2020 Absentee/Early Voting thread

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

So with Arizona, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina counting early we should have an idea of who won on Election Night?

Maybe, maybe not. I'm not sure if any of the non-GA states had these policies as SOP prior to 2020, or if they were implemented precisely because of this year's situation.

In the case of AZ, it has usually taken days to get most/all of the mail ballots counted, so if the procedure hasn't changed since 2018, then there may still be a delay.

With FL, I'm guessing there was at least some semblance of this policy in effect prior, as the state generally gets the vast majority of its mail and non-mail vote alike counted on Election Night.

In GA and as far as I understand, it permits counties to begin 15 days prior but does not require them: with 159 counties, some may (and probably will) choose not to begin counting early, and others (particularly larger counties with notorious difficulties in counting) may still not work through the bulk by Election Night even if they begin 15 days in advance.

But generally, I'd say we'll know a lot about the nature of the evening from TX, GA, NC, FL & AZ much sooner than from WI, PA & MI.

I'd add that we'll also likely get a clear-ish picture of the situation in WI and MI much earlier (relatively speaking) than we will of the situation in PA. 

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I don't understand how anyone could possibly be against allowing voters to fix issues before tossing their ballot. There are plenty of reasons why a mismatch could be declared. Perhaps the person checking doesn't know what they are doing, or the voter signed in a hurry, or signed under the assumption it didn't really matter, just like signing receipts after using a credit card.

For as much as conservatives think voting is being made too easy and "vulnerable" by the left, this is the polar opposite - making it too exclusionary for no good reason.

Oh there is a "reason" - the fewer people that vote, the better chance that Republicans win.

That's the conventional wisdom but Republicans are playing with fire this time.  They are set to lose college educated voters by a wide margin and are not doing as well among older voters.  I'm no longer sure that low turnout helps the GOP anymore.  Really high turnout doesn't help them either because: young voters.  I think we might be at the point where the GOP is too small a party to survive in its current form.

Nah, there’s still plenty of bottom left to fall out in rural areas, especially in the Midwest.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1306288566515924992

Glorious news!  Honestly, I wasn’t expecting us to win this one

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Just got my ballot emailed to me while riding the train home and nearly sh-t myself

what state are you in that does email balloting?

Yeah, I don’t see how that can be a thing.