One of the most oft-heard election misconceptions these days is that the outcome should be known in relatively quick fashion and most then will move on with their lives, putting aside hard feelings.
This is coming from otherwise intelligent people, as they pontificate on subjects ranging from economics, to sociology, to investing, to everyday living.
And it is so wrong on so many levels.
First off, the abundance of mail-in votes will delay things in many states, including my home state of Pennsylvania, which doesn’t process these votes until election day. Plus, Pennsylvania is allowing late mail-in votes to be counted, too.
Also it’s unwise in these times of structural breakdowns to expect anything to go smoothly, by which I mean we could have usually reliable states in terms of expeditiously counting votes degrade into slow returns.
Add in all the subplots, such as the so-called Red Mirage, in that Republicans voting in person could provide an early large lead for President Trump in states like Pennsylvania that the faceless – sometimes nameless –Democratic mail-in voters can and will overcome in the Democratic telling of the story.
Trump critics fear, very publicly, that he will claim victory based on Red Mirage results. This is unlikely, but the Biden camp and Trump camp both have made it known they are not into conceding quickly.
On the flip side, there are fears of a Blue Mirage, with states such as Florida and North Carolina that have been processing mail-in votes for weeks, having outsized Biden early vote totals based on the presumption that Democrats are more likely to vote by mail.
Beyond the mirages, even in better times, election outcomes take longer to call when the races are close. The 2000, 2004 and 2016 elections each had no winner identifed until at least the next day.
There was a time when winners were projected, accurately and relatively quickly after the polls closed. In one such instance, a co-worker zipped out of work early to go home and watch the results.
He barely had time to rip open his bag of potato chips and decant his soda before it was all called. When he told us his tale of woe it amused his coworkers considering that this guy had a habit of rushing out the door and leaving others to make up for is absence, including once ostensibly having to dash home because his girlfriend couldn’t get the refrigerator open.
Even in the unlikely event a winner is quickly identified this time, anyone think the losing side is going to accept graciously the outcome is smoking some of the weed Democrats would dispense freely to anyone interested, for reasons ranging from recreational up through medical.
If you recall the sideshow that was hanging chads in 2000, imagine 2020 with debatable, illegible scrawls on mail-in ballots being challenged, or electronic voting machines coming up with apparently massaged totals, as been alleged as a distinct possibility in some published prognostications that cite the CIA.
In the past, such speculation as the last could have been dismissed. In the wake of years of FBI and CIA harassment of the Trump campaign and presidency, that no longer is the case.
Even if there is no wrongdoing in this election, an outcome neither side would be willing to stipulate to at this time, we’re going to have emotional responses from the more excitable types on both sides.
Riots in Blue cities and states are to be expected as opportunists, who likely voted for Biden, either celebrate a victory or protest a defeat.
More ardent Trump supporters aren’t likely to loot and pillage to celebrate a win for their guy. But they also are not likely to accept a defeat as legitimate.
These raw emotions only will fester, on both sides, if the post-election day machinations stretch into days, then weeks.
Questions will be asked over and over. Were polls wrong again? Were metaphorical ballot boxes stuffed? How many illegal aliens voted?
Peaceful transfer of power apparently is an amusing relic of the past. Republicans, as usual, will be blamed for this situation, but it was the Democrats who strung out the process in 2000, then refused to accept the outcome.
And it’s the Democrats who spent the past four years trying to undo the 2016 election results with what amounted to coup attempts.
If Trump supporters see their man declared the loser but aren’t willing to accept that result, well, they are no worse than the other side.
And for all the pap being spewed by the Biden campaign about uniting the country, don’t expect the quick-tempered guy who called Trump supporters “chumps” to be offering any olive branches should he win.
The wait for an election outcome will be a real life case of Waiting for Godot. Godot never did arrive in the play.
Sam Ross Jr's site 