California and New York need to count their votes early

[WSHazel]

For that matter, every blue state should. We need the mail in and early vote counted before Election Day so those vote totals posts 20-30 minutes after polls close in those states. They can count late arriving ballots afterward, but there is no reason not to start counting the bulk of the votes 2 weeks in advance.

If CA and NY posted big vote numbers at poll close, it would change the narrative on election night and immediately afterward, and also highlight how ridiculous the electoral college is. If both states dropped their early vote like TX and FL do, the narrative every election night would be that Democrats are crushing Republicans. Instead, the narrative is "close race" and the Democratic candidate does not pull way ahead until a week later, after everyone has stopped paying attention. Biden is going to win by 6-7 million votes and most people will think this was a close election. That is our own fault.

Furthermore, if the Democrat nominee was ahead by 4 million votes nationally at 11:15 when CA's early numbers came in, it would be hard to ignore in the studios that one candidate was crushing the other but the race was remotely in doubt because of an anachronistic system based on the most horrific institution in American history, slavery.

[Freddie]

1. Because of Republicans, PA could not

They refused to change the law that mandates that mail-in votes cannot be processed til Election Day. And now, because THEY made it so, they’re saying that the “late vote” count is fraudulent. I want to scream, because even through Biden won here, the same horrible Repug state legislature is back. And more if this garbage will happen.

[WSHazel]

4. No one is stopping New York and California though

The two biggest blue states can change their rules any time they want. Imagine if California came in at +4 million votes at 11:15 pm. It would change the entire discussion on the news desks. They would have to address why the Democrats were suddenly crushing the GOP. You could also make a ton of House calls quickly, which would also change the narrative.

I think PA, WI and MI would be open to changing this in a few months once tempers have cooled. They were willing to do it until the national GOP stepped in.

[Ms. Toad]

2. California already does.

New york does not, but it is so overwhelmingly Democratic that it hardly matters.

Not to mention that the popular vote in NY and CA (and nationally) is completely irrelevant - their electoral votes go to the Democrat - no matter what.

That would not change the narrative. It is the swing states - like PA - that need to process in advance. The Republicans refused to change the law in PA to allow processing ballots in advance.

[WSHazel]

6. Biden is going to win by 6-7 million votes

90% of the country thinks this was a razor close election. I would say we are losing the narrative battle.

California is district to district, and it is still super slow. We want a huge vote drop at 11:15 pm EDT on election night. It would make a huge difference. NY, NJ, CT and MA are too slow also.

[Ms. Toad]

8. We're losing the narrative battle by design.

It has nothing to do with when blue state counts arrive, nor can having big blue state victories change it. The narrative was lost because a winner could not be declared for days. Having big blue state numbers would make no difference in that narrative - since the blue states are not where the electoral votes matter.

The narrative was lost becuse Trump engineered the parade to the polls so that Republicans voted in person and Democrats voted early. He coupled this with advance allegations that counting votes after the election was fraud - while, at the same time - creating a situation that the advance votes were heavily Republican and later votes were heavily Democratic.

That apparent flip from Republican to Democratic after the election is when the narrative was lost. Biden (or better someone like Kornacki) could have done a better job of explaining and touting the red/blue mirage ahead of the election. For example, I had some pretty heated conversations on DU about the blue mirage in Ohio with people who didn't understand the size of the early vote (counted in advance for Ohio - and the first number dump) - and the overwhelmingly Republican election day votes which would overcome the early Democratic lead. Everyone was expecting the same election day split - where we wait for the big cities to come in and turn it back to blue. No amount of talking could convince the individuals I was arguing with that it wasn't going to happen this time. We are now seeing the same dynamic on the other side.

The issue is that people really don't understand (1) vote counting and (2) numbers.

FWIW - NY, NJ, MA, and CT are all allowed to process in advance.

[central scrutinizer]

10. Oregon starts counting one week before Election Day

But interim totals are a closely guarded secret.

[Ms. Toad]

12. Interim results area generally not known.

Most of the vote processing machines are designed not to tabulate except as a final step of closing the elections - which tabulates the results of the previously scanned ballots.

Most jurisditions allow some sort of pre-processing - from verifying voters and eligibility to vote all the way up to scanning the ballots. I'm pretty sure not a single jurisdiction allows the final step - tabulating the answers. Once any person knows the results, they will leak.

Oregon - it can go all the way through the scanning process. The step remaining for election day is the tabulation step (instantaneous, once all ballots have been scanned and the "close election" button is pressed).

[central scrutinizer]

13. There's a nice video at this site

https://www.lanecounty.org/cms/one.aspx?pageId=4081147

That shows the process in my county.

[Ms. Toad]

14. They are a bit fuzzy about the distinction between scanning and tabulation -

and the timing of each. But it matches what I know about the process - which is that the tabulation step is not visible to humans until the election is closed (at the close of the polls on election day).

[sagesnow]

3. Great proposal.

Hope CA and NY can get this done.
It seems like mail in voting is secure and provides an automatic double count of the vote. The vote is counted by the County Auditor's office upon receipt and then officially counted on election day. Is my thinking wrong here?

[frazzled]

5. As long as we have the current Electoral College

It wouldn't make a dime's worth of difference. New York and California are going to be blue no matter what, and the finite number of electors they add to the total will not change the eventual outcome.

[WSHazel]

7. This is why Republicans ALWAYS win the battle over narrative

Democrats don't think message matters, so they don't have a coherent one. Republicans recognize that message is everything, and so that is how a minority power controls so many levers of power.

If Democrats want to win, they need to improve the message, and improve the facts that support that message. I want to rub the nation's face in the fact that the Democratic Party represents a majority of Americans. Many Democrats seem to want to hide that fact.

[frazzled]

9. ?

I don’t know what messaging has to do with the topic, and I don’t agree particularly.

[Amaryllis]

11. Oregon starts a week before election day.