So much information and yet so little...
Oct. 9th, 2020 07:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamsharkInformation on how to vote is everywhere, to a fault. But it's all the same rather vague information over and over, never the answers to what I want to know. I finally got the answer to my question on how "Early in person voting" actually works from someone who had done it. I still can't find the answer to another extremely simple question. Maybe one of you knows?
When are the results of absentee (mail-in/early voting) ballots reported?
The only answer I can find to this is that the ballots are "counted on election night after the polls close."
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN???
It seems pretty clear that the ballots are tabulated and pre-processed as they come in. That means, I think, that the outer envelope (if any) is removed and the signature envelope is processed. The signature and magical ID number on the outside are verified in some fashion and the vote is registered in a database that will make it impossible for the same person to vote again on election day. So far so good.
Then I assume that this envelope is removed, leaving the inner "secrecy" envelope.
Then what? Is the secrecy envelope opened immediately, or is that left until after the polls close?
When is the ballot actually fed into the machine that reads the vote? Are bleary-eyed employees up all night frantically feeding all these ballots into the tabulation machine after the polls close? Or are they actually read into the machine at an earlier point and then at 8 pm on Nov 3 someone hits the "TALLY" button and all those votes are immediately registered?
This matters because of the "Blue Shift" phenomenon. If, as expected, Republicans are more likely to vote in person, early results will look like Republicans are winning until all the absentee ballots are counted. If that takes a significant amount of time - even hours - it will lend credibility to Trump's expected strategy of claiming that the election was "stolen" when he ends up losing.
I believe that a couple of people who read my journal might be in a position to know how the process works. If so, could you please enlighten me? Thanks.
When are the results of absentee (mail-in/early voting) ballots reported?
The only answer I can find to this is that the ballots are "counted on election night after the polls close."
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN???
It seems pretty clear that the ballots are tabulated and pre-processed as they come in. That means, I think, that the outer envelope (if any) is removed and the signature envelope is processed. The signature and magical ID number on the outside are verified in some fashion and the vote is registered in a database that will make it impossible for the same person to vote again on election day. So far so good.
Then I assume that this envelope is removed, leaving the inner "secrecy" envelope.
Then what? Is the secrecy envelope opened immediately, or is that left until after the polls close?
When is the ballot actually fed into the machine that reads the vote? Are bleary-eyed employees up all night frantically feeding all these ballots into the tabulation machine after the polls close? Or are they actually read into the machine at an earlier point and then at 8 pm on Nov 3 someone hits the "TALLY" button and all those votes are immediately registered?
This matters because of the "Blue Shift" phenomenon. If, as expected, Republicans are more likely to vote in person, early results will look like Republicans are winning until all the absentee ballots are counted. If that takes a significant amount of time - even hours - it will lend credibility to Trump's expected strategy of claiming that the election was "stolen" when he ends up losing.
I believe that a couple of people who read my journal might be in a position to know how the process works. If so, could you please enlighten me? Thanks.
