U.S. And International Politics

[John Corbett]

I think the only election in my lifetime that truly surprised me (pleasantly so) was 2016. I had resigned myself to a Hillary presidency. I was completely elated by the outcome. I thought 2000 and 2020 were toss-ups although I did tell my friends and coworkers in 2000 that whoever won Florida would win it all. It didn't take Nostradamus to figure that out. I had no idea it was going to be a razor thin margin. When Florida was called for Gore early in the evening I turned off the coverage. Imagine my surprise when I tuned in a couple hours later and found out they had taken Florida off the board. When they called Florida for Bush about 2am, I went to bed. When I woke up, I found out Florida was back in play. Who would have guessed it wouldn't be decided for five weeks.

In 2020 I went to bed thinking Trump had managed to pull it off again. Biden had flipped Arizona, but Trump still led in all the blue wall states and Georgia. When I looked at the outstanding vote, I didn't see how Trump could lose. I hadn't figured on the mail in ballots being dumped into the mix in the wee hours of the morning. I would have had much more confidence in the integrity of the result had the mail-in ballots been counted first. I don't know why they don't do that. They should be counted in advance and if the polls closed at 8:00, the mail in vote count should be released at 8:01. That way there is no late night vote dump.