US Election 2016: the fall of the American republic

[Maithanet]

7 minutes ago, denstorebog said:

Okay, after a quick look at 4chan/pol, I've decided to keep a browser tab open there for the rest of the night. Because apparently they're already celebrating and seem certain that Trump's gonna take it. Not fake, self-delusional certain, but empiricially certain, citing a shitload of 'unofficial exit polls' and riling each other up. And here we are, believing the exact opposite for the exact same reasons.

I haven't seen a whole lot of self-delusional certainty here.  Most people here are predicting Clinton to win because pre-election polls indicate she is ahead.  Everything you can hear on election day in terms of turnout, etc is just shadows on the wall, but at least there hasn't been any bad news to indicate something going wrong for Clinton. 

[The Anti-Targ]

So technical glitches with voting machines may mean people wanting to vote might miss out. Just one more way in which the allegedly greatest democracy prevents its people from voting.

At least in some states there are laws that says anyone in line to vote at the official closing time of the polls will be allowed to vote. That should be a national law for national elections, but I suppose that would be struck down by the SC.

[Ormond]

11 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

So technical glitches with voting machines may mean people wanting to vote might miss out. Just one more way in which the allegedly greatest democracy prevents its people from voting.

At least in some states there are laws that says anyone in line to vote at the official closing time of the polls will be allowed to vote. That should be a national law for national elections, but I suppose that would be struck down by the SC.

I do not know of ANY state in the United States where that is not the rule, and this video from USA Today certainly implies it's the rule everywhere, and if a voter in line's right to vote is violated the US Justice Department should be contacted:

http://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/politics/elections/2016/2016/11/08/93465918/

[DanteGabriel]

17 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

It's funny how there is often so much hand-wringing about how dismally low voter turnout is in the USA, and yet at nearly every turn there are high officials in every branch of government actively making decisions that act to reduce voter turnout.

Voting guidelines are determined by the states, and funnily enough, the most virulent anti-voting measures have been in states with Republican legislatures and governors.

[Kalbear]

12 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

So technical glitches with voting machines may mean people wanting to vote might miss out. Just one more way in which the allegedly greatest democracy prevents its people from voting.

At least in some states there are laws that says anyone in line to vote at the official closing time of the polls will be allowed to vote. That should be a national law for national elections, but I suppose that would be struck down by the SC.

That's also not true. The voting machines are nice, but they also have hand ballots available for literally just this situation. 

[The Anti-Targ]

So why did one electoral board (not sure which) have to vote to keep the polling place open for longer because of voting machine problems? If everyone who's in line at official poll close is guaranteed to vote, it shouldn't matter when the official close time is.

[Fez]

1 minute ago, The Anti-Targ said:

So why did one electoral board (not sure which) have to vote to keep the polling place open for longer because of voting machine problems? If everyone who's in line at official poll close is guaranteed to vote, it shouldn't matter when the official close time is.

I think its to allow people who left without voting because of the problems (or because they saw the line caused by the problems) additional time to come back and try again.

[Ormond]

2 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

So why did one electoral board (not sure which) have to vote to keep the polling place open for longer because of voting machine problems? If everyone who's in line at official poll close is guaranteed to vote, it shouldn't matter when the official close time is.

Maybe in that state the board can vote to extend the hours the polling place is open to allow people who were affected by the glitch in the machine earlier in the day and who had obligations that meant they couldn't wait around for hours to come back later in the evening to vote?

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Off to start driving people to the polls. Should be a long night. Hopefully it ends with happy drinking and not sad drinking.

And on that note I'd like to propose a possible future thread title since I won't be able to post:

U.S. Election Day: Drink Early and Drink Often

I'll see you fine folks on the other side....

[Slick Mongoose]

You can create your own headlines on Trump's website by editing the URL:

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/archive/Clinton for president

[Jaxom 1974]

By the by, the one guy standing outside my polling place who was obviously one of Trump's "poll watchers" was bothersome to me, but at the time he was not pestering people, just trying to look tough and important.

[Slick Mongoose]

From 538:

Quote

While exit polls are not the best at measuring the racial composition of the electorate, it does seem that minority turnout is way up in Florida. In the preliminary exit polls, 39 percent of voters were people of color. That compares to just 33 percent in 2012.

 

[Swordfish]

56 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

It's funny how there is often so much hand-wringing about how dismally low voter turnout is in the USA, and yet at nearly every turn there are high officials in every branch of government actively making decisions that act to reduce voter turnout.

I guess this is why no one has ever made a serious attempt to change the voting day to the first Saturday after the first Monday in November, and left it at Tuesday; which seems to have a quasi-religious basis to the original decision.

 

Yeah.  It's pretty ridiculous.  They created this problem, refuse to take simple steps to fix it (mail in ballots, I'm looking at you), and then hand wring over it and blame the 'other' guy for deliberately suppressing turnout.

Total bullshit.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Looks like some Republican precincts have come in from Kentucky. Trump leading 79%-18%. 

[Dr. Pepper]

1 hour ago, The Anti-Targ said:

So best internet sites for monitoring results?

In the past I have used CNN, but really only because that is kind of the most well known US news agency that isn't Fox.

Curious about this, too.  The children decided to be sick today and have kept me from the election party I wanted to attend so I'm stuck home.  Wondering best place to watch.  

[Slick Mongoose]

I'm using a combination of the guardian county by county live map:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2016/nov/08/us-election-2016-results-live-clinton-trump?view=map&type=presidential

The 538 blog:

http://fivethirtyeight.com/live-blog/2016-election-results-coverage/?ex_cid=extra_banner

And watching CNN.

[Fez]

I'm going with the New York Times, which is free to access until some time tomorrow morning.

http://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/president

[The Anti-Targ]

A colleague of mine was on theguardian.com interactive map, so I'm there at the moment. Will stick with that unless someone starts reporting firm results from other websites well in advance of The Guardian.

So how come Kentucky is reporting already before East Coast states are closed?

[SpaceChampion]

For purely entertainment purposes I'm most interested in what names come up from the write-in votes.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Kentucky and Indiana are the first two to close. It's what they do.

Trump currently leading 166-80 in Elliott County. Come on, Hillary! Don't let the streak die!