US Election Day 2020

[Dakota Tebaldi]

On Aussie telly they are saying that if Joe gets Nevada he's your Pres.
They also say we should know in SEVERAL hours.
SEVERAL HOURS! Count swiftly Nevada!!!

 

[danielravennest]

So...even if Biden pulls this off, he will have a McConnell led Senate that won't let him do anything. Correct?

We won't know that until both of Georgia's senate races are decided. At least one is going to a runoff, and maybe both. In GA that happens if no candidate gets >50% of the vote. The runoff would be Jan 10th.

 

[Essence Lumin]

Give him an Ambassadorship to nowhere.

Ambassador to North Korea.

 

[danielravennest]

This was an election with record-breaking numbers of citizen involvement. So now we know: This is who we are.

Despite relatively high turnout this time, "I didn't vote" will still beat Biden and Trump in vote count.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

Ambassador to North Korea.

LOL, that was the very first place I thought about.

 

[Willow Matthews]

Yeah Dakota, same anchor just said the same and I was about to post. He looked as disappointed as I feel.
Keep the fucking hope people!!!!
Just hang in there!

 

[Zaida Gearbox]

Regardless several states are so close that there will have to be recounts. Buckle up kids we are in for a bumpy ride.

Though I think if we do recounts and it is still clear that Biden is the winner and Trump refuses to accept it - THAT is the time to invoke the 25th amendment and remove him from office with force if necessary.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

I saw an unconfirmed story that 300,000 mail ballots were scanned into the postal system, but never scanned out. I find that totally believable given DeJoy's earlier actions to kneecap the system. If proven, he's going to jail.

Dirty rat bastard.

 

[Willow Matthews]

Trump and Co are throwing all of the toys out of the cot. This keeps me smiling.

 

[danielravennest]

I am so sick of cishet rich old white dudes being our only choices for president.

Maybe if we weren't stuck with a two-party system and first-past-the-post voting and -- ARRRRGH. This is why people look at me funny when I start screaming "burn it all down!" We can't fix something so utterly broken. We need to start over.

The way our system works, unfortunately, is progressives have to work their way up from lower offices, while increasing their base of voters. Prior to this election, there were 95 progressives in the US House of Representatives. That's a non-trivial number. Get it up to 120 and they would be a majority of the Democratic party in that chamber, and be able to set policy. The same logic works in state legislatures.

And we are not stuck with FPTP. Maine, for example, is using ranked voting. They also split their electoral college votes rather than winner take all like other states. So work on getting ranked voting used in more local elections, so people get used to it. Then push for it at the state level.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

Trump and Co are throwing all of the toys out of the cot. This keeps me smiling.

That reminds me so much of an Australian friend. She often used the term, "throwing the dummy out of the crib" or "doing a thing in their nappy."

 

[Jolene Benoir]

That's interesting. It seems clear Biden won Michigan now. He's 45,000 votes ahead and there are less than 10,000 votes left to count. But Trump was even more ahead there only a few horus ago (as I write this). So obviously those absentee votes really, really made a difference there. If the same happens in Pennsylvania, it's game over for Trump.

Anyway, the results from Nevada won't be delcared until tomorrow and we can't say anything for sure until that happens and we may even have to wait for the Pennsylvania results.

---
But here's an interesting thought. Right now Biden has 238 electoral college votes and he's ahead in three undeclared states with a total of 32. If that turns out to be the end result, he'll win with the narrowest possible margin and it'll only take one faithless elector to prevent him from being elected directly. How will people react if that happens?

Torches, but more likely, complacency and acceptance. A ton of lawyers would be on the case, though.

 

[danielravennest]

17 states already count the ballots before election day. They don't make the results public until election day though.

In some places, they scan the ballots into the machine before election day, but don't print out the vote total report. The states that reported all their mail ballots quickly work like that.

 

[Tiffy Vella]

That reminds me so much of an Australian friend. She often used the term, "throwing the dummy out of the crib" or "doing a thing in their nappy."

Spitting the dummy?

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

In case anyone curious,. Trumps lead has fallen to about 45,000 in Georgia, and 230,000 in PA, both still counting ballots. Georgia is GETTING closer....but TBH I really don't buy a flip of either state. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised tonight; but if not, it's Nevada or nothing, and that means waiting until tomorrow. Arrrrgh!

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I'm not saying that both parties breed the same kind of people - far from it, especially in recent years. However, I *do* believe that there is a big...sort of stigma associated to the concept of changing parties in the US, be it as a politcian or as an actual voter. And there is a *lot* more leeway given to your own party's candidates and statements and actions than the other's. To a degree that's human, but it is vastly amplified by the US's everywhere-but-on-paper Two Party System. I actually consider this absolute party minimalism as one of the root causes of it all. Switching parties means the only (usual) option is switching to the people you were opposed to, before.

From an outsider's perspective, US politics, even before Trump, were very, VERY aggressive and competitive fights between pretty much the two only existing teams, and the recent years just drove that absolutely to the extremes.

That said...

There are always people who are a bit more rational in their decisions. I think a good deal of people who actually discuss (instead of parrot) politics on forums like these belong in that group, thankfully.

But, even here on VVO (or was that near the end of SLU?) I do recall having seen posts along the lines of "Do not vote for minor parties you'd like, it won't work, vote Dem so we make sure Trump loses".

Which is literally another way of saying "Do not try to win your thing, instead make sure that guy over there does not."

P.s.
...please don't vote for Ted Cruz, ever >_>

The US, though, are stuck with the political system they've got, and are in the political situation in which they now find themselves.

In effect, the current US elections are similar to the last presidential elections in France, where the electorate was confronted with a choice, in the run-off, between Macron and Marine le Pen.

Under those circumstances, then of course people will be criticised for refusing to vote for the candidate who isn't a fascist, when that's the only realistic choice on offer.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

Spitting the dummy?

Yes, that! Of course I mucked it up.

 

[danielravennest]

It's not a bad idea in principle; but there's no universe in which Mitch goes for this and anyways, what department would he be competent to lead even hypothetically?

The sanitation department, because he's so full of shit?

The National Arboretum, because he knows so much about graft

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[danielravennest]

In case anyone curious,. Trumps lead has fallen to about 45,000 in Georgia, and 230,000 in PA, both still counting ballots. Georgia is GETTING closer....but TBH I really don't buy a flip of either state. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised tonight; but if not, it's Nevada or nothing, and that means waiting until tomorrow. Arrrrgh!

To put a positive spin on GA, the 0.8% margin and dropping is better than the 1.4% by which Stacey Abrams lost. The state has been trending more Democratic because Atlanta is growing and more diverse, while the rural parts of the state are nearly static in population. Even if we don't win this time, the state will flip sometime soon.

To put it in numbers, the state's population has grown by 2,431,000 since the 2000 census, and Atlanta accounts for 1,908,000 of that. The second-largest city, Augusta, which is voting 2/3 Dems this year, accounts for another 109,000 increase. The whole rest of the state only grew by 414,000.

More generally, US rural population peaked in 1990, and has been losing share relative to urban continuously. The main reason that 1/6 of the population still matters is senate and electoral votes.