President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

I love VBM. But it's becoming increasingly obvious it puts a strain on election workers and can greatly slow the compiling of results, which is frustrating and also gives more fuel to conspiracy nutjobs, the longer it takes for final results to be tabulated.

States need to stop accepting ballots after the polls close on Tuesday. This used to be the policy in Oregon, until they changed it this year to accept any ballot postmarked on election day, . So, big surprise, it's taking much longer to count the vote than under the old fashion.

I have no idea why they changed. You were told don't mail your ballot after a week before election day. There are ballot collection boxes everywhere. No one should have had any problem at all getting their ballot in by 8 p.m. on election day. All the change did was screw up a process that worked pretty darn well.

And election officials should be able to start counting ballots as they arrive.

 

Why is the long count a problem for you folks? It's just counting. The idea is to facilitate having as many eligible voters as possible cast their ballots. It's not to find out who won as quickly as possible.

 

Spent a while thinking about this question yesterday. I think you could definitely see it, though I don't think she's necessarily bulletproof. The Michigan GOP screwed up legendarily in that half their primary field got kicked off the ballot for submitting fake nomination signatures. She has a little name recognition but I think the actual accomplishments have been kind of meh, mostly because the GOP controlled both houses of the Legislature, at least until now.

And now, the news from Lake Wobegon...

Election Day in Minnesota was mostly surprising by its lack of surprises. Keith Ellison appeared vulnerable as attorney general, mostly because the folks in Wadena who claim Minneapolis is too scary to go to Twins games anymore wanted to punish someone for the George Floyd riots making their state look bad. The GOP may have screwed this one up by nominating a hedge fund lawyer with no trial experience, as Ellison won by a little less than a percentage point, or about 18,000 votes out of 2.5M cast. The other scary looking statewide race was auditor, which is a very boring position that has to do with local government finances but where the Republicans tried to pin a multi-million dollar scandal over a bogus charity stealing COVID relief funds. In that case, the DFL (Democrat-Farmer-Labor) candidate won by about .4% or 8,000 votes out of 2.5M cast statewide with no help from two pot parties, which grabbed about 5% of the vote.

Minnesota's Favorite Strict Dad, Tim Walz, was reelected as governor by about 7 1/2 points or just short of 200,000 votes. For those scoring at home, Walz won Hennepin (Mpls.) and Ramsey (St. Paul) counties by 350,000 votes. Though based on his manner, I'm guessing Walz is just as excited about the Vikings being 7-1 as he is about getting another term in office. In the feel-good story of the night, election denier Kim Crockett lost by more than 9% and then blamed it all on "corrupt elites."

This means the GOP still hasn't won a statewide race in Minnesota since Tim Pawlenty in 2006.

Congressionally, there were no real surprises. My congressman will be allowed to keep flogging his "our way of life" dog whistle after winning by about 15 points. Better than the last time but there's just way too much Trump Country in this district for the Democrats to knock off an entrenched incumbent.

Several more districts in the sainted Iron Range flipped red due to some redistricting and the DFL being punished for environmentalists and minorities (in this case mostly Native) outshouting industrial labor over mining. It won't matter that much because the Republicans got their asses handed to them in the suburbs, leading to only the second trifecta of either color in Minnesota in the last 30 years.

 

In my state, anyway, ballots are received about three weeks before the election. There are ballot collection boxes all over the place. No one is prevented from voting, in any way, shape or form, by having to have their ballot in by 8 p.m. on election day.

Elections should be decided in a timely, accurate fashion. The fact the last presidential election wasn't determined until Saturday, certainly led to the rise of calls of fraud and other conspiracy theories that have seriously damaged the democratic process.

I've also heard that some races may not be determined until late November or even December, thanks to ranked voting. That is ridiculous and should be unacceptable.

 

Yeah, count me among those who say the ballots should be received, not mailed by election day.
If you have to wait until election day, you either 1. haven't given it any thought, and I probably would just as soon you not vote; or 2. your one of those people who feel you can do stuff whenever you want, and everyone else can wait around on you.
Set a time for something, and stick with it.
Also, I think the snooze button on the alarm clock is ridiculous, and I don't accept late work in my classroom.

 

FIGHT!!!

 

Makes you appreciate how hard it was to count votes in the early years of the Republic. Even as recent as the 1920s.

It is also one thing Florida seems to do well is get the votes in. Everyone could benefit from how they manage all of that (minus some obvious problematic issues). But I also appreciate how much care goes into making sure everything is done correctly. And how appreciably big the Western states are.

 

It's well known by now Trump never listens to advice. As long as he has a Sharpie he figures he's safe.

 

No sign for Lake Tahoe?

 

It's going to take so.eone with the persistence of Fred Wellman to get anything out of him.