I'm going to unregister to vote, opt out, and just let this thing collapse on itself. The United States is turning into an absolute joke. When I was a kid, we didn't have political crimes, these days this is turning into a scary place.

I’m sorry it offends you that someone attempting coordinated election fraud was convicted by a jury based on significant evidence.

meh, didn't effect the outcome. I don't care who wins elections. China is going to win while people like you eat one another.

So you would only call it a crime if it was successful? Mackey clearly tried to trick folks into thinking they had voted by text. He sent thousands of these scam messages. He set up an infrastructure for doing this and sending it to folks likely to fall for it. You don't do that if it is just a joke.

A meme is not a crime.

Not inherently, no. But it's also not automatically not a crime.

I don't think this is true for all crimes. If I punch you that's assault. If I try to punch you and miss, that's not the crime of attempted assault. It can in some circumstances be other crimes, but not attempted assault (which afaict generally isn't a thing).