2020 Presidential Election Results & Exit Polls commentary thread

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Sec Def Mark Esper planning to resign because he was about to pushed out, per MSNBC.

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In advance of the looming 500-page mark, is this the longest non-permanent (Update etc.) thread ever?

Isn't it the longest period?

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Trump has 3 tweets flagged today so far. Wonder if he'll break his record of 5 from yesterday.

6 today.

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https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1324613375213621248

He's had 11 tweets hidden behind a warning in the last 2 days.

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Recounnts don't usually change calls aside from 2000, right?

The recount didn't actually change anything in 2000. But anyway, a recount will change a few hundred votes at most. More significant changes could conceivably come from legal challenges that could get votes thrown out or include votes that were initially thrown out.

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Georgia down to Trump +463.

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https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1324752659996397575

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On MSNBC, Ralston says there's almost no chance Biden's lead in NV will do anything but grow from here on.

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Kornacki just explained why PA hasn't been called. There are about 100,000 mail ballots outstanding but we don't know how many will be counted because many could be spoiled in some way (this is happening in counts so far) so we can't just assume Biden will net 50K from that. There are about 100,000 provisional ballots outstanding which is 4 times higher than in 2016. So far they have leaned Republican in PA (unlike in most years), possibly because the voters were bringing in mail ballots to their polling place on election day and don't have the envelope. Not clear how many of these will be counted or if they'll all lean Republican.

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I think what I posted is just an indication of why they're not calling it, not an argument that Trump will win FWIW.

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Alito, Thomas, and Gorsuch appear to be strong supporters of the principle that the legislatures can determine how the electors are selected in whatever manner they want. Well, the legislatures have allowed mail ballots. So it's fine.

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To clarify, I believe employees of a firm that is a federal contractor can contribute. But if say, the individual had a contract with the government himself or herself, they could not.

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I may be in a minority here, but I'm actually enjoying the slow reporting of results, although I'm sure that would be much less true if I wasn't confident of the eventual outcome.  In past years, election night is very exciting as the results come in, and then there's been a big letdown when it's over.  This year the exciting part is much longer lasting.

I kind of feel the same way, in that given I have no control over it, I'm kind of just enjoying all the drama. Though I'm ready for it to be over! lol

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https://twitter.com/VanityFair/status/1324852450109624322?s=20

In the words of Bill O'Reily, "DO IT LIVE!"

Is this legit or a parody?

The article doesn't match the tweet. It claims the Biden team wouldn't be surprised if he has to be dragged out, but not that he has signaled to his allies that it will be necessary.

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The calls are made by decision desks not network executives. I really don't think the stats guys are thinking about Trump's reaction if they make a call.

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The calls are made by decision desks not network executives. I really don't think the stats guys are thinking about Trump's reaction if they make a call.

I guarantee you they know damn well that Biden has won and they can’t make it official until the Executive Vice President of Whatever says so.

That's not true though. They've all reiterated many times each election that the decision desk is completely independent.

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Anyone post the map with Atlas colors yet? Well here it is:

Beautiful.

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Dave Wasserman just reiterated on MSNBC that they make a call when they have 99.5% confidence in the result. He was asked specifically if Trump's reaction would have any influence. That was his answer.

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https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1324901123996741634

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The 306 map is great because he said several times that he had one of the biggest Republican victories in history, and he had a 306 map.

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What date does the Electoral College meet? Trump can try legal shenanigans until then but after that date there is constitutionally nothing he can do.

They vote on December 13 and the votes are counted/affirmed by Congress on January 6.

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So what is stopping the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania legislature from simply saying "We don't care what the official tally is. We are awarding all electors to Donald Trump"?

Some Trumpers talked about that before the election and Donald Trump Jr. retweeted Mark Levin's tweet that demanded such action (Twitter removed it).

They said they won't do it. If they tried the governor would veto, unclear if he can veto that though (not court tested).

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What a beautiful result!

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The top of Trump's feed is still that tweet saying he won the election by a lot. lol

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I'm thinking, why not appoint Susan Collins to some cabinet position and snatch that senate seat?

I remember Bush 43 tried to do that. But it didn't work.