming, at best.