US Election Week 2020

[alfred russel]

Do you know if they're mail-in ballots and how they're breaking in Georgia? Is it in a similar way to, say, Pennsylvania and the Mid-West (strongly for Biden and better for Biden even in Republican areas - because the President told his supporters not to use mail-in ballots) or more like Arizona where they vote by mail all the time so it's more mixed, and the later ballots favoured Trump? Or do we just not know?

They are primarily mail in ballots but some provisional ballots as well (provisional ballots being people who showed up on election day, but the people running the polls weren't sure the person was eligible to vote--for example--if I requested an absentee ballot and then showed up to vote, they would see I requested an absentee and then tell me to cast a provisional vote, so they could check I didn't also vote the absentee).

They seem to be running slightly more pro biden--Fulton reported the last batch of counted votes was about 80% biden, versus 72.5% counted so far. But it isn't clear what is being counted now: are these early absentees (democrat skew) or late absentees (ambiguous skew) or a mix?

But Georgia seems very, very close - I wonder impact these votes could have on the Senate race though

Not really any. In Georgia if you don't get over 50% of the vote you go to a runoff. The first senate race (we have 2) doesn't have anyone close to 50%. The second currently has the republican at 50.0 and the democrat at 47.7. While the republican is still technically at 50.0%, it is going to a runoff as well - doesn't seem any hope he holds that.

[OttoVonBismarck]

At the end of the day getting to "true" 100% counted in a state, which means every fucking absentee from every precinct, all the cured, overseas, and provisional ballots--usually does take days. It's just rare it matters or anyone cares, in all the instances in my lifetime where this has happened it's been a dreadfully painful experience to wait.

[Sheilbh]

They just want to enjoy their 15 days of fame, don't they?

Georgia feels like me when I tell my employer that I'm almost done but then I take 2-3 extra days to actually turn in the work.

I mainly feel like Nevada because I don't think their vote count hasn't moved since Tuesday. I make a great start, get bored, nap, go for a drink, see friends, run out of time and have a panicked rush to meet a deadline

Interesting - thanks AR.

[DGuller]

I donated to snopes.com.  Now more than any other time they're key first responders.

[alfred russel]

Keep in mind Georgia's ballots do not include provisionals, overseas, or cured ballots. While it's impossible to guess how those would shift, they will come into play if this is a FL2000 situation in Georgia. Overseas military hasn't been as strong for Trump as is historical for a Republican, and provisionals and cured ballots historically break Dem.

You have until Friday to cure ballots in Georgia, so this isn't even an issue of counting if it is really within a few hundred votes.

The concern I have is that the secretary of state is telling the world fulton has 25k uncounted ballots and the fulton elections chief told the ajc it is 10k and would be done counting by 11 am. Anyway, I guess we will know soon.

[Caliga]

It's weird no movement in NV, but they are definitely counting.  MSNBC had reporters in the place where they count votes, whatever it was, in Washoe County (Reno) last night and you could see the workers counting ballots live.

[DGuller]

What's the mechanism of counting the votes anyway?  Is it a fully manual process?  Or is it partially manual process (you have to unseal the envelop manually, but then feed it to a machine)?  Would be nice to know, just to get a feel for what a reasonable timeline could be.

[Syt]

It's weird no movement in NV, but they are definitely counting.  MSNBC had reporters in the place where they count votes, whatever it was, in Washoe County (Reno) last night and you could see the workers counting ballots live.

I think they said they won't release new tallies till noon or so tday.

[Sheilbh]

It's weird no movement in NV, but they are definitely counting.  MSNBC had reporters in the place where they count votes, whatever it was, in Washoe County (Reno) last night and you could see the workers counting ballots live.

They were initially planning to announce today, then said they'd announce on Wednesday, before finally saying they'd actually announce on Thursday. As I say I can only sympathise with that

[The Larch]

Scoop: McConnell, if he keeps the Senate majority, plans to prevent Joe Biden from stacking his Cabinet with liberals and force him to go with centrist options, like Lael Brainard 4 Treasury, Tony Blinken for State, sources tell

So, has the Senate at other points busted the figurative balls of incoming Presidents on who they can nominate for Cabinet positions? 

[Sheilbh]

I...worked on this meme for a year...and...he just...he tweeted it out.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
STOP THE COUNT!

Edit: Of course the weird thing is if you stop the count now Biden's at 270

[viper37]

for example--if I requested an absentee ballot and then showed up to vote, they would see I requested an absentee and then tell me to cast a provisional vote, so they could check I didn't also vote the absentee).

that's a sure sigh they are Republican votes.  Vote early and vote often the President said.

[OttoVonBismarck]

FWIW while PA is still giving me heartburn, Dave Wasserman is saying the margins coming in are just astronomical and it won't even be close, but I'll feel a lot better when that displayed count goes from red to blue, it looks like based on the size of the PA data dump we can expect more dribbles throughout the day, not any huge one off dumps. So we may not see it flip til tomorrow.

[FunkMonk]

I'm imagining Donald Trump sitting in the White House watching his margin in PA decrease by the hour. He must be fuming.

[Syt]

Scoop: McConnell, if he keeps the Senate majority, plans to prevent Joe Biden from stacking his Cabinet with liberals and force him to go with centrist options, like Lael Brainard 4 Treasury, Tony Blinken for State, sources tell

So, has the Senate at other points busted the figurative balls of incoming Presidents on who they can nominate for Cabinet positions? 

At that point, what stops them from demanding only GOP firebrands?