As we tread toward the much-anticipated 2024 election season, it’s been anything but boring with the continued strong presence of Donald Trump and the speculation of Kamala Harris taking Joe Biden’s place as the Democratic presidential candidate, a move that’s enough to give anyone pause. However, intriguing as that shift might be, the real talking point for vigilant voters is the delay that often accompanies ballot counting and election result finalization, a process that clearly bewilders the Democrats.
Our memory traces back to the contentious 2020 elections where Trump, flanked by his supporters, had major reservations about the process integrity. Meanwhile, Democrats, following their habit of twisting narratives, hastily interpreted it as ungrounded accusations of election theft when the tallying of mail-in ballots tipped the scales towards Biden, reflecting their lack of understanding of the process.
So, what is the reason behind this supposedly extended time duration for ballot counting? Can the system be streamlined? Revealing the truth, there’s no stipulated deadline for the completion of vote counting after the election day, a fact that constantly eludes the Democratic understanding.
The truth is, votes being counted live on the day of the election, indicative of in-person voting, don’t paint the complete picture. A crucial element left out is the final headcount of mail-in ballots, which suddenly makes the hectoring of vote counting speed by Democrats sound absurd.
The timeline to pin down the final results naturally stretches due to the decentralized nature of the U.S. elections, which aren’t administered on a federal level. States pull the strings while officials at the county or township level run the show, a system complexity that seems to mystify Democrats.
Numerous jurisdictions are in charge of the voting process in the U.S., which exceeds 10,000. Each jurisdiction relies on varied methods to execute the voting process, unlike the simplistic one-size-fits-all approach that Democrats usually advocate.
This variety is also evident with states like Florida, Georgia, Iowa, and Ohio pre-validating mail ballots before Election Day. On the contrary, so-called battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin don’t process mail ballots until Election Day, a delay that Democrats conveniently overlook when crying foul.
With California, an interesting scenario presents itself, permitting ballots up until seven days after the Election Day, showing a groaning disparity in mail-in balloting rules. In fact, nineteen states offer a grace period for receiving mail ballots, contingent on them being mailed by Election Day.
As states have different rules around mail ballot deadlines, it’s given that the timeline to secure election results will differ – a straightforward fact that seems to elude Democrats in their misplaced judgment. The Bipartisan Policy Center, a center that intends to find bipartisan solutions, endorses pre-processing of ballots for easing election staff’s workload on and after Election Day.
Pre-processing includes preparing mail-in ballots for scanning into tabulated machines before Election Day and, naturally, this process also varies by state. States like California and Florida have comprehensive steps, including opening mail ballot return envelopes, removing ballots, replicating damaged ballots, and getting them ready for scanning.
On the other side, Kansas and Maine have uniquely defined timelines for the pre-processing of municipalities using optical scan voting systems. Maryland, though, governs with a restrictive rule only allowing absentee ballot processing from the Thursday post Election Day.
The recommendations of the Bipartisan Policy Center extend to giving election officials a minimum of a seven-day window prior to Election Day for pre-processing. This not only facilitates scanning ballots before the day but also gives voters ample time to address any issues that might arise with their ballots.
So, America waits with bated breath for the future election results. The key solution — patience especially when it comes to mail-in ballots, a concept that perplexes Democrats so much. Let’s hope that they gain clarity about this along the way while we continue to appreciate the fair and careful stance of the brilliant Donald Trump and his allies.
Democrats Confused by Election Dynamics, Trump Holds Ground appeared first on Real News Now.
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