Poll Porn: Americans Being Goddamn Grownups About Waiting For Votes To Be Counted

Turns out shouting 'Here's how we're gonna steal it!' is a bad strategy. Go know!

"Must know Election results on the night of the Election, not days, months, or even years later!" the Tweeter in Chief demanded in July.

So how's that one going?

Just about as well as Trump's demand that states ban mail-in ballots and force voters to show up in person during the third wave of a viral pandemic. Which is to say it's a BIGLY FAIL.

If the Democrats' "job" was to educate Americans that election night tallies of in-person voting might show an advantage for Trump which would erode when the mail-in ballots, which are heavily favored by Democrats this year, are counted, then Trump's foot stomping seems to have done the trick.

Politico reports from a poll conducted with Morning Consult that just 20 percent of voters expect to know who won on November 3. In fact two-thirds of Americans are prepared to wait several days for an accurate tally.

The poll found that just 20 percent of voters said that they believed the winner of the presidential election will be called on election night, while 66 percent said they expect it to happen sometime later. A plurality of voters said they think the election will be resolved within a week: 19 percent believe it will be the next day (like the 2004 contest between President George W. Bush and John Kerry), and 26 percent believe it will be between two and seven days after the polls close.

An additional 21 percent of voters believe the period of uncertainty will stretch past one week.

So much for stirring up the hoi polloi to storm the elections office if the absentee ballot counting takes a while. Maybe shouting HELLO, THIS IS HOW I PLAN TO DELIGITIMIZE THE ELECTION RESULTS! is a bad plan after all.

Ditto for Trump's eleventy-seven lawsuits trying to stop states from counting votes postmarked November 3 but received in the few days after the election. There's no telling what the Supreme Court will do with those cases, but if Democrats needed to remind voters to get those ballots in pronto, well ... mission accomplished. In the 15 states reporting the number of votes already cast, either in-person or by mail, upwards of a million Americans have already voted. The real number is likely much higher, even as many states haven't begun sending absentee ballots yet.

So, Trump's screaming fuckery with the post office seems to have backfired, with everyone racing to meet the mailman with their ballot, or dropping it off at the election office by hand. Womp womp.

CNN reports that "Requests from registered Democrats outpace those from Republicans by more than 1.3 million ballot requests among CNN's most competitive-rated states currently reporting that data," and Forbes notes that in Florida, Iowa, and North Carolina, "53.8% of their votes have been cast by registered Democrats, as compared with 16.7% of Republicans and 29.2% of unaffiliated voters." Trump and the GOP have managed to motivate Democrats to lock in their votes ASAP, leaving the GOP's own voters to delay their ballots until November 3, leaving open the possibility for an October surprise.

LOL, solid plan.

And one more stat for the "You Tried It" files. Remember last week when Trump refused to agree to a peaceful transfer of power?

"The ballots are a disaster," he said, adding later, "Get rid of the ballots, and you'll have a very — you'll have a very peaceful — there won't be a transfer, frankly, there'll be a continuation."

Well, thanks for the heads up that you're not going to accept the results unless you win, big guy. But Morning Consult shows that voters were not impressed with Trump's threats to ignore their verdict.

 Morning Consult  

Sixty percent of Americans say that Trump should agree now to a peaceful transfer of power, rather than threatening to burn shit down if he loses. Whoopsie!

In summary and in conclusion, many thanks to Democratic field organizer Donald Trump for helping get out the Democratic vote and educate Americans on the importance of getting those ballots in pronto and waiting for all of them to get counted before declaring a winner.

Slow fuckin' clap.

[ Politico / Morning Consult ]

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