Lion in Winter

Handy graphics showing the numbers from the last three elections.

zzrmark

There are plenty in this neck of the woods who have decided that it has ended. My Facebook feed is stuffed full of pictures of Floridians in bars, Floridians going to or getting ready to go to Halloween parties, Floridians at the country club taking group photos, sans masks, all close together, Floridians packed like sardines on pontoon boats, etc, etc.
The county education board in the county immediately south of us is being sued by parents who want to scrap masks in school, our county board had similarly angry parents moaning at last night's board meeting, Volusia county had to kick maskless mums out of their school board meeting last night after voting yes to masks in schools (presumably a continuance).

The American snowbirds have started to arrive, albeit in smaller numbers but the Canadians seem to be staying at home.

My wife's best friend got quarantined this week, at a different school. A pupil who helps her out in the media studies center tested positive, the school decided that she would be the token quarantinee, none of the pupils peers were quarantined nor any other member of staff, and this despite the fact that our friend had no contact and only sees the pupil for one period once a week.

zzrmark

The orange turd is campaigning in Tampa tomorrow, at a parking lot of the NFL's Raymond James stadium. The same stadium that is an early voting center. It doesn't break Florida's zero campaigning law within 150' of a polling station but is expected to cause issues with voters access to the site...

Lion in Winter

I certainly see a lot from the people who think covid is either a plot or just a slight sniffle, or, confusingly, both.

Others seem to believe you can end a pandemic just by declaring that it's over, even if you have to stand on piles of dead people to do so.

vespucci

I expect California will have the final results earlier than usual this year as there's been more postal voting so there'll be less in-person voting. Usually there are a large number of "provisional" ballots (people going to the wrong polling station, or for all sorts of reasons, finding that their name is not on the precinct register), which take a long time to sort through. Last time the latest counts of close races were announced on the TV news for, if I remember correctly, a couple of weeks, or more, after the election; this time I expect the final results will be known earlier.

vespucci

That's Guy Fawkes day! The election is on Nov 3.

Steerpike

California's not even a remote question, so nothing specific to worry about there - it was just a hypothetical discussion. The worry is what happens in the ~10 swing states.

Lion in Winter

Yes I do realize that.

I was allowing time for the paper postal ballots to come in and be counted and picked the 5th for simplification. It seems unlikely that we will have a result on the night of the 3rd or the early hours of the 4th. The 5th may be optimistic in states where the vote is tight, since there will likely be many contested. In some states, all ballots will not even have been received by the 3rd but will be allowed as long as they are postmarked before election day and arrive by the 5th - or thereabouts. Of course it may take a lot longer to resolve the disputes.

scrubbedexpat091

If anyone is curious here is a table that lists the rules by state for mail ballots for 2020.

Do keep in mind due to pending litigation in some states and as lawsuits are decided by judges, this list may not be 100% accurate, appears it was last updated on 10/28

When it comes to when ballots need to be received by, it appears California is the most generous with 17 days after Election Day if postmarked by Election Day.

https://www.ncsl.org/research/electi...-election.aspx

Ballot deadlines for some key states and when ballot counting begins.

Arizona- Election Day by 7pm. 14 days before Election Day

Florida- 7pm on Election Day. 22 days before Election Day

Georgia- Close of polls on Election Day. Upon Receipt of ballot.

Michigan- Close of polls on Election Day. (pending litigation) In cities with population over 25,000, processing may begin the day before Election Day. (2020 only)

Minnesota- 7 days after Election Day if postmarked by Election Day. (pending litigation) Processing upon receipt and envelopes opened fourteen days before Election Day.

North Carolina- 9 days after Election Day if postmarked by Election Day. (pending litigation) Fifth Tuesday before Election Day.

Pennsylvania- 3 days after Election Day if postmarked by Election Day. 7am on election day.

Wisconsin- 8pm on Election Day. After polls open on Election Day.

zzrmark

^^^^ Interesting, I didn't think Florida counted ballots early so I checked on the status of my ballot , as did my wife, we have both been counted.

Lion in Winter

Illinois is backward. Seems I would actually have to phone the election board to check that my vote was counted.

Not likely to be a huge issue in Illinois though, for the presidential race.

scrubbedexpat091

California makes it easy, can check online, but mine hasn't been dealt with yet, I may email them since its been quite a few weeks now since it was faxed in, need to make sure it got there, if not may need a new ballot and fax again.

bc2015

I think there's a good chance the call will be made on 3rd, it really comes to down to who wins Florida. If Biden wins Florida, Trump is pretty much done. Not quite the same for Biden, he can still get to 270 with PA which will take a few more days to shake out. The interesting bit will be Florida will load the counted mail in ballots/early ballots first so it's quite possible there'll be a clear indication of which way the state is going very shortly after the polls close.

RICH

Mine says ballot 1 counted. Don't know about the other ones

RICH

https://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/...n/Chapter7.htm

Why not have UN observers?

Any election can be enhanced by observation, but comprehensive observation is particularly helpful in countries in which a significant proportion of the population may lack trust in the electoral system. Post-conflict countries are among the best examples of this, but the same may be true of countries holding their first democratic elections, new democracies that have held very few elections, countries with weak human rights records, or countries with extremely strong executive powers and long-time rulers. It is a good practice for all countries to welcome international and domestic observers.