Bad Counting Diminishes Our Reputation as a Nation

For John, BLUF:  Yes, this is almost a week old, but it is still on topic, since several States still haven't achieved settled vote totals.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The U.S. Inability To Count Votes is a National Disgrace. And Dangerous.

Here is the sub-headline:

Nations far poorer and less technologically advanced have no problem holding quick, efficient elections.  Distrust in U.S. outcomes is dangerous but rational.

From Greenwald at Substack, by Reporter Glenn Greenwald, 4 November 2020.

Here is the lede plus one:

The richest and most powerful country on earth — whether due to ineptitude, choice or some combination of both — has no ability to perform the simple task of counting votes in a minimally efficient or confidence-inspiring manner.  As a result, the credibility of the voting process is severely impaired, and any residual authority the U.S. claims to “spread” democracy to lucky recipients of its benevolence around the world is close to obliterated.

At 7:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, the day after the 2020 presidential elections, the results of the presidential race, as well as control of the Senate, are very much in doubt and in chaos.  Watched by rest of the world — deeply affected by who rules the still-imperialist superpower — the U.S. struggles and stumbles and staggers to engage in a simple task mastered by countless other less powerful and poorer countries: counting votes.  Some states are not expected to finished their vote-counting until the end of this week or beyond.

The same data and polling geniuses who pronounced that Hillary Clinton had a 90% probability or more of winning the 2016 election, and who spent the last three months proclaiming the 2020 election even more of a sure thing for the Democratic presidential candidate, are currently insisting that Biden, despite being behind in numerous key states, is still the favorite by virtue of uncounted ballots in Democrat-heavy counties in the outcome-determinative states.  [One went to sleep last night with the now-notorious New York Times needle of data guru Nate Cohn assuring the country that, with more than 80% of the vote counted in Georgia, Trump had more than an 80% chance to win that state, only to wake up a few hours later with the needle now predicting the opposite outcome; that all happened just a few hours after Cohn assured everyone how much “smarter” his little needle was this time around].

Further on Mr Greeewnwald wrote:

After the pervasive voting problems in the 2018 midterms, I wrote an article with my Brazilian colleague Victor Pougy describing the extraordinary speed and efficiency with which Brazil — a country not exactly renowned for its speed and efficiency — counts its votes.

Brazil is not a small country. It is the fifth most-populous nation on the planet.  Although its population is somewhat smaller than the U.S.’s (330 million to 210 million), its mandatory voting law, automatic registration, and 16-year-old voting age means the number of ballots to be counted is quite similar (105 million votes in Brazil’s 2018 presidential election compared to 130 million votes in the 2016 U.S. presidential election).  And on the same date of its national elections, it, too, holds gubernatorial and Congressional elections in its twenty-seven states.

And yet Brazil — a much poorer and less technologically advanced country than the U.S., with a much shorter history of democracy — holds seamless, quick vote counts about which very few people harbor doubts.  The elections are held on a Sunday, to ensure as many people as possible do not have work obligations to prevent voting, and polls close at 6:00 p.m.

For the 2018 presidential run-off election that led to Jair Bolsonaro’s victory, 90% of all votes were counted and the results released by 6:00 p.m. on the day of the election: the time the last state closed its polls.  The full vote tally was available within a couple of hours after that.  The same was true of the first-round voting held three weeks earlier — which also included races for governor, Senator and Congress in all the states:  full vote totals were released by computer shortly after the polls closed and few had any doubts about their accuracy and legitimacy.

That is an indictment for sure.  This election is an embarrassment to our nation.  Specific examples of vote counting, like Philadelphia, PA, is especially embarrassing.  Worse, it is a slap in the face from Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez and his apparatchiks.

Then there was the tampering with the information available to the voters by social media.  This says that social media is part of a partisan press and does not deserve exemption from being sued.

We need to get back to honest elections.  Gsining office is not more important than personal integrity.  In addition, throwing the bums out does not justify cheating to achieve that goal.

And, no, I am not advocating a voting age of 16.  I would like to return to 21.  As for Sunday voting, that would be fine with me.  Mail-in voting is fine, but the envelope has to be returned by the day before the election.  No late ballots, no excuses.

Regards  —  Cliff