2020 Absentee/Early Voting megathread 2

[anthonyjg]

So this may be a stupid question, but I'd love if someone more familiar with election mechanics could answer... With millions of people returning their ballots well before election day, is there any actual reason to believe we won't get results on election night? Even places that cannot count until the day of, I mean that's when we normally count them anyway, right? I may be missing something about the actual ways this is run, but on paper the fears seem kind of unsubstantiated to me.

[anthonyjg]

So this may be a stupid question, but I'd love if someone more familiar with election mechanics could answer... With millions of people returning their ballots well before election day, is there any actual reason to believe we won't get results on election night? Even places that cannot count until the day of, I mean that's when we normally count them anyway, right? I may be missing something about the actual ways this is run, but on paper the fears seem kind of unsubstantiated to me.

Some states are allowed to count ballots hours or days prior to polls closing

https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vopp-table-16-when-absentee-mail-ballot-processing-and-counting-can-begin.aspx

Yeah so am I right to think election night should be pretty normal, all things given? Like I see on the news all this fretting about not knowing who will win for days or weeks and even if this was a close election, which I don't think it will be, it seems like everything should actually run fine, again all things given (knocks profusely on wood).

[anthonyjg]

So this may be a stupid question, but I'd love if someone more familiar with election mechanics could answer... With millions of people returning their ballots well before election day, is there any actual reason to believe we won't get results on election night? Even places that cannot count until the day of, I mean that's when we normally count them anyway, right? I may be missing something about the actual ways this is run, but on paper the fears seem kind of unsubstantiated to me.

Some states are allowed to count ballots hours or days prior to polls closing

https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vopp-table-16-when-absentee-mail-ballot-processing-and-counting-can-begin.aspx

Yeah so am I right to think election night should be pretty normal, all things given? Like I see on the news all this fretting about not knowing who will win for days or weeks and even if this was a close election, which I don't think it will be, it seems like everything should actually run fine, again all things given (knocks profusely on wood).

Basically, the problem is Pennsylvania. If Biden wins in a way where PA is unnecessary, election will be called on election night. PA will be slow.

Gotcha, thanks!