Why you no count faster you slowpoke?

Actually......


Our state government doesn't let us unseal and count mail in and absentee until election day. Most other states can count them the day they come in. We also decided the proper way to package the ballots is a security envelope that then go inside another envelope.

So at 7am yesterday, people began by hand opening an envelope, pulling out an envelope inside of that envelope. Then opening that envelope, unfolding a ballot, flattening it and inserting it into a machine. There are approximately 2 million of these. And each are overseen by both a Republican and a Democrat, and if a ballot is disputed, it is ultimately decided by an election inspector.

Welcome to the worst election counting rules possible. Here in Philly they are counting 24 hours a day in shifts in the hopes of getting it done by Friday morning.

An envelope inside an envelope with one person handling the ballot under the watchful eye of two people (a Republican and a Democrat) who can call into question the legitimacy of the ballot and require an election inspector to make a decision?

Look at all the space for fraud in that process.

I mean. The news headline is saying trump is FILING A LAWSUIT IN GEORGIA and he is disputing 41 ballots there atm. It's actually not news. In a lot of states, they allow the counting of absentee ballots postmarked by the 3rd as late as the 17th in places like Utah and North Carolina. Here in PA, our counting ends firmly on Friday, but we also accept ballots that the postman failed to postmark. So people are calling into question some amount of the approximately 30,000 total ballots that will be received between now and Friday.

So the lawsuit here and what Trump is complaining about being fraudulent, at least to me, would amount to somewhere in the ballpark of 0 to 100 ballots again.

The lawsuit in WI focuses on a Republican observer who claims to have seen an election worker in Chaltham Co take a box of 53 absentee ballots received after their 7pm deadline for receiving them and mix them in. Biden won the state by 20,000+ votes.

Everyone from Mike Lee, Mitch McConnell, and Marco Rubio to Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee and Chris Christie have denounced his behavior attempting to undermine the election. The Republican establishment is not riding this train wreck down, and seems to be indicating they will not support trump if he attempts to remain in office or stop ballot counting.

But there's some fraud in there somewhere. Trump said so. You're clearly just hiding it really, really well.

Yeah, he's pretty much just lying on the ground kicking and screaming and crying while no one but his pizzagate fringe buys any of it tho, which seems to be a lower amount than usual. Normal Republicans are like hell nah bro. Even Fox is telling that like it is.

Trump people sure are quiet today tho eh? I don't think I've seen a single one so much as speak let alone call me a libtard or call it a LANDSLIDE. You guys doing alright?

Georgia's pulling for Biden, but at this rate Nevada will win it for "Sleepy" Joe (still better)

As a Canadian watching this whole process...

Well.

*Micheal Jackson eating popcorn gif*

My FB feed is blowing up from all the Trumsters crying fraud and getting pissed at me for fact checking them. :)

I think Trump's done his dash..

All this talk of fraud is not really founded on actual evidence..

Where are his people tho? Did they all do their dash too? It's crickets today.

Looking at detroit and Phoenix and some other places, there are even groups of protesters chanting "stop the count." Maybe they are too busy out protesting to talk to us. 🤣🤣🤣

I am a Trump supporter yet, unlike some, I will support whoever wins without spending time fluffing about it.
It is about respecting the position, even if you don't respect the person.
I am an old, fu*ked up guy that would benefit more from Biden's free stuff (although the Senate firewall will prevent it from getting out of hand).
I didn't place my vote for personal benefit. I placed my vote for the future of my children and grandchildren.

Political propaganda has once again proven the ignorance of our society. Folks bitc*ing about politicians yet, when it comes time to vote, it's the other politicians that are screwing things up....Not my politicians so, you vote your politician back into office (times 50).

P.S. If you are one of the folks that gets exhausted by all the TV media and social media, turn it off and go live your life. There are a lot of essential workers out there that come home exhausted from work. Yes work.

I'm glad to hear that. Your boy had the biggest fanclub ever. Fortunately I was unchanged, and pretty much disliked both parties and their candidates straight along. It's not like I voted with hillary because I loved her to death. And I almost voted for John McCain because I disliked him about the same as Obama, but Palin made me a sure 3rd party vote.

What makes Trump different is that his people wear his jersey and his hats, they name their boats after him, they have rallies of 10s of thousands. This was the pizzagate realms' Elvis. The deep state destroyer.

I hope we can all go back to distrusting our politicians and having rational conversations about whether we like or dislike legislation rather than something about a pizza sex cabal trump is BRINGIN DOWN. I'm happy to have days where the president isnt on my TV for retweeting white supremacists or picking fights with comedians or whatever. There will be WHOLE DAYS Joe is just president and there is no news. I cant wait for it.

Hopefully the nail is in the coffin by the time I get off work today. Yes, work. You'll be seeing Philly flash that 70 point margin but dont forget that it's a blue collar city. We'll be dropping about 200k ballots by noon and it should be close to nighty night.

The really unfortunate thing about Trump at the end of the day is that it will be marred by the division he sewed. He left the Paris climate agreement, not the government. The ICE order. The wall. Tearing apart the EPA. All of it was done by executive order.

While the senate will still decide the budget, which for conservatives Trump's tax bill will be the win you get to keep. I personally hate the deficit it runs, but since Trump refused to get along with Nancy, he was never able to do the things he wanted with medicare or immigration reform that he and the dems could have made deals on. The senate will have a check on anything too radical coming out of the house, and with Breyer eyeing retirement, we will probably get a Reagan democrat pro life moderate slip by Murkowski and Collins into the court.

Seeing things get more moderate on both ends already is to me extremely uplifting.

FTFY

Actually I am impressed that two men can cause this much drama. So much drama that the rest of the world is laughing.
America looks like a damn soap opera.
Every 4 years people are like: "if so and so wins I am going Canada". Bish please. Canada doesn't want you. lol Neither sides of you drama queens.

I will say it again..... Too many people approach politics with the same mentality as rooting for a sports team. It is dangerous and counter productive.
Politicians aren't heroes to be worshipped. They are literally employees we hire to work for us.

To me it's like watching New England play Green Bay tho. Like I definitely want neither of them to win. But like Yankee fans, whenever someone I also dislike peckerslaps the Patriots, I'm like HAHAHA YOU fluffIN LOSERS!

That's because their fans suck tho and not really like I had a rooting interest. Find me one guy in a MAKE AMERICA JOE AGAIN hat just being a hardcore fan of the guy loudly like a sports fan and I'd agree with you. It seems like absolutely being in love with your candidate was a uniquely conservative thing. So I hope, for both of our sakes, what you're describing is coming to an end.

don't worry, if he does lose, DJT can still run again in 2024.

I'm a trump supporter but I'm not all up in arms. Ask anyone who has talked to me. Do I hope a miracle happens? fluff yeah but I'm not going to lose sleep over it at the end of the day. If biden does shut down the country again I'm still going to work. If he tries banning certain guns well I will have an unfortunate boating accident. My taxes goes up? I make cuts else where. It's not end of the world. Honestly if trump would have learned to be more calm and not constantly attacking people then he probably would have won in a land slide honestly. But he found himself in the "anyone but trump" category same as hillary was last election. That's what probably cost him so much this time.

that sounds too reasonable.....you should probably call foul, label him a racist (with video proof), work for 4 years to impeach and discredit him, and if anyone says they support the president you call them ignorant/racist/sexist/homophobic as well. That is the new American way. Who would want to work together?

Keep it divided America!

Lol yeah, and I agree with you particularly in Arizona. All that rhetoric against John McCain, Arizona's favorite son, came back against him and basically handed this election to Biden should it stay blue. It turns out fluffting on that guy even posthumously really did him no favors and seems to have cost him about 5 points in the state, and 8 points amongst independents, especially in "Reagan Democrat" areas.

If he would have backed off the constant battling and tweeting about his political adversaries in a disparaging way, he probably could have held the state.

Not supporting the governor of michigan when there was a plot to kidnap her was also a popular reason for Biden votes by moderates in michigan in exit polling. You can really see where his own mouth, rather than politics, cost him this election.

Everyone knows the russia investigation was a put on and the dossier was a sham. On the other hand the bulk of american people lost a lot of faith in the fbi. Between that and the clinton investigation of course. People know once you become that high and mighty you are untouchable and she proved it. At least she wasn't president though haha

Were you like the only person that did not like Reagan? Were you even alive? lol

Also, CFB is better than the NFL :P

High School Football is even better :P :P

For the cricket fans here, probably just one of you: https://imgur.com/a/6yCor0y

I was alive but just a little tator tot. And I think Reagan did the right things with the economy at the right time tho they don't have the same efficacy in current dynamics.

But also, there's an area in arizona that is commonly referred to as the "Reagan democrat" area because they seem to vote for old con policy but also generally prefer reagan types. They just grew up thru union jobs and prefer strong union candidates with their trickle down economics. They voted for trump in 16 and fully did a 15 point we are bailing on you in 2020. It's one of few noticibly different in this election demographics and what plainly makes them different is their "reagan democrat" vibes. If you also worked for a politcal party, youd know the dems have been pandering to them trying to win them for ages. And this time they did.

Les go sleepy Joe!

I just want this fluff show to be over, all votes must be counted though, I don't care who wins as long as nobody is disenfranchised and all votes are legal and validated.

10/10 you win this thread, galli, seems that politics has turned into a new sport and yes that is dangerous, the biggest thing people need to realize coming out of these past two elections is that we the people don't have a say on what candidate each party will have representing us, one thing Trump has exposed is that the system is rigged against we the people, he was the 2016 protest vote, I think the conservatives have realized this and it is why he beat out all the establishment republican hacks, question is, when are the Democrats going to wake up? This is the second election in a row Bernie gets pushed aside when clearly he was the people's choice.

It's not without future direction imo. Old white men and middle aged suburban woman voted for Biden in this election because of the pandemic. I think that's true, and I doubt the dems have as strong of showings with those two demographics. The fact is, when you get tons and tons of people to register to vote, you see trump do 15% better with cuban americans and around 8% better with latinos overall. He did 6% better with black men and closed the margin almost even with asians.

Republicans had feared for some time that the party was aging old white men and they have to change. But honestly, it seems like most minorities who were actually motivated to vote voted dems. And the dems pushing for a fluffload of minority registrations may have indeed helped Trump as much as them. I think there is almost a clear pathway to a victory lap in 2024 for the party that doesnt involve talking bad on blue cities and stuff and not just letting the vote go against you there while you say "bad things happen in Philadelphia."

The suburbs may be turning blue, but the inner cities and the most disenfranchised seem to lean way further right if you get them all to vote. I think this election loss will be good for how the party thinks about cities, and they have the opportunity to swing them nice enough to win.

Agreed ^

To be upfront, the outcome of the Presidential election will not change but,
When you quote the talking heads, you become one. You become a part of the propaganda machine. There are some facts obvious to the most casual observer:
~Either party would pursue all avenues of challenge in such a close election.
~To assume either party controls the policy for the next four years is to forget that mid-term elections are only two years away.
~To interpret statistical analysis, prior to individual State Certifications, is only to repeat the political party/media analysis (propaganda). Again, I do not believe any outcomes will change. All vote counts, in a majority of states, have not been completed and none have been certified.
~After the 2020 Census, redistricting will occur, with congressional districts redrawn for the 2022 through 2030 elections. In many states, this process is controlled by the state legislature, subject to gubernatorial veto. When one party controls the process, this can lead to gerrymandering, where district lines are set to maximize that party’s control in Congress.
The republicans hold the majority of State Legislatures and State Governors. None were lost in the 2020 election cycle and one flipped from dem to rep. * Side note, if Bernie dies or resigns, the Vermont Governor is a Republican and would pick his replacement.

Should the Republicans hold on to the Senate, not a lot of policy changes will occur and politics in the news will become boring again. The weather will be back to the number one talking point at the coffee pot.

I haven't watched the news in a couple days, but if they are making the same assertions based on exit polls as me, I'd say that is solid analysis. I haven't heard someone use the term Reagan Democrat since I was a kid haha. But yeah. It wont actually be perfect, it is usually close tho. I dont mind making a few points about exit polls or county election data before it is certified tho. It's probably not more than +/- 5 points off, or in county unofficial data, 0.005% off.

~"either party would challange..."
You're right and they absolutely actually do every election year whether or not it is close. I dont think there has been an election in my life without a few ballots struck or a state's rules challenged. The court often rules that any state rule changes must be applied to the next election so as not to disenfranchise voters. The PA lawsuit, for example, only targets about 14,000 ballots according to the election commission. That's not enough to swing this election or this state, so the decision needn't be applied until the next go around.

Whether it's a pressing need to change PA's rules, a story about a sharpie in AZ, or a basket of less than 100 ballots in GA, it's actually important to litigate because if something went amiss, it needs not to happen again.

Re: policy. I was actually just having a conversation last night about how, even if senate goes 50/50 after the Georgia runoffs (I dont believe the dems will win either seat. It's possible, I just have my doubts), that Trump's tax plan is likely safe for the same reason this administration was unable to scrap the ACA. When you pass something thru both houses and sign it, it gets really hard to repeal. I dont see at least that changing much.

Trump did fund ICE, defund the EPA WHO CDC PHAA, pulled out of Paris Climate accord, did the muslim ban etc all by executive order tho. So basically all that should go back to how it was day one with a series of orders. Tangible policy tho? Not likely. As you say, with a red senate people should not expect anything major.

People in the media are acting as if what the Trump campaign is doing by challenging the vote counts is somehow taboo and never been done before, this actually happened 20 years ago at a smaller scale.

I think saying there are ballots in every election that need to be handled by the courts, and that you'd rather not concede until it is litigated because it is so close is one thing, and saying the election had "millions of fraudulent ballots" and that you hereby claim to win states you didnt win is another. I think that's mostly why people are up in arms about it. Calling our democracy a fraud is a little much.

I just wish all the right wing Trump supporters would stop rioting, looting, and burning down cities..... oh wait nvm

*looks at Boogaloo*

You're right, killing security guards and attempting to kidnap governors is totally rational behavior as well. Both of the fringes are violent right now, although the violence takes shape in different forms. I think saying one is and one isn't is disingenuous. The biggest challenge Biden has aside from the virus now, and probably for a few administrations to come, will be attempting to quiet the divisions between us so we dont let the violence of the fringes become the norm.

The good news is that if Biden gets in, he will reinstate the HUD executive order and depopulate our urban areas.
*POLPOT*

This will dilute the corruption of major cities but will be a coin toss on whether it actually improves the lives of the disadvantaged by putting them into a safer indoctrination camp (the suburban public education system) or will it just dilute their votes and be lost in the right of center suburbs?

Either way i see that move as being a plus for the country.

One clarification though. I tend to have a libertarian streak so i personally do not like big government making decisions and decisions should be made at the lowest level possible. However i am not blinded by that belief so that i cannot see the country's benefit in this.

Gucci flip flops.

The US is a 3rd world country with a Gucci belt. Change my mind

Coming from a 3rd world country and experiencing it first hand during my teenage years, no, absolutely not, just no lol.

You're probably right and I agree mostly with that it is an unknown. I'm just curious how hard this admin will even tackle those issues while the whole northeast seems headed towards another shutdown. Maybe now is the correct time since all area schools are going back virtual next week. Shouldn't even make a difference where they enroll if it's all online anyways haha.

Online only is just not good for kids though. The socialization aspect of school is very important. For better or worse.

I agree, would even go as far to say it is as important as the education itself, but I dont think taking a month or even a year in person away will stunt social growth THAT much. It's the whole process of things and not really one bit of it that "makes a man."

We are raging out of control with the holiday season on us here tho. Like a solid 1% of the nations Rona is currently in philly right before the holiday. I dont think it's stupid to keep kids at home thru the holiday season so they dont kill their grandparents which I imagine would stunt social growth as well.

Anyone living here now feels like philly was so hard hit. So much has closed for good and so much more business will probably die in this second wave of closures. Beginning to think I probably wont ever run a nightclub again or play a show for 10,000 people again. It just sucks. Idk. I dont really need to express a loud opinion about the virus because I'm not a virologist and it's just an opinion haha. I just know it sucks.

We're finding out new restrictions tomorrow at 1pm. I'm looking at buying a bunch of outdoor heaters or something to stay open at the steakhouse but idk. It sounds like indoor dining is gonna be gone. Are people really gonna sit outside with a propane heater all winter to eat a piece of beef? Idk. Just doesnt seem likely. I sell enough on uber eats and stuff to stay open if I immediately lay off about 2/3 of my staff 2 months after hiring them. Just feels bad.