The Voting Is Over But There Was No Clear Winner

Both parties knew that the 2020 presidential elections was too close to call.

By morning of the next day, Biden has asked for patience (this has been their message all along) and Trump has tweeted that he won or there was cheating going on (which has been his message and his style all along).

Repeat of 2000

And as it is, it looks like it's going to be 2000 (Bush-Gore) all over again. 2020 just never ceases to surprise us and in the worse possible way.

Is the Voting Truly Over?

The new thing now is because of the pandemic, there has been a lot more absentee ballots and mailed in ballots than normal so the projected winner in the hotly contested states are being withheld until the last vote is counted (most of which have Democratic governors).

Fraud?

Withholding who the winner is makes sense but this also is where the problem is coming from.

Some states have expanded the criteria for absentee voting, calling it the "no-excuse absentee voting", meaning you do not need to explain why you want an absentee ballot, as was the practice in the past. And so absentee ballots flew out left and right.

If this isn't enough, other states have just totally went ahead and automatically mailed out absentee ballots (or forms to request for one). And now we have all these mailed in ballots to verify and count.

Criteria

Counting is one thing but verifying which ones need to be legitimately counted is another thing. And which ballots are legit and should be counted depends upon the different criteria states have mandated. Most states require that ballots be postmarked and received by election day, some require that they be postmarked the day before and received within six days. Others will accept ballots up to 10 days, even more.

Postal Service

And here lies the opportunity for fraud, knowing that we have been having problems with the post office and all. No one should deny this.

And So We Wait

And so even though the voting is over (presumably) everyone has to wait as the swing states (of course) those which are too close to call have the most number of mailed in ballots and with Trump having a slight lead after the in person votes were counted, but with most people assuming mailed in votes will go to Biden, the final count is up in the air. And it is.

The bad part is there is no "official" count of mailed in ballots so the opportunity for fraud is really possible. There is no way to know how many were legitimately dropped in or mailed on time to be counted. And we are not even going to touch on "ballot harvesting" or the dead being able to vote otherwise we will muddy the waters even more.

Patience

2020 has been one hell of a year, most people just want this elections to be over and know who won preferably by election night, if not within the next day -- as what has happened in previous elections (okay, except in 2000).

The media and Biden saying otherwise are getting people antsy, imagine 10 more days of this?

It is already hard now as one swing state has the count going one way then after just a few of the mailed in ballots were counted, all of a sudden the count is going the other way.

Peter, Paul and Mary, how much more can the American people take?



Election Night Thoughts