Who believes Trump?

If you want to try and understand the ballot counting system this might have some info for you.

https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-election-2020

AP (Associated Press) is an independent non-profit news agency organisation that has been doing the counting at the polls since 1848. They run the count according to the laws of each State, follow the rules strictly, allow only one invigilator per table from each party and those people are not allowed to touch the ballot. So any reports of party officials not being allowed to watch the count are false - according to AP.

Each State has different laws as to when postal votes are counted but there is a national law that says they have to allow any vote that has a postmark prior to the end of election day. The votes from the armed forces get counted last in most states. some states don't allow the postal votes to be opened until all the in-person votes have been cleared. Other states start counting them at the same time. This is why there is a discrepancy in timing between the states.

Each State also sets their own rules as to what margin they allow for a recount.

It is AP that announces the winners as they become known. No party officials, State politicians nor elected officers are allowed to influence how AP run the count.

Up to now no proof has been presented to back up what Trump has been claiming and even some of the top Republicans in the government have been going on the news saying that what Trump has been saying is incorrect (they haven't called them lies).

AP rarely say anything about how things are but have felt constrained to come out and report to the media about what Trump has been saying.

If it has puzzled you that our news reports are saying that the media haven't yet announced the winner they actually mean that AP hasn't yet announced the winner.

If this has given you terminal boredom I apologise.

 

The election/counting is a complete farce, shades of dodgy 3rd world dictatorships. They must be sponsored by the media to create this cliff hanger. How come most of the states declared within hours yet a few marginal ones are dragging their feet giving minute by minute updates - why ! This is what made America great, media, advertising and bluff (I'm being sarcastic by the way).

 

Most of the States that declared early had less wide spread polling areas and less postal votes. They also started counting the postal votes at the same time as the other votes. The recount in Georgia will, apparently, take a few days.

Some of the delays are also caused by the virus creating a much lower number of counters in some areas due to illness or isolating. A relation of mine over there is a counter and she says that her counting room is down to 60% of the normal number of counters. They also had to keep the room closed for a few hours as they couldn't get in because of demonstrators!

 

Yes I understand all that, but why give a constant stream of updates? Just wait till the end and declare. There is no good reason, it only benefits lawyers, advertisers and the media.

 

The constant updates are causing the demonstrations.

 

I agree with you.

Not sure I agree with that. It's Trump's constant Tweeting and spoutings on the media that are causing the demonstrations.

Over here we also give updates by using exit polls.



In some of the states they were banned from counting the postal votes from the beginning of counting by legal action taken by the Republicans. They were not allowed to start counting the postal votes until they finished counting the in-person votes.

Other states allow for the recall of voters for spoiled ballots (usually if their signatures don't seem to match) where they have to come in to the counting centre to verify their signature. This is done to overcome errors but to also try and get the voting done properly. Unfortunately this mean trying to find the voter, getting them to come in and then verifying they are who they say they are. Very tedious and long winded.

As I said earlier, all the states set their own rules as they are autonomous under the Constitution.

Also, a lot of the postal votes from the armed forces still haven't arrived from the remote places they are stationed. As long as they were registered votes prior to the election the Federal law says they must be counted.

 

AP are clearly not abreast of things then @shiney - the statement "So any reports of party officials not being allowed to watch the count are false" has been proven wrong in one of the lawsuits that Trump's team has already won, in addition to the numerous clips on social media showing them being denied access to count rooms, as well as coverings being put over windows.

In this day and age, there is no reason at all for postal voting - all voting should be either done in person, with ID or online linked to your ID/National Insurance number, and you should also have the right to be able to subsequently check upon your vote and even report fraud if that vote has changed (with a legal penalty for falsely doing so just because you changed your mind) - whilst there is no method that is guaranteed to be 100% secure, if done properly this has to be better than the current mess. The alternative is all online, which would in theory give an instantaneous result at the end of polling day.

At the end of the day whether it is Biden or Trump that wins, it matters not a jot - one is an utter idiot of the highest order, the other a bumbling old fart that doesn't know his arse from his elbow. If that is the best that America has to offer, I truly despair. But, if I were to be that person who won, I would want it to be on a fair basis.

 

Why Trump's constant tweetings and not Biden's? Is it because Trump's are the only ones the media have chosen to show?