What a more fitting 20th anniversary commemoration of the 2000 election debacle than a Nov. 3 election night during which Americans are told they won’t know the winner of the presidential race — and many other races — for several days, if not weeks.
I can live with that.
Me as well. I’m too old for instant gratification.
Why was that ever desirable?
What next, people won’t be able to camp out overnight in long lines to get the latest iPhone first?
Whatever will we do?
So now CNN won’t be able to proudly boast they called the election results first, 37 seconds before the other networks did!
Sounds to me like the GOP is gearing up to put as many races as possible in the hands of the courts.
Who cares if it takes a couple of days, the inauguration isn’t until late January anyway.
This could be a boon for our brothers and sisters in the western time zones. It is a familiar story, recycled every four years, that people in western states skip voting because trending presidential election results in the eastern states can make participation seem unnecessary. Delayed election results could boost progressive prospects in down-ballot races.
Let’s just throw Trump into the ocean, move Biden into the White House (after disinfecting it), and call it a year. I’m so over 2020 already.
ETA: On a serious note, I will gladly wait to make sure that we get it right.
If it appears Trump is losing bring out the military to protect the ballots.
“What we’ve just gone through, we will not go through. If they come together it’s not great, but we will not go through what we went through the last two months. It may not come back at all, he’s talking about the worst case scenario. If it does come back, it’s not going to come back, it’s not going to be like it was.”
Meanwhile, major scuttlebutt Jesse Ventura wants to run for the Green Party. A farce, and I’m pretty sure I can smell the rubles from here…
I’ve said for a long time that we don’t need to have these results posted in real time. The west coast, Alaska and Hawaii are often drowned out because the eastern and central time zones have enough votes to declare a winner before those western voters can even get to the polls after work. Sort of dilutes the outcome.
I’m ok with not knowing right away. I’m of the opinion that NO results should be made public until the last poll has closed. So if we have to wait a week or two, that’s fine with me. And yeah, it’s inconvenient, especially with trying to dump Trump the way we are, but so be it. Let him twist in the wind and convince himself he’s got a landslide. No problem.
Exit polling at the mailbox?
Boy does this give me the willies. I remember the anxiety I felt for days after Bush failed to beat Gore, and yet they manipulated the media into thinking it was inevitable that Bush would win. And the current supreme court has already shown they value conservative victory over the public’s lives (Wisconsin).
So trump gets days, possibly weeks to declare victory before the results are known, to rile up his racist base to do…god knows what? His supporters on fox for days testing out phrases like “Supposed election winner Joe Biden” & “Presumptive president re-elect”. Confusion and time are big dangerous hammers to hand the enemy here.
But I think I’m ok with that.
Let’s be honest. The paper mail-in ballots, like mine, will have been received long before election day. Unless the GOP manages to infiltrate thousands of voting districts, and I mean THOUSANDS, it’s going to be real difficult for them to fool with this election as they seem to have done (according to the recent report) in 2016.
This is going to be a very different election. Very different. I’m not naive enough to think they won’t try, but it’ll be a whole lot more difficult. The States have more than ample time to get their process down - the election is six months away and pretty much everyone has a paper ballot system in place. This isn’t as impossible as everyone’s making it out to be.
Was told the story once-- by the owner of a ranch down south of San Antonio. Where, in one of the ranch-hand bunkhouses-- the necessary ballot-box was stuffed-- to give JFK Texas, and the presidency.
Known the straight-arrow owner (a conservative) nearly 25 years.
Never known him to tell me something untrue.
Anything can happen-- given enough time.
Also, EVERYWHERE that the Republicans are in charge, you will see MASSIVE voter suppression via curtailing of Early Voting, suppression of Vote by Mail, and closing of most polling places in heavily Democratic Districts (just like they did in Wisconsin) using the EXCUSE of “Social Distancing Health Requirements” (just like they did in Wisconsin) and Voter ID Concerns.
They know they can’t win, even in heavily Gerrymandered districts anymore, so, given the choice between Losing a Democratic Election or Embracing Dictatorship, they will choose Dictatorship, every time.
However long it takes to count paper mail-in and in-person ballots by machine and/or by hand is fine with me. I prefer no electronic voting due to the likelihood of hacks.
I just wish there was a way to keep Trump and McConnell from doing more damage between November 3 and January.
addiction to instant election results blasted out on cable news and the obsessive live monitoring
Nice article, Tierney!
Yes, we need to settle down cable news, and its compulsion to fill time with sensational viewbait.
