2020 Election Results And Election Day Discussion

[laPapessaGiovanna]

I feel like ethics died yesterday all over again. He says it perfectly https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/11/04/van-jones-reaction-2020-election-elexnight-vpx.cnn 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

@Howl -- this is from 7PM last night: "USPS disregards court order to conduct sweeps in 12 postal districts after more than 300,000 ballots can’t be traced"

Quote

The U.S. Postal Service turned down a federal judge’s order late Tuesday afternoon to sweep mail processing facilities serving 15 states, saying instead it would stick to its own inspection schedule. The court order came after the agency disclosed that more than 300,000 ballots nationwide could not be traced.

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the District of Columbia on Tuesday had given the mail agency until 3:30 p.m. to conduct the “all clear” checks to ensure that any found ballots could be delivered before polls closed. His order affected 12 postal districts spanning 15 states.

But in a filing sent to the court just before 5 p.m., Justice Department attorneys representing the Postal Service said the agency would not abide by the order, to better accommodate inspectors’ schedules.

Attorney John Robinson, writing for the Justice Department, noted that the daily review process was already scheduled to occur from 4 to 8 p.m. on election night. “Given the time constraints set by this Court’s order, and the fact that Postal Inspectors operate on a nationwide basis, Defendants were unable to accelerate the daily review process to run from 12:30 pm to 3:00 pm without significantly disrupting preexisting activities on the day of the Election, something which Defendants did not understand the Court to invite or require.”

The agency disclosed Tuesday morning that 300,523 ballots nationwide had received incoming scans at postal processing plants but not exit scans, leaving voting rights advocates worried that hundreds of thousands of votes could be trapped in the mail system.

Sullivan denied an emergency hearing request from the NAACP, which brought the lawsuit against the Postal Service with a group of voters and other civil rights groups. But he told Justice Department attorneys to be “prepared to discuss the apparent lack of compliance with his order” at a previously scheduled Wednesday conference.

“This is super frustrating,” said Allison Zieve, an attorney representing the NAACP. “If they get all the sweeps done today in time, it doesn’t matter if they flouted the judge’s order. They say here they will get the sweeps done between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., but 8 p.m. is too late, and in some states 5 p.m. is too late.”

The Postal Service began election mail “all clear” sweeps in January, agency spokesman David Partenheimer wrote in an emailed statement, to search for misplaced political mail (such as campaign ads) and election mail (ballots, ballot applications and voter registration information).

Since Thursday, he said, agents from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the agency’s law enforcement arm, conducted daily reviews at 220 ballot processing facilities. Inspectors walk the facility and observe mail conditions and check daily political- and election-mail logs.

In the past 14 months, Partenheimer said, the Postal Service has processed more than 4.5 billion pieces of political and election mail, up 114 percent from the 2016 general-election cycle.

“Ballots will continue to be accepted and processed as they are presented to us and we will deliver them to their intended destination,” Partenheimer said.

Timely ballot processing scores, which indicate the proportion of ballots sorted, postmarked and transported within the agency’s one-to-three-day service window, worsened in the run-up to Election Day, according to data the agency submitted to the court. In 28 states, election officials must receive ballots by the end of Election Day to be counted.

Voting and postal experts say the mail agency should be able to process 97 percent of incoming ballots — or completed ballots sent to election officials. But data shows the Postal Service missed that mark seven out of eight days. And in the past five days, processing scores dropped, from 97.1 percent on Oct. 28 to 89.6 percent on Monday. (The Postal Service did not report Sunday data.)

In 17 postal districts that cover 151 electoral votes, Monday’s on-time processing rate was even lower: 81.1 percent.

Sullivan ordered officials from the Postal Inspection Service, the agency’s law enforcement arm, or the Postal Service Office of Inspector General, its independent watchdog, to inspect all processing facilities in the districts of Central Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Metro, Detroit, Colorado/Wyoming, Atlanta, Houston, Alabama, Northern New England (Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine), Greater South Carolina, South Florida, Lakeland (Wisconsin) and Arizona (which includes New Mexico) by 3 p.m.

Lawyers for the Postal Service cautioned that the ballot processing scores might be unreliable. The figures do not include “first mile” and “last mile” mail-handling steps that could add time to deliveries. The Postal Service has also encouraged local post offices to sort ballots themselves and make deliveries to election officials, rather than sending the items to regional processing plants.

More than 65 million Americans have voted using absentee ballots, according to the U.S. Elections Project, and more than 27 million mail ballots remained outstanding. Experts are encouraged by high ballot return rates in swing states that could soften the impact of mail delays. In Michigan, 85.6 percent of absentee ballots have been returned. In Wisconsin, 89.7 percent have been returned, and in Pennsylvania, 80.9 percent.

Even so, the Postal Service continued Tuesday to try to track down the more than 300,000 ballots it said had entered processing plants but could not be traced. The agency cautioned that number was likely high, and that clerks were hand-culling ballots at those facilities to expedite delivery. However, officials said they did not know how widespread that process was, and how many ballots could remain.

In 17 postal districts in swing states that account for 151 electoral votes, more than 81,000 ballots were untraceable. In Los Angeles, 48,120 ballots were missing, the most of any district. San Diego was next, with 42,543 unaccounted for.

“At this point,” said Zieve, “we don’t have any way of knowing if those ballots are of concern or if they aren’t.”

Sullivan has been more aggressive than judges in Pennsylvania, New York and Washington state to grant increased oversight of the mail. He has ordered the Postal Service to report daily data on ballot performance scores and to provide written explanations each day for underperforming districts.

He has scheduled daily hearings — some of which have included sworn testimony from postal executives — on the agency’s struggles. On Monday, he lamented the nation’s crazy-quilt of mail-in-voting rules, saying the system should be overhauled.

“When I read about the astronaut voting seamlessly from outer space, there must be a better way for Congress to address all these issues,” he said.

Sullivan contrasted the chaotic mishmash of Election Day rules with the relative simplicity of the federal income-tax deadline: “Think about it. Every year everyone knows to file taxes by April 15th. It’s seamless. If you don’t file, there’s penalties. But everyone knows — that’s a given.”

By contrast, state vote-by-mail deadlines present a spaghetti-like tangle for the Postal Service and voters to navigate.

“Postmarks matter, postmarks don’t matter. … Delivery matters, delivery after a date doesn’t matter. Why can’t there be one set of rules?” Sullivan said, concluding, “Someone needs to be tinkering with the system to make sure it works seamlessly and better for the American voters.”

 

[Cartmann99]

2 hours ago, tabitha2 said:

Why the difference?

Nebraska and Maine's district voting method could be crucial in this election. Here's why.

Spoiler

*For the non-Americans, when the article refers to the "congressional district method," they are talking about the US House. That's the place where Nancy Pelosi is running the show, and everybody's up for election every two years. The US Senate is where Mitch McConnell is in charge. That's the six year deal, but it's staggered out so not everybody in the Senate is running for reelection at the same time.

53 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I would love to see this, especially if they snuff each other out.

Rufus bless, the thought of finally being rid of Ted "braying jackass" Cruz makes me so happy.

18 minutes ago, Howl said:

hope you had a herring to fish slap him and yes, Reince is so very Backpfeifengesicht. 

And that this race is close, still, this morning.  I'm gobsmacked.  It should have been a Biden landslide.  

I'm still pissed that MJ Hegar lost and we have John Cornyn for another six years. I'd accepted that I was going to have a shiny new Trump-humping idiot representing me in the US House, but I thought MJ had a decent shot of knocking Cornyn out.

 

Edited November 4, 2020 by Cartmann99
cleaning up messes

[formergothardite]

8 hours ago, Coconut Flan said:

It seems it's time for my chant of Trump killed Grandma.  

That should have been enough right there.  It's sad how uncaring for their fellow human beings so many of our citizens are showing themselves.  

This is what I just will never get. People are watching their friends and relatives die, and yet that wasn't enough to get them to care. I made the mistake of going on FB this morning and a former co-worker whose grandfather died of Covid is ranting about how Roy Cooper got elected again and how that means more lockdowns and masks.  where did America go wrong that they just stopped caring about people, even the people they love? How do we fix this?

Last time I thought one of the reasons Trump won was low voter turn out because people assumed Hillary would win or were jus apathetic. But it seems like there was a high voter turn out this year and these races are still very close. There should have been a blue wave in states like NC, but it just didn't happen. This means that people actually like Trump and what the Trump run GOP stands for. They think what he is doing is good. A country filled with people like that is more scary than Trump.

When it comes to polls, it is obvious that the polling system doesn't work anymore. It doesn't work one bit. I wouldn't be shocked, though, if Trump voters lied to say they voted for Biden just to give democrats a false sense of security and make it into a bigger deal when Trump wins despite the polls. 

In the end, even if Biden wins, we still have Mitch to deal with and he will spend the next four years making sure not a single damn thing gets done. 

[GreyhoundFan]

Hello 2020

[danvillebelle]

4 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

How do we fix this?

I don't think it's fixable.  I have given up.  A huge swath of this country (half?) have not moved forward in their thinking since the 1960's (or the 1860s for that matter).  They want some mythical, all-white evangelical America that they think existed at some point in the past. They only care about themselves. Trump is the symptom, not the cause.  There is no changing that until they all die.  I don't believe there is any hope for my lifetime, and possibly that of my children.  I think if there is any seismic moral change in America it will not come for another century or more (if the planet is still habitable at that point).  I think the United States are no longer united, they haven't been since WWII, and that our grand experiment has failed.

My biggest fear right now is that the powers that be (the corporate ones, the REAL ones) will decide that what is needed to bring the country together is a big war.  They've done it before, they can do it again.

[Audrey2]

16 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

where did America go wrong that they just stopped caring about people, even the people they love? How do we fix this?

The part that chaps my hide the most about Republicans and Covid 19 is the one screaming the loudest self-identify as part of the religious right. They self-identify as Christians. Unfortunately, I think Evangelical/fundamentalist Christianity has many more followers now than what we consider the old mainline Protestant denominations who could very easily vote blue.

Edited November 4, 2020 by Audrey2
Talk to text while I'm getting breakfast together is a really bad idea.

[clueliss]

reports this morning are that Pennsylvania won't have counting completed until Friday.  Be patient and hang in there ya'll. 

[Audrey2]

Another uphill battle that we faced is that the stock market is good. For people with 401ks (probably the most widespread type of retirement in the US, where the workers most of the contributions for retirement, the company kicks in some possibly, and it's invested in the stock market), they've seen their retirement savings grow this year.

With McTurtle leading the Senate again I don't see another coronavirus relief package passing that brings true relief to the masses. One of the things I hear my Ruby red neighbors and even people in Portland complain about is the large number of homeless people. That is going to get worse over the next year, and many families will be unsheltered. 

[GreyhoundFan]

I fucking hate Gingrich. I blame him for a lot of the nastiness that is the current repug party.

 

[Flossie]

16 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Hello 2020

North Dakota legislative candidate who died of COVID-19 still on the ballot
His death came during the state's worst month so far for the virus.
ByMeredith Deliso
October 17, 2020, 4:25 PM

A North Dakota legislative candidate who died from COVID-19 will still be on the ballot this November.

David Andahl, 55, died Oct. 5, after a short battle with the virus, his family said in a statement the following day. The Bismarck native was one of four House candidates running for two seats in the state's 8th District.

This week, North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem addressed how Andahl's recent death could affect the general election. 

Early voting for military and overseas voters began 46 days before the election and for other eligible voters 40 days prior, according to the attorney general. Early in-person voting begins in the state on Monday.

In an opinion released Tuesday, Stenehjem said that the court uses the "American" rule, "where votes cast for the deceased candidate should be counted."

"If a deceased candidate receives the majority of the votes, the candidate is elected," he said. "However, if the prevailing candidate has died, the candidate is no longer qualified and a vacancy will exist. State law provides the process to fill vacancies of a legislative office."

Indeed, the Secretary of State's website still lists Andahl on the ballot. If he wins, the state Republican Party will be allowed to appoint his replacement, the Star Tribune reported.

Andahl and fellow GOP newcomer Dave Nehring both were endorsed by the Republican Party and defeated incumbent Jeff Delzer and Bob Wheeler in a heated Republican primary in June.

Andahl was a rancher and land developer who also served on the Burleigh County Planning & Zoning Commission for 16 years. His funeral was Wednesday.

His death came during what is shaping up to be North Dakota's worst month so far battling coronavirus. The state has recorded record new cases, hospitalizations and deaths in recent days. Over the past week, it also had the most cases and deaths per capita in the country, according to The New York Times, as the Midwest battles outbreaks in several states.

His family said that Andahl was "very cautious" about the coronavirus "because he did have a few health challenges."

"We are heartbroken, and we ask that he be remembered not by how he died, but by how he lived," his family said. "David was a kind, caring man whose greatest joy was helping others."

[apple1]

8 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

CNN just called Ohio for Trump.  Taking them to 205/132 Biden/Trump.

As a Midwesterner who works in manufacturing I am not happy Ohio didn't do their part of the group project.  

Some of us tried very hard.

As an Ohioan, after too many elections in this no-longer-swing-state, I don't even feel like my vote means anything. Especially since I live in a corner of the state in which ALL the location contests are red unopposed. I just want to crawl off and cry.

[LilMissMetaphor]

9 hours ago, tabitha2 said:

Trump being president for 4 more years won’t turn the Country into a Mad Max movie or cause women to wear Red robes. 

Ok well first of all...

 

But also...

 

[GreyhoundFan]

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