Sunday School 9/6/20

So, what was cooking in the classrooms today?  Let's wander around the halls.

Because of the focus on the upcoming election, or rather on voting in the upcoming election, I spent my time with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press.

Here's how he set the stage:  According to a new NBC News/Survey Monkey poll, 52% of Americans plan on voting early (33% by mail, 19% in person) but 54% of those who lean Republican say they'll vote in person on election day, while 71% of those leaning D plan on voting by mail or by voting in person during the early voting window. The consequences of that are our worst nightmare: Trump leads on election day because the Rs who vote in person have their votes counted right away, while the Biden camp picks up speed only as the mail-in votes get counted.  Who know what will happen under those circumstances, given the incumbent, and given the US Post Office has already told states things could be kind of scary come November, and then there's all the lawyers waiting to get involved, and so on...

Guests on the show included Republican Frank LaRose, Ohio's Secretary of State; Democrat Jocelyn Benson, who holds that same position in Michigan, and Karen Brinson Bell, the State Board of Elections director in North Carolina. Here are some highlights.

• Brinson Bell said they've "been optimistic the entire time" in NC, and that it's not her state's first rodeo with the process. She did say they're trying to get out more ballots than usual, but they had their primary (pre-COVID), they had a small election in June, and they're ready for November.
• LaRose said Ohio had an all-mail ballot primary, and they learned a lot from that, including that "our boards of elections are incredibly well positioned" to handle the absentee ballots. And, he mentioned recruiting poll workers (they need 35,000) and "getting accurate information out to voters."
• Benson said in Michigan, voters have lots of options, including voting by mail, using drop box for their ballot, voting early in person, and voting in person on election day, when all precincts will be open. She also noted that in every election this year, "turnout has doubled, putting (them) on track to have Michigan's November election be the highest turnout ever" in the state's history.

Benson said there's been "near constant communication" with postmasters and postal leaders, trying to ensure "the system works, that citizens can receive their ballots and return them on time." The drop boxes are "a workaround" for folks who aren't comfortable mailing the ballots in, or who wait until the last minute. But, she said, 

we're now also facing a perception issue. That the changes in the postal service, if nothing else, have created confusion and chaos where none existed prior. And so, the voter education and the confidence-boosting we now have to do and will do to ensure voters feel confident that their vote is sent through the mail and will count is a key part of our work moving forward.

In Ohio, La Rose said that the drop boxes are under 24-hour surveillance, and are emptied daily by a bipartisan team from the county Boards of Elections. Also, "whether they mail in their absentee ballot or whether they use the secure drop box at the Board of Elections," ballots can be tracked online the same way you can track a package. 

North Carolina's Brinson Bell said ballots started going out last Friday to nearly 600,000 voters who requested one, and that they can process absentee ballots before November 3rd, and that they count their early voting ballots, which could be 50% of the total cast. All in all, "even by the close of polls on Election Night, we may be reporting as much as 80 percent of our voter turnout and how they've chosen... at the time that the polls close."

Michigan can't do the same, Benson said - they don't start processing until Election day, but she seemed to think that Todd's question about Thanksgiving and the Michigan results to be coming together was silly. 

No, but we should be prepared for this to be closer to an Election Week, as opposed to an Election Day. I mean, the bottom line is we are not going to have the full results and a counting of all of our ballots on Election Night. We already know that. We've asked the legislature to make changes to the law to give us more ability to be prepared and count those ballots more efficiently. They have not acted for reasons that I don't fully, completely understand.

They're making changes to "more efficiently and securely count those ballots," and she said she's "laser-focused on accuracy."

And if it takes a few extra days to ensure we have a full and accurate counting of the results of every race, that's what it's going to take. And we're going to be transparent throughout that whole process to make sure every citizen knows exactly where we are in the counting process and how many more ballots we have to get through.

And in response to Todd's question about concerns "people may take the delay in getting all the results in Michigan to declare a phony winner?" she said she had concerns, 

But to me, that's just going to be another example of the type of misinformation and disinformation that we're seeing multiple ways from multiple platforms and voices in this election cycle. So, we're going to counter that misinformation with truth and accuracy.

Being "that source of trusted information," of facts and data, is going to be important for all of the folks in charge of elections this year, 

as we seek to cut through lots of different rhetoric that's going to only be increasing in the weeks coming up to Election Day and beyond.

Frank LaRose was asked about a bill submitted by Florida's Sen. Marco Rubio that would change the date electors meet, pushing it out a few weeks to January 2nd, because "states may need more time. They may need more time to certify and don’t -- it's an artificial date, the December 14th. It’s not in the Con -- you can shift that around." 

La Rose said Ohio's electors are planning on meeting on December 14th, and that they count ballots on Election Night, and report an "unofficial tabulation." They'll count everything that was legally cast, they'll count everything "over the next 10 days" after Election Day.

We're even changing the way that our Election Night reporting is done on our website to make it clear that there still may be tens or hundreds of thousands of outstanding absentee ballots. We expect those to come back in. Whether it's one of my former military teammates who's serving overseas, or maybe an Ohioan that just procrastinated and waited till the last minute, as long as those ballots are legally cast, they deserve to be counted. And so again, Election Night, yeah, we'll give a snapshot of those results. But the final tabulation is what really matters.

I don't always agree with Chuck Todd, but today I did, when he said

I appreciate all of you. Good luck. We're all counting on all three of you doing an outstanding job. This is one case where, regardless of party, everybody wants all three of you to succeed. 

Indeed we are - them, and all of their counterparts, regardless of their redness or blueness.  

See you around the virtual campus, masks on as always.