I will not be watching the election results live

[andrewducker]

This is your reminder that Democrats are voting by post much more than Republicans are, so it will look very much like Republicans are on course to take the swing states until the postal votes are counted. Which due to the incompetent way that the USA seems to run elections means that it may be a few days until we know who has won them.

So I have no interest in watching the results come in, and will frankly be trying to avoid interim results for the good of my mental health.

Comments

[altamira16]

Some states that have been voting by mail for years like Oregon and Colorado will have their things together quickly.

A number of news sources are refusing to make guesses until the Associated Press declares a state has won.

This NPR story explains the methodology that the Associated Press uses.

[coth]

Likewise.

[andrewducker]

Thanks for the extra info!

[ninetydegrees]

Same here. Thanks for the reminder :)

[dewline]

Probably a sensible approach.

I plan to keep the TV off as well.

[teaotter]

A wise choice!

(It's far more complicated than that -- some states have already counted their mail-in vote, some counties in Pennsylvania won't even start counting them until tomorrow, and some states accept mail-in votes that arrive for the next few days as long as they're postmarked by today. So it's a total hodgepodge, and impossible to follow without a cheat sheet and a stiff drink.)

[calimac]

Article on whether 10 closely-run states are likely to announce their results this evening or not.

I stopped watching elections, or any breaking news, on television some 20 years ago. Now I read news websites and hit the "refresh" button fairly often.

[andrewducker]

Thank you for that!

[snippy]

Oregon's been counting for a week, as ballots come in.

[anef]

I never watch election results live - it makes for a night of over-excitement and no sleep! The morning is early enough to hear either good or bad news.

[andrewducker]

This is true. And in this case "who knows?" news.

[cmcmck]

Over here are are very many other mental health worries atm so I hear you!

[birguslatro]

Good call! :)

[jducoeur]

Coming to this late, but one note: as implied by other comments, the issue isn't so much overall incompetence as it is a consequence of the decentralized nature of the beast. Technically speaking, this isn't one election, it is fifty elections being run in parallel. Some states are very good at that, some less so, and some have been intentionally institutionally crippled by reactionaries who want to suppress voting by their opponents.

So it's a bit of a mess, but a very unevenly-spread one...