# Election Day \[Week\]\[Month\[s\]\] \[Year\] 2020 follow-along thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 3, 2020, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618 "2020-11-03T05:36:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 239
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4770 "2020-11-08T02:25:33Z")
Ladies and gentlemen, many of us have gone through 9/11, the Great Recession, 2016, and more together here on the SDMB, and I’m finally glad to have some GOOD news making threads too fast to read! ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4771 "2020-11-08T02:25:35Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > > [@Locrian](#): > > > > When was this no mask thing that y’all are talking about? After his speech? > > Yeah. After he was done with his speech friends and family moved on to the stage to congratulate him and celebrate and Biden, who gave his speech with no mask on, didn’t bother to put one on. I didn’t watch the post-speech part. How long are we talking? Five minutes? Or just a minute or two before remembering, but some folks were looking to pounce? ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4772 "2020-11-08T02:28:06Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > And as I’m typing it is now a lead of 18,610 based on another 2,279 votes (somebody can do that math on that one). Trump needs 56.8% of the remaining votes to win the state - the last few updates he’s been slightly above that but there are still counts to come from places that are likely to be more Biden friendly. Also just seen the result needs to be within 500 votes to trigger a recount. That’s definitely not out of the question although if I was a betting man I’d definitely stick with the President Elect. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4773 "2020-11-08T02:28:21Z")
No one is counting votes _cast_ after that date. Some states allow mail votes postmarked by Nov 3, but rcvd by some day after to be counted. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4774 "2020-11-08T02:28:35Z")
Remember, the Republicans can literally kill people with their policies and the Democrats will _always_ be exhorted on minor points of protocol, all while the Republicans are, yes, still killing people. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4775 "2020-11-08T02:30:55Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > Trump needs 56.8% of the remaining votes to win the state - the last few updates he’s been slightly above that but there are still counts to come from places that are likely to be more Biden friendly. Which is why MSNBC has been saying he needs 60% or above. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4776 "2020-11-08T02:32:13Z")
> [@Kron](#): > > I didn’t watch the post-speech part. How long are we talking? Five minutes? Or just a minute or two before remembering, but some folks were looking to pounce? Less than 15 minutes (which is what I believe the CDC uses as “close contact”). And while I understand the optics of it, we need to remember that masks aren’t like super-virus-killers. They should primarily be used whenever you will be near other people that aren’t in your social circle. Your immediate family doesn’t really count, but Secret Service does. The craziness at Trump events isn’t Trump not wearing a mask - it’s that nobody else does. And that Trump also held events in small rooms for long periods of time with staff and others without masks. Those are _precisely_ the times you need to have a mask, not when you’re with your family on a stage watching fireworks at least 20 feet from anybody else. Anyway, sorry for the digression but we need to encourage mask wearing in public without falling for the “But Joe didn’t wear one for 3 minutes!!!” trap. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4777 "2020-11-08T02:33:51Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/nvlTJrNJ5lA/maxresdefault.jpg "Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - I Won't Back Down (Official Music Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvlTJrNJ5lA) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4778 "2020-11-08T02:34:50Z")
Months ago. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4779 "2020-11-08T02:35:45Z")
Ladies and gentlemen: the perfect tweet. [[Album] imgur.com ![](https://i.imgur.com/RoPgS9m.jpeg?fb "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/a/jEAqOLw) ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4780 "2020-11-08T02:36:20Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > Anyway, sorry for the digression but we need to encourage mask wearing in public without falling for the “But Joe didn’t wear one for 3 minutes!!!” trap. It’s not a trap. The motherfucker should be aware enough to put on a fucking mask, or else he’s just like anyone else making light of wearing a mask. It ain’t complicated, difficult, or hard. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4781 "2020-11-08T02:36:24Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Biden, who gave his speech with no mask on, didn’t bother to put one on. Don’t you think you’re being a tad harsh here? Of course he should mask early and often, both for the well-being of himself and the people he’s with, and to set a good example for the country. But c’mon - have you never, ever forgotten to mask up right away? I think we can forgive him one little slip in the excitement of the moment. Also, the point about all the people involved most likely being tested constantly does matter, not because he would have been thinking, “oh hey, I just won’t _bother_ with a mask, I don’t need to,” but because no subconscious alerts would have gone off in his brain, since on some level he would have known that it was a low-risk situation. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4782 "2020-11-08T02:36:41Z")
No, Biden took it off to make his speech (which was great) and just forgot to put it back on in the heat of the moment. ---
**Author:** ![tingbudong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tingbudong/32/520_2.png) [@tingbudong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tingbudong)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4783 "2020-11-08T02:37:15Z")
Let’s not forget that walking human fucking turd known as Stephen Miller. This ghoul pulled a lot of Trumps string. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4784 "2020-11-08T02:37:17Z")
In all seriousness - has anyone explained _why_ they picked that ridiculous spot to hold a press conference? ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4785 "2020-11-08T02:37:19Z")
Yeah, saw that just a bit ago. Excellent. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4786 "2020-11-08T02:38:02Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Ladies and gentlemen, many of us have gone through 9/11, the Great Recession, 2016, and more together here on the SDMB, and I’m finally glad to have some GOOD news making threads too fast to read! Yeah. This memory will stay with me. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4787 "2020-11-08T02:38:19Z")
I was waiting for the speech to come on, and thinking how nice it was to _want_ to listen to the president- and vice president-elect and how good it will be, for the next four years, to be able to hear the president’s voice without flinching. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4788 "2020-11-08T02:38:45Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > > [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > > > He has stated his grounds: post-in votes might be fraudulent, and there’s no way to check them accurately, also some arrived after the election, so they shouldn’t be included, therefore all post-in votes should be discounted. > > I meant grounds that weren’t batshit insane. Exactly. Over [65 million mail-in votes](https://electproject.github.io/Early-Vote-2020G/index.html) were cast in this election. That’s over 40% of the 158.8 million total number of votes that were cast. If that many votes were actually discounted, there is no credible way any impartial observer could claim this was a democratic election. It would truly be the end of democracy in the United States. Why not just go full autocracy and ban all other political parties? If we only counted votes cast by Republicans, I’m sure Trump would easily win that way, too. But that is surely a straw man. To consider the argument actually being made point-by-point: 1. _Post-in votes might be fraudulent:_ There is no evidence to support this supposition. 2. _and there’s no way to check them accurately_: Sure there is. You count these legally-cast votes like any other vote. 3. _also some arrived after the election, so they shouldn’t be included:_ Any ballots that arrived after the legal deadline in the relevant states have been segregated in accordance with the law. 4. _therefore all post-in votes should be discounted:_ This does not follow. Also note that the vast majority of mail-in votes were sent in early. They all could have been processed weeks ago when they were received if Republican-controlled legislatures had allowed it, and **counted on Election Day**. (Many states did exactly this.) The delay in counting the mail-in ballots was deliberately engineered by Republicans to delay the results. And having disparaged voting by mail, Trump hoped to falsely declare victory before they were all counted. Only the dedication and integrity of elections officials derailed this plan. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/4789 "2020-11-08T02:40:04Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > It’s not a trap. The motherfucker should be aware enough to put on a fucking mask, or else he’s just like anyone else making light of wearing a mask. It ain’t complicated, difficult, or hard. Eh, if you say so. If I go to the park with my family, and nobody else is there, I take off my mask. If I were standing on a stage with my family, and nobody else were there, I would take off my mask (or, in this case, wouldn’t put it back on until I was leaving the stage and would be near Secret Service personnel again). YMMV. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618.md?page=238) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618.md?page=240)