Many states across the country, including Ohio, Georgia and Texas, saw record numbers of voters turn out for early in-person voting on Tuesday. Americans had to wait in lines for hours despite the coronavirus pandemic in Wuhan and states that decided to expand mail-in voting.
According to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office, people are voting early in record numbers, with three times as many people voting early (in person) compared to the same point in 2016. Officials say absentee ballot requests are almost double what they are now in 2016
— Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) October 14, 2020
This early voting line in Marietta, Georgia spanned multiple blocks. Long lines were reported at several polling places in Georgia as early voting began on Monday pic.twitter.com/VTIFz6Mylg
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) October 13, 2020
Georgia voters flooded polling places in record numbers on the first day of early voting https://t.co/sLLiUNsidK
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) October 14, 2020
With just over 100,000 votes received, we have officially surpassed the record for turnout for any early voting day. The previous record was set on the last day of early voting in 2016. There are still a few hours left. VOTE!!
Cc: @HarrisVotes
— Chris Hollins (@CGHollins) October 13, 2020
Mainstream media such as CNN, MSNBC, and NBC News continually promote the idea that Americans vote early because they are energized by this election cycle.
“I have voted before, always in person and have never waited this long, which I hope is a good sign for turnout in this year’s elections. “I’m really optimistic about how seriously people will take this election,” Kathleen Campbell, 31, told NBC. “Everyone is patiently waiting to get to the polls and I don’t think I’ve seen a single person without a mask.”
The general tone of these stories was that people were enthusiastic about removing President Trump from office.
“Non-white voters are seven times more likely than white voters to wait in line to vote longer than an hour, according to a 2017 study.” https://t.co/DfvUj5YVfv
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) October 14, 2020
CNN’s Jake Tapper argued that what President Trump says on Twitter doesn’t matter, that what ultimately matters is what local election officials say.
CNN @jaketapper on voting and what to expect: “No doubt some in politics, perhaps even President Trump, will try to argue that only votes cast in person count, but that is not the law and the president’s tweets do not matter.” pic.twitter.com/7HUFX6VJ4o
—TheLeadCNN (@TheLeadCNN) October 13, 2020
“I think voters really… have a sense of urgency. That’s partly why we see such energy at the ballot box.” @MaraGay he says, discussing the high turnout during early voting. https://t.co/LID8VFEaVa
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) October 14, 2020
Abrams said @ABCWorldNews that “early voting will become the next front in the war on voters.” https://t.co/egAErtRBkR
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 14, 2020
These long lines are not about enthusiasm. How many Democrats are there? Really excited to vote for Joe Biden (apart from his wife and campaign staff, which even then is uncertain)? Very few.
These record numbers should tell us that Americans do not trust the mail-in voting system. They don’t trust USPS to deliver ballots to election officials in a timely manner, if at all. Others fear that their ballots will somehow be “forgotten” in another room.
Democrats were in favor months so that people don’t feel secure voting in person. They said election officials had to introduce some kind of exception in the event of the coronavirus pandemic. States have tried to transition primarily to mail-in voting, which of course has had its challenges. The Republican National Committee has questioned mail-in voting procedures in states that didn’t previously do it, such as how voter rolls are cleared for people who have died or moved. There were also questions about what would happen if someone voted in person and then voted again by mail. Would there be any references that would prevent them from voting multiple times?
Remember: We’ve seen a number of voter integrity issues over the last six months. A few months ago, a Democratic operative told how he trained dozens of people in New Jersey and New York to fraudulently vote. When a reporter in Philadelphia conducted an experiment to see how many ballots were returned, it was three percent missing. In places like Nevada, voters received multiple ballots from multiple political parties.
Democrats need to stop seeing this as a play on enthusiasm and look at it more as a concern. If crowds of people are willing to vote in person during a pandemic, that says more about our electoral system — especially mail-in ballots — than anything else.
