2020 US Election - Current Events

It all goes on one ballot.

For example, we (Fairfax County, Virginia) had no local or state level races this year, so the offices were the three Federal offices on one side of the ballot. The other side had two state constitution amendments and five, I think, county level bond issue questions.
So, 10 different votes?
 
I'd be a bit cautious about suggesting voter suppression based on "they haven't been counted yet." If they get counted, and the Court ruled they will be as you point out, then what order they are counted in does not change the final total -- it does create the appearance of a horse race where there is not one. If they DON'T count them that's a different story, but that has not happened yet.

Edited for a typo. Stupid small keyboard...
It was attempted voter suppression, but it failed. It turns out those GOP dirty tricks did fail, and the reason there are so many outstanding mail ballots is that so many came in on the last day. No one communicated that though. These are mail ballots from "Dem stronghold" Clark County, so that clinches NV... But not until tomorrow.
 
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The postal service issue is also new this year.

Every state i know of had drop off boxes all over the place, so you didnt have to use the mail. and Dems had big public service announcements going to not mail your ballot in the last few days and to drop them off. I personally feel if a ballot is postmarked (not presumed as PA suggested, or Nov 3 as PA ruled) Nov. 2 then your vote should count even if it arrives late because of USPS.

But ultimately there is very little excuse not to get your ballot in on time. People have been using absentee ballots since as long as i can remember and it's our responsibility to mail them early enough to be arrived by Nov 3rd.

*except service members overseas, they always get extra time for their ballots to arrive.
 
Article:
In a statement released to the media, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien says that they will immediately request a recount in Wisconsin, a state where Joe Biden is leading but has yet to be called.

Wisconsin recount.jpg

Both campaigns are there watching this play out. It's not fraud, it's math.
(Closing words from that video.)
 
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It was attempted voter suppression, but it failed. It turns out those GOP dirty tricks did fail, and the reason there are so many outstanding mail ballots is that so many came in on the last day. No one communicated that though. These are mail ballots from "Dem stronghold" Clark County, so that clinches NV... But not until tomorrow.
I tend to agree.
 
The argument is that asking for these votes to not be counted is an attempt at vote suppression.
I'd not have quibbled with "attempted" suppression, based on the earlier suit. My reading of what you posted was as your labeling ballots not being counted yet as suppression, with which I'd quibble!

If I misread, as it appears I did, apologies and I plead "very tired from being up now for way too long watching this election." For a political junkie, this is an amazing time. But not restful!

As long as we're quibbling, I'd maintain that attempting to block improper or illegal votes, that should in fact not be counted, is not suppression, and will happen from time to time. So sometimes asking for votes to be discarded uncounted to be counted is proper. However, I'd agree with you; my sense is that these have not been the motives in the suits the President's team has filed to date.

Keep counting 'em all, I say -- if anybody were to ask. ^_^
 
Most media outlets have called Wisconsin for Biden. This is the AP.

Metabunk 2020-11-04 12-25-59.jpg
The big significance there is that the margin is pretty comfortably larger than the maybe at the outside 1000 vote swing that might come up in a canvas/audit and recount combo, which is what's ahead, looks like. And of course that swing could also go the other way, or fall anywhere in between, including not changing at all.
 
AP has called Michigan for Joe Biden.
Michigan called.png
Nevada or Pennsylvania could give him the majority of electors.
 
Something else to keep in mind is that Pennsylvania has no tradition of absentee ballots, let alone large scale early voting or mail-in. Obtaining an absentee ballot was very difficult in the past. You have to have an excuse stated in your application. Generally, you're only going to make it through if you're disabled and can't get to the polls or work in elections directly.

One election (2004), I was denied an absentee ballot because "at college" wasn't a good enough reason. Either I was supposed to drive back to my home county or re-register in my new county (both were in PA roughly 120 miles apart). However, in 2006, I received one...while also in college, but now 180 miles away? "Away at school" seems to be at the whim of the approver.

That is to say, Pennsylvania doesn't really have any idea what they're doing because they've never done this before. People directly familiar with the quirks of the commonwealth are less surprised by this than others.
 
I've always voted absentee, (because why drive and try to park and stand in line and the weird florescent lights in the voting area) and ive always just said "im not going to be here Nov 3rd". and that was it.
 
i'm only posting this because this excuse is funny.

If you can’t make it to the polls on Election Day you can vote by sending an absentee ballot. Pick one up at your post office.”48 Indeed, some Amish reportedly submitted absentee ballots indicating that they could not go to the polls because Election Day fell on the first Tuesday in November, the opening day of the traditional Amish wedding season in Lancaster County. “
Content from External Source
http://www.kylekopko.com/uploads/6/5/1/0/65101937/bush_fever.pdf
 
Bunk aplenty:
Article:
With the outcome of the U.S. presidential race still in limbo, Trump and his supporters seized on — and spread — online misinformation about legally cast absentee and mail-in votes in battleground states. They used it as fodder to support the president’s baseless declaration on live television early Wednesday that Democrats were trying to “steal the election” from him.


Article:
Conservative social-media influencers and websites spread a video purporting to show voting machine outages in the Scranton Cultural Center at the Masonic Temple throughout the late afternoon and evening. In fact, just one machine had only briefly been jammed and was restored within minutes Tuesday morning, Lackawanna County spokesman Joseph D’Arienzo said.

Twitter and Facebook also removed a false post from an Instagram user who claimed to be discarding hundreds of ballots cast for Trump while working at a polling place in Erie County.

“The person making the statements does not work in any way with Erie County or have any part of Erie County’s election process,” the Erie County Board of Elections Chair Carl J. Anderson III said in a statement. “In fact, the individual is not a registered voter and is not believed to be a resident of Erie County, Pa.”

[..]

Twitter also took action on several tweets from the @PhillyGOP account, which is run by the Republican Party of Philadelphia, and at least four from the Trump campaign’s director of Election Day operations, Mike Roman.

One of the misleading tweets was a photo of a poster endorsing Democratic candidates that was hung on the building of a polling site in northeast Philadelphia. The image was shared more than 10,000 times with Twitter users saying it was a “violation” of election laws.

Not so, said the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, which tweeted in response that the polling place is “located in an interior room and the sign in question is further than 10 feet from it.”


Article:
In what’s come to be known as #Sharpiegate, social media posts suggest that election officials in Maricopa County provided voters with Sharpie pens, which interfered with ballots being recorded, specifically those for President Donald Trump.

Arizona election officials say that voting with a Sharpie would have no impact on the votes being recorded by tabulation machines, and if there was an issue, there is a process that would keep the ballots from being canceled out.

[..]

Clint Hickman, the Republican chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, and Steve Gallardo, the board’s only Democrat, published a letter to voters expressing concern about misinformation. They said officials tested a wide variety of pens with their vote-tabulation equipment and “Sharpies are recommended by the manufacturer because they provide the fastest-drying ink.”
 
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i'm only posting this because this excuse is funny.

If you can’t make it to the polls on Election Day you can vote by sending an absentee ballot. Pick one up at your post office.”48 Indeed, some Amish reportedly submitted absentee ballots indicating that they could not go to the polls because Election Day fell on the first Tuesday in November, the opening day of the traditional Amish wedding season in Lancaster County. “
Content from External Source
http://www.kylekopko.com/uploads/6/5/1/0/65101937/bush_fever.pdf
26FA6217-4B53-4029-839E-55AE078EEA8E.jpeg
 
Trump (his campaign) is "asking my fiercest and most loyal defenders, like YOU, to FIGHT BACK!" in a fundraising message.
Article:
I need YOUR HELP to ensure we have the resources to protect the results. We can’t allow the Left-wing MOB to undermine our Election. I’m asking my fiercest and most loyal defenders, like YOU, to FIGHT BACK!

UPDATE (7:16pm). Here is the source for this e-mail: “Paid for by Trump Make America Great Again Committee, a joint fundraising committee authorized by and composed of Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. and the Republican National Committee.”



Source: https://twitter.com/dlauer/status/1324116642209607680
 
Gives some clarity on late early votes


The first report did show a Trump bias, and so did the second one. So there is some validity to the question of whether the race could flip back. It's mathematically possible, but low probability... from what I can see.

There's also about 90,000 ballots from Pima County (Tucson). That county went overwhelming Biden.

OMG this an epitome of local reporting on the NV situation - full of noise and ambiguity.



I had to get the transcript, clean it up, and amend it, to make some sense.

Well the Clark County election department says as of election night about 337, 000 mail ballots have been counted. Now this is part of the numbers that we are seeing for Nevada currently now. We spoke to registrar of voters Joe Gloria and he says the count [we already have] also includes all early [in-person] votes and all election day in-person voting.

[It seems that this is what's coming.]

Gloria says provisional ballots, electronic ballots that were sent to overseas voters electronic ballots that were processed for disabled voters and special ballots for new residents are what's left to process.

Tomorrow morning Gloria says the department will be able to report all the counts for ballots dropped off on election day as well as ballots that came in the mail yesterday.
Content from External Source

In NV every registered voter was sent a mail ballot. If you wanted to vote in person, you surrendered that ballot at the polling place. There were also drop boxes at the polling places. I voted early in person. The drop box I saw was busy.

Working from memory, early in-person voting did not show a Dem bias at all. That data isn't available here anymore. I do remember being surprised that it was evenly split.
https://nevada.totalvote.com/Clark/ResultsSW.aspx?type=PRE&cid=02&map=

So what is left is a hodgepodge of unimportant stuff, and ballots that were dropped off at collection boxes at polling places on election day, and mail ballots that came in through the mail at the last minute. Given USPS delays... who knows when they were mailed.

There's reason for concern about this. I've seen an estimate that things would have to break between 52 to 54 percent Trump to flip the lead. But that was an admittedly crude estimate, given that we haven't been given a clear number of ballots that are outstanding. Just "tens of thousands."

Report coming at Noon EST, and this should be the last word.
 
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One of the misleading tweets was a photo of a poster endorsing Democratic candidates that was hung on the building of a polling site in northeast Philadelphia. The image was shared more than 10,000 times with Twitter users saying it was a “violation” of election laws.

Not so, said the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, which tweeted in response that the polling place is “located in an interior room and the sign in question is further than 10 feet from it.”

huh. That's astounding.
I'm not sure pointing out to Q-anon that they are allowed to campaign in the hallway to the voting booths is the smartest way to go. The mid terms should be interesting.

https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/electioneering.aspx
1604590234037.png
 
Can DJT really just sue his way out of this?

“A lawsuit without provable facts showing a statutory or constitutional violation
is just a tweet with a filing fee.”
--Justin Levitt, (professor, Loyola Law School)
 
huh. That's astounding.
I'm not sure pointing out to Q-anon that they are allowed to campaign in the hallway to the voting booths is the smartest way to go. The mid terms should be interesting.

https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/electioneering.aspx
1604590234037.png
Pennsylvania's 10 feet is further than it seems and has a bit of interpretation to it. My parents live a few doors down from their polling place (a volunteer fire department) and the rule has always been enforced as the "polling place" being the entire VFD property.
 
Here in my part of Southern California, we voted on 18 separate offices, candidates, and laws. Federal, state, county offices, state laws, and district judges.
It was SO MUCH MORE COMPLICATED than voting in the boonies.
Where I come from in NorCal we vote on the Sheriff, who is also the coroner, and only one person has ever run in my voting days there, and then the congressman who I'm pretty sure has also been in office since like 2002, some minor local things like who can park where, and then the juicy state tickets and president. It's like a two page ballot, takes about twenty minutes to research and fill out if you're in a rush. There might be some people running for school board but you generally know them so that's easy.
In LA, there's like three PAGES of judges alone. There's no info on them so you just kinda gotta throw a hail mary and hope their website--if they have one--is accurate, and then there's the school boards, the college boards, local laws (now significantly larger and more important) and county laws and jesus. I was sitting there researching for hours.

...in other news, the nervous eye twitch I developed during midterms a few weeks ago is back with vigor. I don't know if I want this to be over or if I want to keep avoiding news. I'm contributing to the Great Ben and Jerry's Shortage of 2020 heavily.
 
...in other news, the nervous eye twitch I developed during midterms a few weeks ago is back with vigor. I don't know if I want this to be over or if I want to keep avoiding news.
i was just watching a presser from Clark County Nevada, he says they will finish the bulk of mail in ballot counting this Saturday or Sunday and then they have to count votes up till Nov 12th that may come in. One of the southern states, maybe N. Carolina? has till the 14th!!

i'm just gonna tune out now and look on Monday and see if we know anything new.
 
Ballot Curing
Article:
In the event that a ballot missing a signature or there is a discrepancy in signature matching, eighteen states require officials to notify voters and allow voters to correct signature errors through a process called ballot curing. [1] Ballot curing is a two-part process that involving notification and correction. States that do not have a ballot curing process do not count ballots with missing or mismatched signatures.

This article lists state laws on ballot curing in the 18 states with ballot curing provisions.

[..]

Arizona law says, "Voters have until the fifth business day after an election to correct a signature."
[..]

Georgia law says, "If ballot is rejected, the voter is promptly notified of rejection." [..] "The voter then has until 3 days after the election to submit voter ID in conjunction with an affidavit confirming the ballot was in fact theirs in order to cure the ballot."

Absentee voters can typically use an official website to check on the status of their ballot.
 
Without mentioning the word, this is Trump's concession speech.
Thanks for that clip!

- Trump acknowledges that he's losing the official count.
- He's sowing division and distrust, and presumably misinformation, resorting to a conspiracy theory to explain a reality that does not match his beliefs.
- He intends to win this election in the courts.
- He's far from conceding the election.
 
Pennsylvania just slipped into the blue.


1604674187614.png

1604674250006.png
yes this is no joke PA just went into Joes tarretory.
.https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/524764-biden-overtakes-trump-in-pennsylvania-vote-count
 
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Heatmap voting ?
Heatmahttps://designsprintkit.withgoogle.com/methodology/phase4-decide/heatmap-votingps...

Heatmaps are used in needed insurance and other stasticical ediritorial demografics.
 
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