Ross: A modest proposal for fixing how we tally votes after Election Day
Nov 4, 2020, 5:29 AM | Updated: Oct 7, 2024, 9:13 am
An election worker sorts mailed-in ballots at the King County Elections office. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
The idea of governing according to the popular will is what America is all about. The only problem is that here we are again, trying to ascertain the popular will – and do it so that people actually believe it is the popular will.
The decision is already locked in – it’s there in the form of those millions of ballots. It’s not going to change.
But the counting process has turned into this big tease.
Why do we do this? It’s the second time this week somebody is messing with our sleep.
Why not do the reasonable thing, and have Election Day on Tuesday, and then Results Day on Wednesday.
Voting can start as early as a state wants, but there’s a clear deadline for casting ballots, and a clear deadline for having them all counted.
Then we collect the votes, our best and brightest ballot-counters tabulate them perfectly, working all night if necessary, and it’s governed by one simple rule: No state reports until every state reports.
No more hearing about the five votes in Dixville Notch, no more trying to detect trends by using results from random precincts. We hear no results until every state has counted at least 95% of their votes. No state would know what happened in any other state…
…Until the results are released all at once – like the Powerball numbers! We laugh, we cry, and we go to bed.
And are actually able to sleep.
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