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This blog is the work of an educated civilian, not of an expert in the fields discussed.

Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Late June Voting (Early Returns Edition)

And Also: A new "not your grandparents' Perry Mason" version -- e.g., Paul Drake here is a black cop, started last weekend on HBO. Pretty good.  Good cast and 1930s atmosphere.

There was various races today, including a special House primary won by someone not even 25 yet (AOC: senior stateswoman!), the most focus was placed on the two presidential primary states which also had many other races whose winner was more up in the air -- Kentucky and New York. The use of absentee balloting leaves the full results a matter that is pending, but some things can be addressed here.

There was some concerns, especially given a much reduced number of poll places,  that Kentucky (run by a Democratic governor, let us recall)  would be a mess. One account -- by someone less likely to be a kneejerk partisan on that blog -- put forth a mostly rosy accounting.  As I said there, concerns were natural if very well perhaps overheated.  Also, it will take time to fully get a sense of what happened, but if it went well, great -- we should try to focus on the good, to help keep sane and help how to address the bad.  Plus, yes, sometimes "the left" needs to get all reality community focused. And, sometimes, there are kneejerk reactions, especially from politicians [even those we mostly like] who are not closely looking at the details.

Finally, this op-ed suggests we should care about in person voting, absentee voting having some issues (not fraud related though Rick Hasen, while noting the concerns are overblwon, notes that to the limited degree that is an issue, that is a concern. Some people now all gung ho about absentee voting were willing to grant that when calling Republicans hypocrites for being less concerned about fraud there) and one size fits all is unsound.  This includes concern about problems -- I myself fear that I did not sign and date my ballot, thus making it void. There isn't a way to have the errors caught though I guess maybe you can still vote in person if you think the ballot won't be accepted anyways.

One big race is a AOC type affair where some old white vet (thirty years) is being challenged by a younger, more progressive (at least more passionately so ) challenger, again here a POC.   Engel, who seems tired and out of touch, appears to have lost the race. Well, he was there for thirty years (first defeating my senator's grandfather for the seat; she around two at the time ... she eventually changed her mind, and endorsed his opponent).  There was even a few races where a Republican was favored though not a one Republican ran in my own district.  Putting aside the district leaders (male and female), a choice between two people I knew nothing about, the expected people won -- AOC and Biaggi.  AOC actually had three competitors, two of whom nearly no one heard of though Sam Sloan was the last non-lawyer who argued in front of the Supreme Court (winning 9-0). 

After early April, Biden was basically the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate though some thought that basically after South Carolina.  Still, he did not technically get the number of delegates until earlier this month.  There is another marker that is likely to be passed by the time a full account allows a full breakdown of New York delegates -- when Biden would win even if the superdelegates voted.  This would allow them to vote under the rules in the first round of voting. Biden is around twenty delegates now from that marker.

New York was scheduled to vote in April but the Big V delayed things until the state/local races date in June.  New York allowed absentee voting basically out of fear of obtaining the virus; de facto at will though you had to request a ballot.  There was some difficulties at the polls, including because the often senior poll staff at times did not want to go to work.  I worked at the polls again as I did last November, this time part of a smaller staff (there was not even people to "man" each of the voter check-in tables while in the past, sometimes there were two at a table -- one was a sort of "roving" spot).  The coordinator was late, apparently because trains were out 1-5AM for cleaning, so we were a bit delayed at the 6AM start time.  But, once things got moving, it mostly went smooth at our lazy spot.

(One thing that did not happen during the general was that many people came who were not registered Democrats, even some who were Republicans, and thus could not vote since there were only Democratic races.  Many had no party -- or so was the case in record.  It is far from clear if such people can ask for an affidavit vote.  Also, there is a lot of paperwork you have to do plus a lot of signs to hang up.  And, a lot of things to deal with -- down to multiple plastic ties -- when putting together machines or closing up shop.  Rather tedious.)

Again, a few things are not final -- the big thing that probably stands out in that department is who won the Kentucky Democratic Primary.  The presidential numbers are as expected.  Biden won New York with about 2/3 of the vote with Sanders getting about a fifth.  The ballot had a bunch of also rans receiving the usual small fractions. I got to vote for Warren, who at this point has around 4.4% of the vote.  And, yes, thousands of people voted for the likes of Klobuchar.  No Republican presidential primary.  I still think it was appropriate to allow voters to vote in the presidential primary though the two ballots at first led to some confusion at my polling place  (how this is so is unclear -- how can they not make this clear to the person running the show?).

The current returns for Kentucky are but a fraction of the whole but I'll toss out the numbers.  Sometimes, you see "uncommitted" this year as an option to provide Trump a small opposition.  Thus, six percent did that here. But, it is more unusual to see around 17% in the Democratic primary -- at this point, Sanders is not at the 15% floor.  Biden is at around 60% and the others have the usual fractions.  Again, this is early and the official numbers won't come until at the end of the month.  Our next presidential primaries will come next month. 

Meanwhile, New York City has moved into Phase 2 while various upticks make me worried about baseball coming back next month. Which apparently it really will.  Boo to universal DH!

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