# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/61 "2020-11-03T18:00:26Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I think the people who get the most benefit from campaign signs are those for candidates without a lot of name recognition. Like nobody’s gonna change their vote for Biden or Trump, but if they see a lot of Joe Schmoe signs around for a local election, even if they know nothing else about Joe Schmoe, they might go for the name they recognize. > > Just a theory about why campaign signs are a thing. Yeah absolutely! Doesn’t matter a lick for presidential elections (although knowing how your neighbor’s going to vote might sway your vote, but definitely not on election day) but as a candidate myself I heartily agree. I even find myself getting confused between “names of people I remember because I meant to vote for them” versus “names of people I just saw on a sign outside the poll.” I make sure I have a written sheet now - which is even easier when filling out my ballot at home. I took my Biden sign down early because it was getting bent up and looking sad, and I figured it wasn’t changing any minds by last week. But I kept up my sign for a local candidate so people would remember his name. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/62 "2020-11-03T18:01:28Z")
> [@Temporary\_Name](#): > > In many states, if it does not get delivered today it is not a valid ballot the way I understand it. I’m not sure about that. It needs to be postmarked today and I believe many states allow for delivery time. In truth those ballots postmarked today will probably be counted to make the official count and used if there is a recount needed. ---
**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 3, 2020, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/63 "2020-11-03T18:03:05Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Such a division of the country would serve no purpose, because no state is 100% red or blue. Not even Wyoming! ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Mabes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mike_mabes/32/1782_2.png) [@Mike\_Mabes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Mabes)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/64 "2020-11-03T18:07:40Z")
Trump now at RNC headquarters, he says he hears that he is doing well in Florida and Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/65 "2020-11-03T18:07:45Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Since we don’t change, it’s not easy to keep track of what time it is in other time zones. Which is why snowbirds from Saskatchewan feel at home in Arizona. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/66 "2020-11-03T18:07:54Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > No, it’s not doable. (says the person living in a red chunk of New York.) Either this is the country in which people who feel differently on many significant issues can co-exist, or it’s not gonna be a country at all. That is what we are _about_ . The other issue is that in a lot of Southern states, people of color, gay people, and other groups face pretty serious discrimination, and the federal government has been pretty influential in mitigating that discrimination. Saying “let’s let Southern states split off” is basically abandoning people to political repression. This is where the fight’s being fought. Don’t abandon the battle. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/67 "2020-11-03T18:09:12Z")
> [@Temporary\_Name](#): > > No one has mentioned it yet, but CNN has been reporting for a couple of days that the post office has been slowing down ballot delivery despite court orders and assurances from postal officials. Does anyone have specific information on the matter? > > In many states, if it does not get delivered today it is not a valid ballot the way I understand it. Looks very underhanded to me, but I don’t have all the information. (And I realize this thread is primarily about live, election day votes – but these undelivered ballots may have a bigger effect than in person votes in certain counties or LD’s.) This is one reason I dropped my ballot off at the drop box outside the county courthouse rather than mailing it back in. I wasn’t taking any chances! It made me nervous enough when I saw on the county elections website that they weren’t mailing out ballots until 20 days before the election. I wondered, with all the USPS shenanigans, whether that was enough time to get them mailed out and back in. ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Mabes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mike_mabes/32/1782_2.png) [@Mike\_Mabes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Mabes)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/68 "2020-11-03T18:11:18Z")
Now talking about crowd size. 40-50k, maybe more ---
**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 3, 2020, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/69 "2020-11-03T18:13:57Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > such a conceit just buys into the notion that the electoral college framework actually represents the country. It does not. A state which votes 52% for Trump votes 48% for Biden, (more or less). In reality, you can’t in any meaningful way say it’s a “red” state, without completely ignoring that 48%. It’s only a “red state” in the Electoral College frame of reference–but that’s not truly representative of what’s actually happening. True, even on the county level, and even when the percentages aren’t as close as 48/52. (Says one of a batch of progressives living in this overall very red county.) > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > The other issue is that in a lot of Southern states, people of color, gay people, and other groups face pretty serious discrimination, and the federal government has been pretty influential in mitigating that discrimination. Saying “let’s let Southern states split off” is basically abandoning people to political repression. Also a very valid point. – I think part of the point of campaign signs is ‘See! It’s OK to vote for X! Look, your neighbors are going to!’ ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/70 "2020-11-03T18:18:03Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > Call me what you will - I choose not to engage in some social media platforms. Count me in as well. I have both Twit and Face blocked at my firewall. I do not exist to them, and they do not exist to me. ---
**Author:** ![Temporary\_Name](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Temporary\_Name](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Temporary_Name)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/71 "2020-11-03T18:18:03Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I’m not sure about that. It needs to be postmarked today and I believe many states allow for delivery time. In truth those ballots postmarked today will probably be counted to make the official count and used if there is a recount needed. If I understand you correctly, as long as they get to the processing center and get metered (or whatever the term is), they do not have to be physically delivered to where the count takes place? That is good to hear, but why did people mail them so close to the deadline?? > [@Shoeless](#): > > This is one reason I dropped my ballot off at the drop box outside the county courthouse rather than mailing it back in. I wasn’t taking any chances! > > It made me nervous enough when I saw on the county elections website that they weren’t mailing out ballots until 20 days before the election. I wondered, with all the USPS shenanigans, whether that was enough time to get them mailed out and back in. Yes- me too. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/72 "2020-11-03T18:22:06Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > This is where the fight’s being fought. Don’t abandon the battle. Fuck the battle. Offer anyone who wants one a free bus ticket. If they wanna stay where they are and fight, good for them. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/73 "2020-11-03T18:26:04Z")
Here’s an [interesting story about geology and voting](https://twitter.com/latifnasser/status/1323333293467525126?s=20&fbclid=IwAR13kMlzNCF_cxoc6Vp6jAfLh4Hop7Jo0GJgjNAYdQoUgwbBnjQks0sHuJc) that someone posted on Twitter yesterday. Sorry if you can’t get to Twitter to read it. I thought it was pretty neat. Just some interesting reading to pass the time. ---
**Author:** ![Tierce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@Tierce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tierce)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/74 "2020-11-03T18:28:22Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > 538’s live coverage is up. They’re obviously good at keeping things in perspective as results start to be reported. Right now that page has half a dozen ads, five links to other 538 pages, and no other content. Are they waiting until the first polls close, or am I missing something? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/75 "2020-11-03T18:28:23Z")
> [@Temporary\_Name](#): > > If I understand you correctly, as long as they get to the processing center and get metered (or whatever the term is), they do not have to be physically delivered to where the count takes place? That is good to hear, but why did people mail them so close to the deadline?? Each state is different. For some the ballot must be physically delivered by the post office to the election agency’s ballot counting facility today by some specific time of day. For others the ballot must only be “postmarked”, i.e. recognized as legally input into the postal system, by today. But even for the latter states, there is still some deadline beyond which any ballots that trickle in later due to post office delays (legit or otherwise) will be ignored. It might be 7 days, it might be 14. Each such state will have a different one. But they aren’t going to be 30 or 60 days because the rest of the election process demands a final result sooner than that. One semi-legit reason to delay mailing if you’re in a postmark-counts state is to ensure you gain the benefit of any last minute info. I mail-in voted my _primary_ ballot back this summer as soon as I could. The next week my preferred presidential candidate dropped out of the race. Had I waited I could have made a better (or at least more effective) choice. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/76 "2020-11-03T18:31:41Z")
> **[Postal Service Tells U.S. Judge It Cannot Complete Sweep for Delayed Ballots...](https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2020-11-03/us-judge-orders-sweep-for-any-outstanding-ballots-at-some-postal-facilities)** > > US News is a recognized leader in college, grad school, hospital, mutual fund, and car rankings. Track elected officials, research health conditions, and find news you can use in politics, business, health, and education. this is happening. hopefully that helps a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/77 "2020-11-03T18:33:08Z")
I’m sorry, I have no idea. She’s someone who has been working to ensure that our voting machines across the country are safe, so this is the sort of thing she tracks. Meantime, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, he of the Mike Flynn is a traitor fame, has ordered the USPS to sweep facilities for remaining mail ballots and immediately deliver them to election boards. [As in, right fucking now you assholes, you do not get to lollygag](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-03/usps-ordered-to-sweep-swing-state-facilities-for-mail-in-ballots). \ ---
**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 3, 2020, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/78 "2020-11-03T18:35:50Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > [@Dinsdale](#): > > > > The last couple of days I’ve been thinking that if Trump wins, we really should consider splitting the country into 3 to reflect/allow very different folk to form their own societies. > > > > 1 East coast from Maine down to Virginia, and across to Wisc/IL > > 2 South - from the Carolinas down to Fla, and across through Tenn/KY, Texas and up to the Dakotahs > > 3 W coast - Wash/Or/Ca. > > > > Sure, the boundaries could be tweaked, and many people will be pissed, but it impresses me as doable, and preferable to having folk who clearly feel so differently on so many significant issues trying to co-exist. > > Take a look at a county-by-county map sometime. > > No, it’s not doable. (says the person living in a red chunk of New York.) Either this is the country in which people who feel differently on many significant issues can co-exist, or it’s not gonna be a country at all. That is what we are _about_. Exactly. I live in a rural part of Connecticut. My town went for Trump in 2016 (but voted blue in 2018). Our last Town chief executive (our First Selectman) was a Republican, but the current one is a Democrat. I drove by the polls this morning and saw a huge “Trump 2020” sign next to a guy in a Trump costume and rubber mask. (There was also a large Biden display, but not as over-the-top as the Trump one.) The bottom line is that I live in a purple town in a blue state. My Mom and one of my sisters both live in Houston, and another sister and other extended family members live outside city limits in Harris County, Texas. Houston has been blue for years, and the county has been red. Now the county is shifting blue as well. So they all live in a blue city inside a purple county in a red state. I no longer have family there, but also look at California. There are more registered Republicans in California than any other state in the country (mainly due to its large population). The more granular you get, the more evident it is that our country is actually fairly purple. ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/79 "2020-11-03T18:38:20Z")
I should be concerning/frightening to all Americans, Republicans or Democrats, that democracy is hanging on by the judiciary. This is a real problem. I’ve said in other threads that every politician has be fully 100% committed to the democratic ideal. It is better to lose democratically than to win anti-democratically. Every layer of the government needs to be on the side of democracy. Hopefully the Democrats, should they win, can pass some laws to help enshrine some of these principles. I would even go so far as they should propose one or more constitutional amendments and in effect dare the Republicans at the state level to reveal their anti-democratic stance and not pass them. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/80 "2020-11-03T18:40:22Z")
I dunno - maybe it is time to admit that our verion of democracy was an unsuccessful experiment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618.md?page=5)