Election Night (+4) in America - Result: Biden Elected President (20 Viewers)

[GrandAdmiral]

I'll probably be flipping between CNN, NBC, and probably PBS if they have coverage.

What station you got?

 

[LA - L.A.]

Something that has annoyed me about everyone's coverage of the counting of the votes. They frame it as an ongoing neck-and-neck race to keep viewers tuned in, but that also riles people up and creates unnecessary anxiety.

When the last poll or post office closed, whichever was the latest, the outcome of the election was determined. At that point, either Biden or Trump was elected president. All we have been doing since then is finding out who won the election. There is no keeping a state blue or red, Biden or Trump. There's no flipping a state from one to the other. They are what they are and that reality does not change as we count the votes.

The election is not Schrodinger's cat that as we peel away the box molecule by molecule we keep flipping reality back and forth between Biden winning to Trump winning. The reality of who won was fixed two days ago. We are just slowly prying the box open to see which candidate is still alive and which one died.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

I guess this will be for another thread, but I wonder what happens to Melania and the rest of the Trump family if he flees. That's gonna be a huge mess, I think.

I seriously think Melania is going to file for divorce when this is all said and done. That revised prenup likely has her and Barron set for life.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

So if I heard the Georgia SoS correctly, Fulton County has over 10,000 ballots remaining, which includes over 3,000 provision ballots that have some additional steps.

 

[Optimus Prime]

I don’t care.

Edit: damn you, cuddle

That SR/EE/MAP moment when you see a post, you think up the most perfect witty response only to find that someone beat you to the punch

 

[Mr. Blue Sky]

Adventures in social media.

I made a Facebook post that said "The result of 2000 election wasn't determined until December 12 when the Supreme Court ordered Florida to end its recount. Federal election law provides key dates of December 8 and December 23. Not having the result yet is anxious but it is by no means unprecedented or outside of the process."

Then a guy I know and actually think is a smart guy and usually reasonable posts "You're right but the media is just so biased I can't stand it. In Michigan, there are more than 100K votes right now than there are registered voters! MSM isn't covering it at all."

So I write back "Well, what's your source on that, I'd like to see if that's even accurate before commenting."

No response. So I take matters into my own hands with literally three minutes of research. According to Michigan.gov, as of July 2020 there were 7.4M total registered voters in Michigan, 6.7M of which were considered "active" because they have voted at least once in the last 8 years. Also on Michigan.gov, the current election results, valid through this morning at 8:30AM showed 5.6M total votes for president.

So the entire premise is pure junk and it has this generally reasonable person fuming. And for a second there, I had to consider what explanations there might be. But this just shows how the way most Americans interact with their system of government and the way that they perceive events is often heavily influenced by pure fiction.

2020 Michigan Official General Election Results - 11/03/2020

mielections.us

https://www.michigan.gov/documents/sos/2020_Registered_Voter_Count_682262_7.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0EHkGQqflD-1TrUHhIJD_hR60I9IjyHC1MksyCufDzRMxMWzbIrz576oE

Just went and checked, looks like the guy you’re referring to just posted a reply and is now blaming it on the New York Times.. cant even make this stuff up.

 

[DaveXA]

Something that has annoyed me about everyone's coverage of the counting of the votes. They frame it as an ongoing neck-and-neck race to keep viewers tuned in, but that also riles people up and creates unnecessary anxiety.

When the last poll or post office closed, whichever was the latest, the outcome of the election was determined. At that point, either Biden or Trump was elected president. All we have been doing since then is finding out who won the election. There is no keeping a state blue or red, Biden or Trump. There's no flipping a state from one to the other. They are what they are and that reality does not change as we count the votes.

The election is not Schrodinger's cat that as we peel away the box molecule by molecule we keep flipping reality back and forth between Biden winning to Trump winning. The reality of who won was fixed two days ago. We are just slowly prying the box open to see which candidate is still alive and which one died.

Yes, but all of that is a byproduct of our antiquated voting system. And I don't mean the EC, which has its own issues, but I mean the methods for casting, collecting and counting votes. We really shouldn't be having to wait more than a couple of days for results.

 

[Sandman]

Something that has annoyed me about everyone's coverage of the counting of the votes. They frame it as an ongoing neck-and-neck race to keep viewers tuned in, but that also riles people up and creates unnecessary anxiety.

When the last poll or post office closed, whichever was the latest, the outcome of the election was determined. At that point, either Biden or Trump was elected president. All we have been doing since then is finding out who won the election. There is no keeping a state blue or red, Biden or Trump. There's no flipping a state from one to the other. They are what they are and that reality does not change as we count the votes.

The election is not Schrodinger's cat that as we peel away the box molecule by molecule we keep flipping reality back and forth between Biden winning to Trump winning. The reality of who won was fixed two days ago. We are just slowly prying the box open to see which candidate is still alive and which one died.

Props for the Schrödinger’s cat reference.

 

[LA - L.A.]

I seriously think Melania is going to file for divorce when this is all said and done. That revised prenup likely has her and Barron set for life.

I agree. Trump needing her public support as first lady gave her a tremendous amount of leverage over Trump, which is poetic justice for the man who's all about using leverage to extort people.

 

[DaveXA]

I seriously think Melania is going to file for divorce when this is all said and done. That revised prenup likely has her and Barron set for life.

I wonder if that revised prenuptial has an expiration date. He's divorced before and if he divorced before a predetermined date, he wouldn't have to pay out the pre-nup. Which is totally Trump. Depending on the agreement, she might very well be SOL.

 

[DaveXA]

So if I heard the Georgia SoS correctly, Fulton County has over 10,000 ballots remaining, which includes over 3,000 provision ballots that have some additional steps.

I could have sworn he said Fulton has 7,700 left or something like that.

 

[Saint by the Bay]

I agree. Trump needing her public support as first lady gave her a tremendous amount of leverage over Trump, which is poetic justice for the man who's all about using leverage to extort people.

I don't know. If Bill and Hillary can work it out I think those 2 crazy kids just might have a chance.

 

[SaulGoodmanEsq]

I mean... even if she leaves him with nothing she can make a ton of money going on talk shoes.

 

[superchuck500]

Hmm, I think we had threads about this.

 

[B4YOU]

GA - I don’t think will know the outcome until Friday. It’s going to come down to provisional ballots and overseas/military ballots not due until Friday. That’s how close this may be.

 

[Saint by the Bay]

I mean... even if she leaves him with nothing she can make a ton of money going on talk shoes.

Shoes may have been a typo, but it says a lot that I'm really not sure.

 

[LA - L.A.]

Yes, but all of that is a byproduct of our antiquated voting system. And I don't mean the EC, which has its own issues, but I mean the methods for casting, collecting and counting votes.

No it's not. There is no way to know election results immediately after the election concludes. There will always be a lag time. Different time zones alone make that a perpetual truth regardless of any changes to the voting system.

We really shouldn't be having to wait more than a couple of days for results.

It's a direct product of this lack of a patience and/or a logistical understanding of what it takes to protect the integrity and accuracy of the process and just how important it is to do that.

When it comes to elections, we as a society need to check our demand for instant gratification.

ETA: The other thing the reporting is a product of is our society's tendency for entertainment by conflict. Everyone reports the counting this way, because it creates a false sense of an active ongoing conflict, even though the decision has already been made. We don't simply want a no nonsense updating on the vote count. We want the melodrama of an active political tug of war.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

I could have sworn he said Fulton has 7,700 left or something like that.

He did, but after that he said,

(not verbatim) "There's 1,700 votes within that 7,000 that were just brought over from State Farm Arena that has gone through signature something something."

Then I thought he said, (again, not verbatim), "Also note, Fulton County has 3K something provision ballots that is in this blah blah blah status, which means the voter has to take some action before acceptance."

If they haven't been accepted, I can't see how they're included in the count.

 

[DaveXA]

I mean... even if she leaves him with nothing she can make a ton of money going on talk shoes.

Oh no doubt. She has a revenue stream for life if she wants to go that route. She could even drip, drip all the stuff she's seen over the years. That's a pretty nice perk.