Well this tale grew with the telling. LOL.
According to one online source Trump's army of poll watchers looks more like a platoon, or a fizzled fire cracker. Apparently very few supporters have signed up and even fewer have actually showed up. As one veteren of elections pointed out actual poll watching is about as "exciting as watching paint dry."
And while both sides point to the 2000 recounts in Florida I suspect that 2000 was a perfect storm of events that probably will never happen again. The networks called Florida while the polls were still open in the Panhandle. Gore conceded and then he retracted. Those thrice damned "hanging chads." I believe that style of ballot isn't used anymore. And so far most of the courts seem reluctant to radically interevene in most elections.
In Oregon there's a little slightly squashed circle next to the candidtate's name. A small circle.You carefully fill it in with a ball point pen. Complete the ballot, put it in the secrecy (optional) envelope, put the whole thing in the official envelope, sign itm and either mail it, drop it off in a collection box, or take it to the elections office. Don't even have to put a stamp on it anymore. Back when the voters were arguing over vote by mail one lawsuit claimed the cost of a stamp was a "poll tax," forbidden under the constitution. Courts shot that one down. I believe that was the last ral challenge. And we have been voting by mail for more than a generation.
Anyway I realized about an hour ago that there were no breathless, multiple entries on FB with viedeos of that "poll watching army" the trumpistas tried to scare us with. And Jim Wright over at Stonekettle Station has a new essay up and had this to report from a drive around his neighborhood.
"Made a tour of the 3 major polling stations in my area:
The massive Baptist church where I would normally vote in person? No Trumpers waving flags. No Trump signs. This is a major difference from last time when the parking lot was full of shouting stormtrumpers.
One glum looking white guy going in.
The community center in the predominantly black neighborhood? No Trump signs. No stormtrumpers in their trucks with their idiotic cult flags. Nothing.
Major turnout. Smiles. People waving cheerfully at us as we rolled through the packed parking lot.
The voting office in the middle of town?
No Trump signs. Saw ONE truck with a Trump flag in the parking lot.
Lot of grim looking white people. Lot of cheerful looking black people.
The fact that the parking lots outside of these polling stations AREN'T full of shouting Trumpers is a real change from last time. And for THIS area? The land of guns, grits, Jaysus, and Matt Gaetz? That's a hell of a thing"
There were reports of robocalls in Flint, Michigan telling voters that long lines were expected today so perhaps they should wait until WEDNESDAY. Nobody was buying that. In fact most of the Republican campaign sounds more like a version of The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight than the real thing. I guess too many campaign workers were too busy trying to figure out how to divert campaign funds into their pockets to do the jobs they were supposed to be doing. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad the right hand didn't seem to to know what the left had was doing. Or was even attached to the same body. In the same room. In the same building or even on the same planet.
I was expecting that army of poll watchers to be there to protect God, Country, and the American Jaysus from the hordes of Marxist, Socialist, Godless Heathens come hell, high water or sky on fire as my old logger daddy used to say. Or maybe it's easier to be part of a what amounts to a flash mob, driving in your big ass pick up or SUV behind tinted glass with little chance of actually being arrested than showing up at a real polling address where every move will be watched, possibly filmed and you are one sneeze from having the polling hotlines being called.
And I hoped to heck I won't be eating these words in the morning.
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