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justasque t1_iuia5h8 wrote

Reply to comment by oldschoolskater in No, Pennsylvania didn’t send 255K ballots to ‘unverified’ voters by krabstarr

I think there are good reasons to not count early. Eliminates concerns about someone in on the process finding out their party's votes are low, and pushing for greater turnout. If people don't understand that it takes time to count votes, that can be addressed with more public education. If they can't understand it, there's not a lot we can do, and they will be the first to create a conspiracy theory about insiders knowing the count early if we change the process - there's no satisfying those folks.

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BobcatBarry t1_iujqacw wrote

Just because they count early doesn’t mean they have to release a running total.

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justasque t1_iujrb5d wrote

> Just because they count early doesn’t mean they have to release a running total.

Oh they should absolutely NOT release a running total. Under no circumstances. But there will be people who know the total, or who have access to it. And there’s where the issue lies. Those people might illegally use their knowledge to help their party. Or they might be accused of doing so by folks in the opposite party, even if they didn’t. It just creates a whole lot of drama, along with the possibility of an unfair election (or the perception thereof).

We have always had tight elections that take a few days to resolve. It really isnt a problem, if the candidates understand how the voting & counting works and behave like sensible, honest, professional adults. It wasn’t the counting that was the issue in the recent past, it was the adulting, or rather the lack thereof.

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Prestigious-Buy1774 t1_iujc9ny wrote

The opposite could also happen. If voters see a wider margin they may not vote Because they think their vote would Not make a difference anyway. Everyone eligible should vote. But don't count the votes until election day To truly show what the voters want. It will make it more important for them if they do not know anything ahead of time

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