Posted on 11/07/2022 11:38:20 AM PST by SoConPubbie
In the middle of football season? HELL NO!
The night of election day is when results are tabulated and released. Absentee voting has existed since at least the 19th century. Abraham Lincoln won re-election in 1864 due to absentee ballots from Union soldiers fighting in the Civil War.
In person early voting has been around since at least the 1980's. It's much better to have people who can't be at home on election day vote early in person than to use absentee ballots that have to be mailed and verified. Early voting uses all of the same verification systems that are used on election day, and all the verification is performed before a voter gets a paper ballot or access to a voting machine. Absentee ballots have as much or more verification after the ballot is returned as before it is sent out. They are inherently time consuming to verify. Cutting down the number of incoming absentee ballots to be verified cuts down the time it takes to conduct the count once polls close. That's what we do in Texas.
My county had 28.9% of registered voters turn out during early voting. There is one weekend during the early voting period. There was only one polling location (the county courthouse) open on the Sunday. There were more voters on other days at the courthouse when all the other locations were open too. All locations were open on the Saturday, but it wasn't the most popular day. In fact the first 5 days (M-F) all had higher turnout than Saturday. In fact it was the third lowest turnout day. The last day (Friday) had the highest turnout, and the first day (Monday) had the second highest turnout. Between myself, my mother, and my wife, we voted at the three most popular early voting locations in the county. Only my wife had to wait in line, and that was only for about 5 minutes.
On the Sunday before election day, the ballot board continued to qualify ballots that had already arrived at the courthouse. Those that were accepted were removed from their envelopes and placed in a sealed ballot box. All the early votes were counted, then all the currently processed absentee ballots were counted. The results were sealed and will not be released til poll closing time on Tuesday. At that time a very large portion of the vote in Texas will be released, and it will be from all precincts in the Central time zone. It's a pretty good indicator of the final vote. The ballot boards continue to qualify incoming absentee ballots on Monday and election day. Typically all absentee and all elecion day ballots will be counted by 10:30 pm.
Texas has strict rules for absentee ballots. In fact we never changed the requirements to get an absentee ballot. We just added a pretty generous early voting period that greatly decreased the need to submit absentee ballots. Furthermore early votes in Texas are the first results posted on election night immediately after poll closing time. Most counties in Texas get their tabulations finished by 10:30 pm. "Progressive" states like California take weeks to count their ballots, because they mostly use paper absentee ballots that are returned to polling locations.
“In person voting is exceedingly efficient and results are readily available” ... and pretty honest
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