2020 Presidential Election

[Delvo]

Because the people responsible for running the elections have ensured that, for certain districts (who may lean towards the other party):

• There aren't enough polling stations - here in the UK there is one polling station for every 800 or so electors on average
• There are few voting booths/machines so few people can vote at the same time. I'd blame this on Covid-19 and social distancing if it didn't happen every time

That's not enough to explain why they'd all show up at the same time on the same day and create lines as if it were election day when there are still so many days left to spread this out over.

• That there are onerous voter ID requirements which means that each voter takes a considerable amount of time to actually cast their vote

That's just pure fiction. Once you're in the room where you wait for a booth to be available, you show your ID and sign the list during the same time while you'd be waiting anyway if there were nobody looking at ID and no list to sign. It makes literally zero seconds of difference.

And what exactly is so "onerous" about taking rather bare-minimal steps toward making sure that a voter is actually somebody who's allowed to vote?

Democrats really need to drop this particular brand of piffle. It can't seriously serve, or even honestly be meant to serve, any purpose but to try to increase voter fraud in the Democrats' favor, which casts a bad light on their complaints about voting shenanigans that favor the Shenanicans.

 

[Dr. Keith]

Honestly, it seems he has realised this already. He's holding rallies and trying to appear outwardly happy and optimistic, but he seems to know he doesn't stand a chance. He's a beaten man.

The whole GOP seems to know this, too.

In the ads I'm seeing the GOP candidates are bragging about working across the aisle to get things done. The DEMs are creating connections between the GOP candidate and Trump. Trump is only appearing in his own ads and DEM ads. No GOP candidates are bragging about being endorsed by Trump or working with Trump like they did in 2018.

And while this is a metropolitan area of Texas, it is still freaking Texas.

 

[JoeMorgue]

That's not enough to explain why they'd all show up at the same time on the same day and create lines as if it were election day when there are still so many days left to spread this out over.

The Republicans have all but openly declared war on the integrity of this election. Trump will attempt to claim victory on Election Night if there's a bunch of votes still being counted in the swing states and he's ahead before all the votes come in. Voting early is the best defense against that.

 

[Dr. Keith]

That's not enough to explain why they'd all show up at the same time on the same day and create lines as if it were election day when there are still so many days left to spread this out over.

I can't tell you why, but it felt very good to vote early on the first day and get it over with. It was something that was going to be hanging over my head if I didn't get it done. Now that it is done I am very happy.

I can't say others felt the same, but I understand some might.

That being said, I wasn't about to wait in a two hour line to vote. My line was reasonable, about 15 - 20 minutes, and voting was not a big deal. If it had been longer I wold have come back later in the week.

That's just pure fiction. Once you're in the room where you wait for a booth to be available, you show your ID and sign the list during the same time while you'd be waiting anyway if there were nobody looking at ID and no list to sign. It makes literally zero seconds of difference.

This was not true at our polling place. Only about half of the machines were being used at any given time because of the holdup at the ID check. More poll workers were obviously needed. Or, some of our machines should have been sent to other polling places.

It still wasn't a long wait, but the ID check was the obvious bottleneck in the operation.

Another hold-up was the line of voters who had issues with the machines. I'm not sure what the issue was, but some people had to return their ballots after voting because they were rejected by the scanning machine and then get new ballots to complete their voting. It took up almost as many poll workers as the ID check. And it looked very frustrating for both the poll workers and the voters.

 

[JoeMorgue]

Trump is only appearing in his own ads and DEM ads. No GOP candidates are bragging about being endorsed by Trump or working with Trump like they did in 2018.

Yeah earlier in the election cycle all the ads from Republicans for our local elections was just kissing Trump's ass* and that's all gone away.

*No word of a lie there was one ad that was just a slow panning shot of a red MAGA hat signed by Trump sitting on the persons desk. Like that were her entire selling point.

 

[Segnosaur]

Honestly, it seems he has realised this already. He's holding rallies and trying to appear outwardly happy and optimistic, but he seems to know he doesn't stand a chance. He's a beaten man.

The whole GOP seems to know this, too.

In the ads I'm seeing the GOP candidates are bragging about working across the aisle to get things done. The DEMs are creating connections between the GOP candidate and Trump. Trump is only appearing in his own ads and DEM ads. No GOP candidates are bragging about being endorsed by Trump or working with Trump like they did in 2018.

One of the senators at risk of being defeated said that you should elect republican senators as a "check" against a Biden presidency.

See: Forbes

Which raises a few issues:

- When we had an Obama presidency and a republican senate, they did not serve as a "check" to his powers, they used pure obstructionism, until they held the white house, then they acted with no restraint

- If, by some (horrible) miracle, Trump does manage to get re-elected and the republicans hold the senate, will all those republican senators decide to resign to give their seats to the Democrats (if they truly feel it is important to have a "check" on the presidency)

 

[timhau]

I'd love to hear some specifics about what he has done for Iowa and how that compares to everyone else.

I'd love to see if he could find Iowa on a map.

 

[Segnosaur]

That's not enough to explain why they'd all show up at the same time on the same day and create lines as if it were election day when there are still so many days left to spread this out over.

It may be a case where people are thinking "If its bad now, it could be even worse on the next possible polling day". (Poll workers might quit or get sick, voting machines might break down). Yeah, it sucks to stand in line for a couple of hours on the first day of advanced polling, but if you wait until the next advanced polling day (or even election day itself) you might find the 2 hour wait turns into a 4 hour wait, and at the end you can't vote because republicans have managed to shut down the polling station before everyone can get through.

 

[pgwenthold]

I'd love to hear some specifics about what he has done for Iowa and how that compares to everyone else.

1) Well he gave the farmers huge subsidies to make up for all the money they lost due to his trade wars

2) He save the suburbs....of Des Moines, at least

 

[Regnad Kcin]

Lindsey Graham: My opponent has raised 57 million dollars. The most in the history of the US Senate because they want to take me out.

Take me out to the bawl game
Take me back to the swamp.
Buy me some ad time
And clutching pearls.
Stop spreading rumors that I don't like girls.

So please boot, boot, boot my opponent
If I don't win it's a crime.
Please don't make - me - suck on Trump's dick
For the umpteenth time!

 

[Craig4]

One of the senators at risk of being defeated said that you should elect republican senators as a "check" against a Biden presidency.

See: Forbes

Which raises a few issues:

- When we had an Obama presidency and a republican senate, they did not serve as a "check" to his powers, they used pure obstructionism, until they held the white house, then they acted with no restraint

- If, by some (horrible) miracle, Trump does manage to get re-elected and the republicans hold the senate, will all those republican senators decide to resign to give their seats to the Democrats (if they truly feel it is important to have a "check" on the presidency)

We don't need the input of his kind to decide on checking Biden. We have two years to determine if there needs to be a check on a Biden presidency.

 

[angrysoba]

I don't recall reading a word about third-party candidates this year. I know there must be some, but nobody with the prominence of Gary Johnson or Jill Stein.

True. I had to look up the Green Party candidate who was Howie something.

I suppose the highest profile third party candidate is Kanye.

 

[Craig4]

I can't tell you why, but it felt very good to vote early on the first day and get it over with. It was something that was going to be hanging over my head if I didn't get it done. Now that it is done I am very happy.

I can't say others felt the same, but I understand some might.

That being said, I wasn't about to wait in a two hour line to vote. My line was reasonable, about 15 - 20 minutes, and voting was not a big deal. If it had been longer I wold have come back later in the week.



This was not true at our polling place. Only about half of the machines were being used at any given time because of the holdup at the ID check. More poll workers were obviously needed. Or, some of our machines should have been sent to other polling places.

It still wasn't a long wait, but the ID check was the obvious bottleneck in the operation.

Another hold-up was the line of voters who had issues with the machines. I'm not sure what the issue was, but some people had to return their ballots after voting because they were rejected by the scanning machine and then get new ballots to complete their voting. It took up almost as many poll workers as the ID check. And it looked very frustrating for both the poll workers and the voters.

This is why the Democratic National Committee needs to focus a lot of money and energy on state races, particularly the secretaries of state. The only way to stop voter suppression is to control the mechanisms of voting. I'm pretty sure that if Stacy Abrams had been Georgia's secretary of state in Georgia instead of that Kemp person, there would have been plenty of polling stations and machines to go around.

 

[ZirconBlue]

True. I had to look up the Green Party candidate who was Howie something.

I suppose the highest profile third party candidate is Kanye.

I see a lot of Libertarians on facebook advocating for Jo Jorgensen. Mostly in comments responding to pro-Biden posts.

 

[Safe-Keeper]

By contrast, keepamericagreat.com is by the Biden campaign. Clever.
https://keepamericagreat.com/

No one amongst the trumpkins thought to register that domain.
Something something best people .

I wonder if the Democrats may even have snatched it up before the GOP even thought of evolving "MAGA" into "KAG".

 

[Meadmaker]

Can anyone explain to me why we are already seeing long voter lines even before the actual election day?

Do these polling stations only open one single specific day?
Why aren't these people voting by mail?

There are generally fewer places to "vote early" than there are on election day, so there will be more people trying to access a single place.

Different states have different rules on mail in/absentee voting. In some states, anyone can vote early in person, but you have to provide some "legitimate reason" to vote by mail. I think that was the case in Michigan, where I live, as well, but this year it was decreed that all voters have a legitimate reason to vote absentee. On the other hand, we don't have in person early voting, so there aren't lines. We drop them in ballot collection boxes or in the mail.

Some people might prefer voting in person to sending in their ballots by mail or dropping them in a box because they don't trust the mail. By voting in person, they are at least assured that a real person has accepted their ballot and gone through the basic procedures to register that you voted, and your ballot was received.

And over 100,000,000 anonymous pieces of paper will be collected this year, using procedures that are brand new, or using procedures designed to collect a few thousand ballots, but this year will be operating on a million ballots. A lot of experienced election officials are actually volunteer senior citizens, who might not be willing to do the job this year, so there will be shortages of experienced poll workers on election day itself, and possibly just plain shortages of workers. It is inconceivable that there will be no mistakes in the collection and counting. I just hope that at the end of the election, reasonable people will believe that the elected president is the one that actually won the election. i.e. that the election wasn't decided by fraud or by spoiled ballots. It doesn't help that one of the candidates is actively attempting to undermine faith in the process.

 

[Meadmaker]

Another hold-up was the line of voters who had issues with the machines. I'm not sure what the issue was, but some people had to return their ballots after voting because they were rejected by the scanning machine and then get new ballots to complete their voting.

This is what scares the heck out of me this year.

In person, you get at least a simple check that the ballot is acceptable. With millions of votes going through the mail, will there be a significant fraction that get rejected for the same reason you are seeing them rejected at the actual polls, but because there is no opportunity to scan them, will those ballots just be not counted? Or will they be accepted by a hand recount?

Come election day, it's not hard to imagine that millions of votes might be rejected at least initially. I have no idea how this will play out in the actual results, but the potential for a truly disastrous outcome exists.

 

[Firestone]

Two takes on the election.

From Nate Silver:

"I kind of expect the race to tighten just because a 10.5-point lead is quite gargantuan in this day and age of high polarization, but I don't think there's any sign that it's tightening yet.
Or to be more precise: you *can* find signs (polls) that show a tightening race, but just as many polls showing Biden gaining. If anything, state polls over the past few days—which hadn't been quite as strong for Biden—have been catching up with his good national numbers.
The media seems pretty eager for a new twist in the race after this disastrous period for Trump involving the debate and his COVID diagnosis, but that doesn't really correspond to what voters care about or are thinking about."

https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1316756235820191744

From, indirectly, ... Rupert Murdoch:

"President Trump's influential supporter, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is telling close associates he believes Joe Biden will win the election in a landslide
Sources say Murdoch is disgusted by Trump’s handling of COVID-19, remarking that the president is his own worst enemy, that he isn’t listening to advice about how to handle the pandemic, and that he’s creating a never-ending crisis for his administration
In response to an email inquiry for this story, Murdoch responded, “No comment except I’ve never called Trump an idiot,” referring to a 2018 report that the mogul called the president a “******* idiot” following a chat about immigration"

https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/1316726690895323149

(bolding mine)

 

[Bob001]

....
And what exactly is so "onerous" about taking rather bare-minimal steps toward making sure that a voter is actually somebody who's allowed to vote?
....

That question is answered when somebody registers to vote and his name is added to the rolls. When someone shows up to vote, his name is checked off the roll. That's all it should take. Voter ID is used to make it harder to vote because not everyone has one of the current state-issued IDs that some states require. If your driver license or passport is expired, you can't vote, even though the expired document is all you need to get a new one. In Texas a gun permit is accepted, but not a college ID. Some states that imposed ID requirements just coincidentally closed a lot of DMV offices at the same time and made it harder to get a state ID. There has never been a problem with people showing up at polls and falsely claiming to be somebody else, which is the only kind of election fraud that voter ID requirements could prevent.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Trump Tweets

If Biden wins—China will OWN the United States...