Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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The sad thing is that, for both of us, it was almost certainly a futile effort albeit one of civic duty. I’d bet my house that Virginia will go for Biden and Alabama for Trump. I’m at least on the winning side but none of the three Democrats for whom I voted needed my assist.
I am of the opinion that every vote against Trump and for Biden is a direct repudiation of Trump–the bigger the margin of the popular vote win the better. I sent my message, mathematically obscure though it may be.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has ordered the U.S. Postal Service to sweep a dozen mail-processing facilities in critical states to ensure that no ballots are being held up.
U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan issued an Election Day order that the Postal Service send inspectors into facilities in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Florida and several other states.
The inspectors have been ordered to “ensure that no ballots have been held up and that any identified ballots are immediately sent out for delivery.” Judge Sullivan instructed the agency to report back to him by 4:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time certifying that it has complied with the order.
The last-minute legal maneuvering came as part of a lawsuit filed earlier this year against the Postal Service by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil-rights group that represents the interests of Black Americans.
The Postal Service has experienced a slowdown in first-class mail delivery times just as millions of Americans have shifted to mail-in voting over concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, the Wall Street Journal has previously reported. The Postal Service said last week it was taking “extraordinary measures” to ensure ballots are delivered on time.
@James Joyner: The sad thing is that, for both of us, it was almost certainly a futile effort albeit one of civic duty…. none of the three Democrats for whom I voted needed my assist.
So that is all that was on your ballot James? In my 20 years out here I have never voted for a winning candidate, but there have been dozens of times I voted for winning issues and amendments. My vote matters, always. So does yours.
I received my New York absentee ballot several weeks ago, having sent for it several weeks before that. I filled it out, but then I waited until polls opened last Monday at 7AM. I walked to the nearest station and they directed me to the box to place it in. It saved me having to wait on line indoors. I checked my tracker just now, and it says my ballot was “received” on Oct. 26 (the day I gave it in) and “received valid” by Nov. 2.
Here’s the way I’ve long looked at the matter of voting in a non-swing state. In 2016 Hillary received 65,853,514 votes. Just so you know, if not for me it would have been 65,853,513.
@Steven L. Taylor: I’m of the same mind about the civic ceremony of voting. And I guess lots of Alabamans are as well. Having lived in a notorious ‘swing state’ I guess I was surprised to the see the turnout you picture. Hooray for the Alabama voters! As you say — possibly a gesture but a gesture that has to be made.
@charon: We have both rather extensive early voting and vote-by-mail available in Virginia. I’ve done early voting, as I used to pass by one of the centers multiple times a day, but it’s less convenient where I live now.
You know how in the NFL it’s considered bad for to run up the score near the end of the game when a team is well ahead and there’s no chance they’ll lose?
Just the opposite applies to politics, especially to Trump. He shouldn’t just lose, but lose by a substantial margin. there won’t be a crushing landslide in the EC, but there may be one in the popular vote. He must be unambiguously repudiated by as large a majority as possible.
There was a longish line at Honolulu Hale for voting this morning. I saw a hundred people or more standing in line waiting to go inside and vote. I was able to drive through and drop off my filled ballot in a couple of minutes. The speed bumps slowed me down more than the line.
I’m not sure why people opted to stand in line and wait when curbside was so much faster.
There is no doubt that Hawai’i will go for Biden and send a 100% Democratic delegation to DC, but some of the local races are closer.
Well, good for the people of Alabama, even though it’s inconvenient for you.
I think engagement is pretty much always better than non-engagement.
Personally, I voted by mail 2 weeks ago. I’m in CA, there’s no real trust issue here. We’ve been doing this for maybe 16 years. I sort of like sitting on the couch with the ballot and the voter’s guide, looking through all the Propositions and local races and just taking my time to sort it all out. I go do a web search if I’m curious about something.
Then seal and sign, and drop it in a letter box, like at the Post Office. I’m not quite trusting enough to leave it in my mailbox.
Yes, there is something nice about going to the polling place, too. I did that many times, and always found it enjoyable.
We voted at home a couple of weeks ago. As Jay says above, in Washington State we have had vote by mail for years, and it’s terrific to sit down with a cup of coffee and the voter’s guide and really read and dig in to the down-ballot issues and candidates.
@Jay L Gischer: TTBOMK, any state that creates a permanent list for receiving ballots by mail eventually goes full-on vote by mail. I’ve been surprised that California didn’t force the holdout counties by now — heck, even Utah did. Maintaining a largely VBM system and a precinct system with hundreds/thousands of polling places is just too damned expensive. And if the western states are indicative, once a state goes VBM for a couple of years, they discover that voters are “You can take away my mail ballot when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.”
Seattle was at 76% turnout by Saturday, with several days to go, plus up to a week for postmarked ballots to show up. Probably going to be a record turnout year.
The rest of the state is lagging Seattle. I guess people just want to vote for a winner, or not vote at all. Another reason to get rid of the Electoral College, although if anyone is going to be disenfranchised, rural Republicans would be my choice.
In fact, the turnout at precinct 538 actually exceeded 100 percent, because a few voters switched their addresses on Election Day and moved into the precinct, said Danaë Rivera-Marasco, an elections spokeswoman.
Precinct 538? Really? I think someone might be pulling the NYTimes’ corporate leg here. This might, in fact, be fake news.
Just got back from voting. Contra the claims made by conservative friends there were not hordes of thugs and antics trying to intimidate people from voting. (For those with our a scorecard the brown ones are the thugs and the white ones are the antics, I think. Maybe it is the other way around? So hard to keep conservative dogma straight.) Of course I guess I should admit I used my secret liberal decoder ring to identify myself and get in or they might have tried to intimidate me.
The sad thing is that, for both of us, it was almost certainly a futile effort albeit one of civic duty. I’d bet my house that Virginia will go for Biden and Alabama for Trump. I’m at least on the winning side but none of the three Democrats for whom I voted needed my assist.
@James Joyner: From a mathematical POV, indeed.
I am of the opinion that every vote against Trump and for Biden is a direct repudiation of Trump–the bigger the margin of the popular vote win the better. I sent my message, mathematically obscure though it may be.
I don’t know what the vote-by-mail situations are in VA and AL, but where you can the lines are much shorter.
@charon: We have no early voting in AL. I could have voted absentee, but decided not to as I don’t fully trust the Sec of State.
(Plus, I am a weird voting-nerd who prefers to vote in person).
From the Wall Street Journal:
So that is all that was on your ballot James? In my 20 years out here I have never voted for a winning candidate, but there have been dozens of times I voted for winning issues and amendments. My vote matters, always. So does yours.
@OzarkHillbilly: I take it back, Obama (where it didn’t count) and Claire McCaskill, where it did count.
@James Joyner: But didn’t you enjoy the thrilling bond issues on the ballot?
I received my New York absentee ballot several weeks ago, having sent for it several weeks before that. I filled it out, but then I waited until polls opened last Monday at 7AM. I walked to the nearest station and they directed me to the box to place it in. It saved me having to wait on line indoors. I checked my tracker just now, and it says my ballot was “received” on Oct. 26 (the day I gave it in) and “received valid” by Nov. 2.
Here’s the way I’ve long looked at the matter of voting in a non-swing state. In 2016 Hillary received 65,853,514 votes. Just so you know, if not for me it would have been 65,853,513.
@Steven L. Taylor: I’m of the same mind about the civic ceremony of voting. And I guess lots of Alabamans are as well. Having lived in a notorious ‘swing state’ I guess I was surprised to the see the turnout you picture. Hooray for the Alabama voters! As you say — possibly a gesture but a gesture that has to be made.
@charon: We have both rather extensive early voting and vote-by-mail available in Virginia. I’ve done early voting, as I used to pass by one of the centers multiple times a day, but it’s less convenient where I live now.
@James Joyner:
@Steven L. Taylor:
You know how in the NFL it’s considered bad for to run up the score near the end of the game when a team is well ahead and there’s no chance they’ll lose?
Just the opposite applies to politics, especially to Trump. He shouldn’t just lose, but lose by a substantial margin. there won’t be a crushing landslide in the EC, but there may be one in the popular vote. He must be unambiguously repudiated by as large a majority as possible.
Sorry, premature posting and no win the edit lotto today. I meant to add:
So thanks to both of you, and everyone else in OTB who voted against Trump today.
Testing
There was a longish line at Honolulu Hale for voting this morning. I saw a hundred people or more standing in line waiting to go inside and vote. I was able to drive through and drop off my filled ballot in a couple of minutes. The speed bumps slowed me down more than the line.
I’m not sure why people opted to stand in line and wait when curbside was so much faster.
There is no doubt that Hawai’i will go for Biden and send a 100% Democratic delegation to DC, but some of the local races are closer.
Well, good for the people of Alabama, even though it’s inconvenient for you.
I think engagement is pretty much always better than non-engagement.
Personally, I voted by mail 2 weeks ago. I’m in CA, there’s no real trust issue here. We’ve been doing this for maybe 16 years. I sort of like sitting on the couch with the ballot and the voter’s guide, looking through all the Propositions and local races and just taking my time to sort it all out. I go do a web search if I’m curious about something.
Then seal and sign, and drop it in a letter box, like at the Post Office. I’m not quite trusting enough to leave it in my mailbox.
Yes, there is something nice about going to the polling place, too. I did that many times, and always found it enjoyable.
We voted at home a couple of weeks ago. As Jay says above, in Washington State we have had vote by mail for years, and it’s terrific to sit down with a cup of coffee and the voter’s guide and really read and dig in to the down-ballot issues and candidates.
@Jay L Gischer: TTBOMK, any state that creates a permanent list for receiving ballots by mail eventually goes full-on vote by mail. I’ve been surprised that California didn’t force the holdout counties by now — heck, even Utah did. Maintaining a largely VBM system and a precinct system with hundreds/thousands of polling places is just too damned expensive. And if the western states are indicative, once a state goes VBM for a couple of years, they discover that voters are “You can take away my mail ballot when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.”
Seattle was at 76% turnout by Saturday, with several days to go, plus up to a week for postmarked ballots to show up. Probably going to be a record turnout year.
The rest of the state is lagging Seattle. I guess people just want to vote for a winner, or not vote at all. Another reason to get rid of the Electoral College, although if anyone is going to be disenfranchised, rural Republicans would be my choice.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/11/03/us/election-day?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage#florida-turnout-105-percent
Precinct 538? Really? I think someone might be pulling the NYTimes’ corporate leg here. This might, in fact, be fake news.
Just got back from voting. Contra the claims made by conservative friends there were not hordes of thugs and antics trying to intimidate people from voting. (For those with our a scorecard the brown ones are the thugs and the white ones are the antics, I think. Maybe it is the other way around? So hard to keep conservative dogma straight.) Of course I guess I should admit I used my secret liberal decoder ring to identify myself and get in or they might have tried to intimidate me.
Steve