The outcome of the presidential race will seem almost anti-climactic after the drawn-out process of counting the ballots cast early either by mail or in person.
By presstime for today’s paper the outcome was still unknown, making for a very exasperating situation for someone with unforgiving deadlines.
Four grueling days counting millions of ballots, some cast weeks before the election, has been painful to watch.
And it didn’t have to be.
Florida, for example, has in short order become the model of election efficiency. Yes, Florida, the state of hanging chads and home to the 2000 election debacle. In that election, a weeks-long recount was held between the candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush when the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in and awarded the state’s 29 electoral votes — and the presidency — to Bush.
Spurred by the national embarrassment of 2000, Florida has worked to revamp its system so it’s more efficient and reliable.
But what made all the difference in this year’s election was the order by Gov. Ron DeSantis to process mail-in ballots early. The directive allowed poll workers to begin opening mail ballots and running them through tabulators earlier than the previous 22 days before the election.
With early votes already handled, poll workers across Florida’s 67 counties could spend Election Day handling ballots cast that day in person, as well as the mailed ballots that arrived in that day’s mail.
For years, Florida voters, including President Donald Trump, have preferred to vote early, either by mail or in person at early-voting sites. In the previous two elections more than 2 million Floridians voted by mail. This year’s ongoing COVID-19 pandemic led to double the number, more than 4 million voting by mail, with nary a hitch.
Florida’s experience reflected that of the country.
Nationwide, more than 90 million requested mailed ballots and 65 million had returned them by Election Day. The surge, roughly double in volume from four years ago, came as states eased rules to help voters avoid exposure to the coronavirus. Voter turnout reached historic levels.
The “problem children” were primarily Pennsylvania and Georgia, whose legislatures forbade poll workers to process any votes cast in advance of Election Day, causing a pile-up of hundreds of thousands of ballots.
Please note, these ballots include the tens of thousands sent from abroad by those serving in the U.S. military. In the 2016 election, there were 252,574 military ballots cast from abroad and 382,896 absentee ballots from U.S. citizens living overseas.
And yes, these are legitimate votes, despite Mr. Trump’s aspersions.
THIS ELECTION will set the course for those in the future.
