That is highly debatable. Stories about "politics, or crime" are allowed if "they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon"[1]. I'm not sure what to make of the word "interesting" there, but this is clearly a new phenomenon that is deeply concerning and worth discussing.
There's the written rules, and then there's the enforced rules. Political posts might not always be against the rules-as-written, but they're almost always against the rules-as-enforced-by-flagging.
HN moderators will tell you flagging is a user voting phenomenon they have control over, but it's not - I was also told my flags don't count, because mods disabled my flags from counting because I flagged things different from what the mods wanted to be flagged. Flags are not a type of user voting, they are a centralized moderation thing.
