It’s 2020. Some of my favorite science fiction stories were cast in the ultramodern, high-tech future of…
…before now.
Centuries ago, when people had to make it to the polls on foot or by horse, and mark a paper ballot, we had election day. As I recall, polling districts in Georgia were determined by the distance a voter could travel on horseback in one day. In the mid-19th century, fast mail was by horseback relay. Then the Morse-coded telegraph came into play.
Fast forward to the 21st century. A worldwide computer network providing effectively instantaneous text, voice, and video communications. Mail transported by jet-powered aircraft and high-speed, motorized suface transport. Companies routinely offer overnight delivery of your purchases. By drone. Instant gratification. Anyone else here old enough to remember when mail order ads used to say, “Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery”?
Voting went from marks on paper, to lever-operated adding machines, to computer scanned sheets, to touch-screen networked computer for real-time, instant results.
The future, the country is…
Stupid.
Colorado Secretary of State Wants Media Not to Report Results on Election Night
Our democracy cannot be held hostage to a ratings race. If you care about our democracy, you will protect it. Full Stop. We are in the middle of a pandemic and the President of the United States has telegraphed that he may claim victory on election night, even when millions of ballots will not have been counted. Indisputable facts: 1. This is no normal election. A record number of Americans will be voting by mail. 2. Election “night” will be dramatically different than ever before.We need an UNPRECEDENTED plan from the media for how they will cover an unprecedented election. That is why I am calling on national media networks to pledge to #PressPause for democracy and: 1. Make NO projections on election night 2. Announce NO election results on election night. In the coming days, I will ask election administrators, voting rights organizations, media ethicists, corporations, religious leaders, and all concerned Americans to stand with me in demanding media executives #PressPause for democracy.
In much of the country, ballots started going out last month (including Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s Colorado). Mail-in voting started already. We have early voting. We have in-person election “day” voting. Reprotibng results by telephones and computers operating at light speed.
And this fucking idiot still can’t count ballots on time.
Voting started last month, and is slated — thanks to fed judges enabling election fraud — to last until at least mid-November. Guesstimating by the 2000 fiasco, votes will still be counted, recounted, disputed, and set by judicial decree in late December or early January.
Election day? In utramodern, high-tech, super-connected 21st century, we’re reduced to election quarter.
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Random Acts of Gibberish 
Part of the problem, as has been the case in the past but much more important now, is that many states are prohibited from counting any ballots until Election Day. I honestly don’t get the raging need to know the winner on election night itself. In cycles past, this “call” was only made by media outlets, while the final counting and certifications came weeks later, when all of the ballots were tabulated.
Our society has been set up to expect instant gratification, irrespective of actually including the will of all of the voters.
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So, here I am in the future replying to this post from the past. As a local town level GOP official I watched the election reporting that night where others like me gathered to see it all happen. I am on the East Cost. The first thing I noticed was the news networks posting numbers from the counting as early as 9:30 pm MY TIME. Polls weren’t even closed across the country and they were posting results. That has always been verboten and I pointed it out and others in the room agreed. I was up till 3 am watching the results and saw the counting stop. I could not understand what I was seeing at the time, but I sure do now.
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