Polls will be closing soon, which means it’s time to start looking at the day’s problem spots.
This will be a rolling post with updates at the bottom of the post as the end of the voting day approaches.
I am making a pointed effort to follow different voices about the project outcome — by which I mean I am following mostly women and not mostly men who are struggling to break the horse race format of reporting elections.
You can check my coverage list here: Link to Rayne’s Election 2020 Coverage List
Some of these folks aren’t usually on the White House or the political beat; some are polling experts; others are voting rights attorneys or activists. I may add a couple experts on disinformation and influence operations depending on what pops up in my regular Twitter feed.
I’m also watching a scorecard prepared by Daniel Nichanian, a.k.a. @Taniel on Twitter. He’s tracking key down ballot races to see if they turn blue as well as critical ballot initiatives.
Do feel free to share your experience at the polls in comments.
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6:10 PM ET — Updates will accumulate below this point. More to come.
In the meantime, this seems like a serious problem:
BREAKING: USPS fails to meet deadline set by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to sweep facilities and immediately deliver remaining mail ballots. As of this week, USPS said there were some 300,000 ballots that lacked a delivery scan pic.twitter.com/5ODluNmk0Z
— John Kruzel (@johnkruzel) November 3, 2020
Contempt of court-type problem?
UPDATE-1 — 9:25 PM ET —
Took my kid and went to the polls to cast our vote minutes before the polls closed in downstate Michigan. Polling location racked up about 60% of the vote volume cast in 2008, which I suspect means that mail-in early voting was used heavily in my precinct. Polls have just now closed in western Upper Peninsula which is on Central Time; very annoying to see outlets making any claims about Michigan when polls were still open. We were only two of three people in the polling location, which is very different from 2008 when it was still very busy at the end of the day.
Some bad news so far: Mitch McConnell (KY), Liz Cheney (WY-at-large) and fucking morons Jim Jordan (OH-4) and Matt Gaetz (FL-1) have won re-election. Trump’s former doctor, goofy Ronny Jackson won TX-13, and Qanon nutter Marjorie Taylor Greene won GA-14. Trump has won Indiana (thank you, stupid internally oppressed white women), Tennessee, Oklahoma, North and South Dakota, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Wyoming (not much of a surprise for these fairly red states).
Some good news: Mark Warner won re-election as did Cory Booker; Biden has won New Mexico, Vermont, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, and New York.
I am far behind now trying to sort out the bigger stuff from the smaller stuff. There are some squirrelly polling outfits I don’t recall every seeing which are projecting wins/losses — can’t trust them as they may be part of “perception hacking.”
The big story right now is Florida. Something looks really hinky there, and it may have a lot to do with the mail which has yet to be processed. We won’t see hanging chads this time but undelivered mail-in ballots.
UPDATE-2 — 5:10 AM ET 04-NOV-2020 —
I made the mistake of shutting my eyes after 10:00 pm only to wonder if I woke up in the wrong timeline again.
Where we’re at as of 3:34 am:
Here’s where things stand in the 2020 presidential election, as of 3:34 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday, Nov. 4:
The AP has not called the races in:
• Pennsylvania
• Michigan
• Wisconsin
• North Carolina
• Georgia
• Nevada
• Alaska
• Maine’s 2nd congressional district pic.twitter.com/BPHJgl4HnO— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) November 4, 2020
Biden 238 electoral votes to Trump’s 213, with
The really grim fact: more Americans voted for Trump in 2020 than in 2016, even after his murder of more than 230,000 Americans. We haven’t even finished counting all the votes yet this is true.
Kudos to the Washington Post for this headline which accurately describes Trump’s speech: Presidential election hangs in balance as Trump falsely asserts fraud and makes a claim of victory
Counting of votes has yet to be completed, in no small thanks to all the impediments placed on democratic process by the GOP at state level. But vote counting typically isn’t finished by dawn the morning after a presidential election; what’s different this time is the perceived narrow margin before the vote counting is completed.
The incomplete status of counting is NOT fraud. The incomplete status of counting also means a claim of victory is fallacious, a lie.
Fortunately there are Republicans who have rejected Trump’s fascistic claim, noted GOP attorney Ben Ginsberg the most important among them.
GOP lawyer Ben Ginsberg says there’s no direct right of appeal to SCOTUS to stop counting ballots. He says they can challenge individual states over procedures. Ginsberg says courts would believe Trump’s lawsuit would be a “massive disenfranchisement that would be frowned upon”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 4, 2020
Biden’s campaign issued a rebuttal statement:
NEW: Biden Campaign Manager Jen O’Malley Dillon says, “The president’s statement tonight about trying to shut down the counting of duly cast ballots was outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect.” pic.twitter.com/dysSKDtk1c
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) November 4, 2020
Status of the Senate is still open since some races have yet to be called. Susan Collins (R-ME) fell below 50% of the vote last I looked, which means the race may move to a runoff since Maine uses ranked-choice voting.
Counting is still underway in Wisconsin and yet to resume in Michigan.
Expect more fireworks at noon ET when Judge Emmett Sullivan addresses U.S. Postal Service’s failure to comply with his court’s order regarding a sweep of post offices including Miami for mailed-in ballots.
As for the moaning that our Constitution is a failure: it’s not the Constitution, it’s Americans, it’s states.
Like Mississippi which continues to suppress Black voters, refusing to allow mail-in or early voting especially during a pandemic, causing hours-long waits to vote.
Keep your pitchforks and torches on standby — we’re not yet western Belarus, though close. I’m going back to bed for a couple hours, hoping when I wake I’m back in a better timeline.