2020 Election Results And Election Day Discussion

[GreyhoundFan]

Apparently there have been robocalls and spam texts telling voters in multiple states (including MI, NE, KS, and FL), telling them to stay safe by staying home and vote later. "Suspicious robocall campaign warning people to ‘stay home’ spooks voters nationwide"

Spoiler

A wave of suspicious robocalls and texts bombarded voters as they began to cast their ballots on Tuesday, sparking fresh concerns about the extent to which malicious actors might harness Americans’ smartphones to scare people from the polls.

Across the country, voters have received an estimated 10 million automated, spam calls in recent days telling them to “stay safe and stay home,” according to experts who track the telecom industry. In Michigan, meanwhile, government officials on Tuesday sounded early alarms about additional attempts to deceive the state’s voters, including one robocall campaign targeting the city of Flint that told people to vote tomorrow if they hoped to avoid long lines today.

The origins of the each of the calls and texts remain unclear, reflecting the sophisticated tactics that robocallers typically deploy in order to reach Americans en masse across a wide array of devices and services. State election officials have scrambled to reassure voters in response, with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer pledging Tuesday to “work quickly to stamp out misinformation." The FBI also has opened an investigation into the matter, a Trump administration official said.

The reach and timing of the “stay home” calls caught the attention of YouMail, a tech company that offers a robocall-blocking app for smartphones, as well as some of the country’s top telecom carriers, which determined from an investigation that the calls may be foreign in origin. Data prepared for The Washington Post by YouMail shows that the calls have reached 280 of the country’s 317 area codes since the campaign began in the summer

While the robocall did not explicitly mention the 2020 presidential election or issues that might affect voters’ well-being, including the coronavirus pandemic, it still created the potential for widespread panic or confusion. And it illustrated lingering, worrisome vulnerabilities in the country’s phone system, said Alex Quilici, YouMail’s chief executive.

“If you wanted to cause havoc in America for the elections, one way to do it is clearly robocalling,” he said. “This whole thing is exposing [that] it can be very difficult to react quickly to a large calling volume campaign.”

When Zach McMullen received a call Monday telling him it was “time to stay home,” he assumed the warning was related to the coronavirus. His co-workers at an Atlanta bakery had received the same message, and they initially figured it was the city government enforcing its public health guidelines.

But the “robotic voice” gave McMullen pause, as did the second call — and then the third, and the fourth — delivering the same monotone message on the same day.

“I think they mean stay home and don't vote,” the 37-year-old concluded.

The torrent of calls illustrated the wide array of technologies that voters say are being used to convince and confuse them in the closing days of a dizzying presidential campaign. Four years after Russian agents exploited social media to spread divisive messages, Americans have come to expect similar efforts everywhere — including on their phones.

Robocalls long have represented a national scourge: Scammers contributed greatly to the 4 billion automated calls placed to Americans just last month, outwitting years of efforts by Washington regulators to crack down on the spam. But these tactics — dialing Americans en masse, sometimes illegally and without their consent — have taken on greater significance given the contentiousness of the 2020 presidential race. The same tools that have helped candidates and their allies reach their supporters properly also represent new avenues for falsehoods to spread widely — and without much visibility.

On Tuesday morning, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel warned local voters about a suspicious calls and texts that sought to sow confusion about the voting process. One text said a “typographical error” meant that people who are “intending on voting for Joe Biden” instead had to select President Trump, and vice versa. The text, which Nessel’s office shared with The Washington Post, attributed the information to the “Federal Berue [sic] of Investigation."

“Dearborn voters, text messages are reportedly being sent to trick you into thinking there are ballot sensor issues,” Nessel tweeted. “Do not fall for it, it’s a trick!”

A senior official at the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that the FBI is investigating the robocalls, operating through its “normal criminal process.” The official added that he’d expect to see more such efforts, noting that prior elections have been occasions for similar tactics. The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the country’s telecom giants, declined to say if it is probing the matter. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile also did not respond to requests for comment.

The “stay home” robocall appears to have bombarded Americans since the summer, sometimes yielding a roughly estimated half-million calls each day, according to data collected by YouMail. They all feature the same short, recorded message: A computerized female voice says it is a “test call” before twice encouraging people to remain inside. The robocalls have come from a slew of fake or unknown numbers, and after peaking in October, appear to have affected nearly every Zip code in the United States and some other countries as well.

USTelecom, a trade association for AT&T, Verizon and other telecom giants, has sought to trace and combat the campaign in recent days, according to Brian Weiss, the group’s spokesman. He said early evidence suggests that the calls are “possibly coming from Europe,” though they are sometimes routed through other foreign telecom providers.

The unidentified actor behind the robocall campaign also appears to have relied on additional sophisticated tactics to ensure that the companies behind the country’s phone systems could not easily stop it, according to USTelecom and other robocall experts. That includes cycling through phone numbers, often using a number similar to the one owned by the person they are trying to dial, a practice known as spoofing.

Unlike most robocall scams, which seek to swindle Americans into returning the calls and surrendering sensitive information, the “stay home” campaign also has raised suspicions because the calls include no such effort.

“They’re usually threatening you to provide your Social Security number or something will happen to you,” said Giulia Porter, the vice president of marketing at TelTech, which owns the smartphone blocking app RoboKiller. “From this robocall, we can’t see anything that is indicating they’re actually trying to get something from you.”

The nature of the message raised alarms Tuesday with some state election officials, who sought to reassure local voters that their local polling places are safe. “Our voters and our poll workers will be kept safe,” said Robert Evnen, the secretary of state for Nebraska, in a tweet warning people about the robocall.

The concerns that they expressed — that it might succeed in turning people off from voting — reflect long-standing fears that the pandemic could undermine participation in the 2020 election. Numerous states have expanded opportunities to vote by mail in response to safety concerns, and election administrators have taken pains to retrofit in-person voting for the coronavirus, supplying hand sanitizer and other safeguards.

“My reaction was this is likely an attempt to get people not to vote,” said Kevin Porman, a 40-year-old living outside Indianapolis.

For some recipients, there was no risk of that.

Laurie Chiambalero, a nurse in Philadelphia who has a Boston area code, said she answered the call out of a belief that it might be a friendly public health reminder.

“But when I got it a second time,” she said, “it really felt like it was telling me to stay indoors the next few days because of the election."

Chiambalero, however, said she’d already cast her ballot. “They’re not intimidating me,” she announced.

 

[TuringMachine]

2 hours ago, Destiny said:

Is anyone else completely incapable of working today? I can't seem to focus on anything but CNN, even though I know we won't know a damned thing for a few more hours.

Oh yes. It's 3pm for me, I should be working. But here I am. Trying my best to remain calm. 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

It feels like 200 hours long already.

[ADoyle90815]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Marco is dumber than a box of rocks.

 

[Destiny]

7 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Marco is dumber than a box of rocks.

 

Thank you. My blood pressure desperately needed this. 

[RosyDaisy]

My husband and I just got back from voting.  Blue all the way for us.  We wore masks and socially distanced, but unfortunately, not everybody did.  I'm just glad my COVID test yesterday was negative and I'm not contagious. 

Anyway, here in Alabama it's pretty much a given that Doug Jones will lose his senate seat to Republican Tommy Tuberville.   I have heard rumors that Jones might be on Biden's radar for Attorney General.  Please, God, Rufus, (insert your deity here), let this happen!

Edited November 3, 2020 by RosyDaisy

[onekidanddone]

Unpopular opinion here but I think they shouldn’t call the election until all the polls close. 

[Destiny]

3 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

Unpopular opinion here but I think they shouldn’t call the election until all the polls close. 

They don't. They call states, but even that is iffy. 

[Maggie Mae]

5 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

Unpopular opinion here but I think they shouldn’t call the election until all the polls close. 

I'd like to see the news stop with the incessant reporting on election night and the "we're calling it for ...." in 2012 I was literally still in line when they announced that Obama had won. People around me got out of line, even though we still needed to vote for other things. 

Edited November 3, 2020 by Maggie Mae

[Destiny]

The Electoral College is the reason for that. If you don't live in a handful of states, your votes do not matter and it's bullshit. It is ridiculous that there's no hope one way or the other by the time CA and the other west coast states are done. 

Edited November 3, 2020 by Destiny

[fraurosena]

Huh.

 

[Not that josh's mom]

We voted today in person in our small town (less than 700 population). Only one other person there when we were and he was just leaving. All Poll workers wore masks and shields and were behind plexiglass. Several hand sanitizing stations around the room. Pens we used we could take with us or leave for them to sanitize and reuse. We are both "vulnerable" but felt safe and felt this year it was wise to vote in person. Another blessing of a very small town.

Not sure what our choice would have been if we lived in a big city. In that case we probably would have done absentee ballots. But today it felt good to be there voting in person.

Now we just have to wait.

[Destiny]

Okay florida, you had one job. I hope you didn't blow it this year.

[GreyhoundFan]

"USPS disregards court order to conduct sweeps in 12 postal districts after more than 300,000 ballots can’t be traced"

Spoiler

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 gotten 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 told Justice Department attorneys to be “prepared to discuss the apparent lack of compliance with the Court’s order” at a previously scheduled conference Wednesday.

“This is super frustrating,” NAACP attorney Allison Zieve said. “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, have 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 for them 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.

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.”

 

[Destiny]

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[ADoyle90815]

Pretty much, since it's going to take time to count all of the mail-in ballots.

[JoyfulSel]

Really hoping for a good result tonight! (or whenever everything is counted) Can't believe it's been 4 year since that night - blue all the way for my household!

[haroldtheyrefundies]

1 hour ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

What do you mean violated?  Are you and your family okay?

 

we're okay thankfully. Our neighbor's Biden side got burned and we need to replace our mailbox and our grill. Things have already been reported. 

[fraurosena]

So Indiana went to Trump.

Now we wait for Florida...

 

Edited November 4, 2020 by fraurosena
George Takei

[GreyhoundFan]

We have enough issues, we certainly don't need Farage here.

[onekidanddone]

[FluffySnowball]

That’s where I’m following the results coming in... and it’s almost 1.40 am here in Germany.

I just know I won’t be happy I stayed awake so long when I have to get up tomorrow morning... but this is such an important election for the US and beyond. 

 

[closetcagebaby]

I don’t feel good about Florida. ? I’m so nervous!!