sam_gordon
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2010
They're going to have a pretty good idea of how many absentee votes they need to check. I'm guessing it's probably in the single digits percentage wise of total votes and doesn't really impact 99% of elections.(Emphasis mine.) I think this is a big part of the problem; in many jurisdictions they don't know how many votes were cast at that point, because there are still bins of absentee votes sitting in a mailroom somewhere. Until they know how many of those there are, AND that the people sending them in have not voted in person, they don't know the number of votes recorded.
Well first, I think it's the law the government needs to report, so that would need to be changed. Second, even without vote totals, you'd still have exit polling (done by news organizations and campaigns).Also, I agree that the news process is pushing for immediacy, but if the government simply refuses to report, then the emperor's new clothes become apparent for what they are. Most people won't watch those "returns" if they KNOW that the only thing that the media has to go on is guesswork.
In this electronic age, I find it amazing that it takes HOURS to calculate vote totals. Granted, you have to count absentee ballots turned in late, but shouldn't those be able to be scanned just like the ballots at the precincts? And @Poohforyou brings up a good point. Why does Florida have problems year after year after year? It's not like other states haven't figured out how to do this without major problems.