Information and Updates on Tuesday, November 3rd Election
Thursday, November 5th, 2020 -- 11:12 AM
-The votes are still being counted from Tuesday’s historic Presidential Election.
Since yesterday afternoon, the states of Wisconsin and Michigan have been called for Joe Biden, giving him 20 electoral votes between the two. Joe Biden is still ahead in the popular vote too. However, key battleground states are still counting the record number of absentee ballots that were cast in this election. Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona are still counting their ballots. Some have been asking why media outlets like Fox News and the Associated Press have called Arizona for Joe Biden, while others have not? The simple answer is that each media outlet has their own process for projecting a winner during a presidential election. Many have also been asking why counting the results is taking so long? The main reason is that many states made it easier for voters to request mail-in ballots amid the coronavirus pandemic due to concerns about crowded polling places. But mail-in ballots generally require more time to process than those cast in person and states have different rules on how mail-in ballots can be counted. In some states, like Wisconsin, mail-in ballots can’t be counted until Election Day. Also, some ballots may not arrive for days. Some states will allow mail in ballots to be counted even if they arrive after Election Day. As long as they were postmarked by Election Day, those votes will still count.
Legal action may also slow the counting process in several states. For example, President Trump has claimed, without evidence, that there is widespread fraud happening in the counting process. He has tried to get the count stopped outright in several states like Michigan and Pennsylvania. He’s also filed lawsuits claiming, again without evidence, that Republican poll watchers aren’t being given adequate space to observe the counting process. Here in Wisconsin, he has stated they are going to ask for a recount of the ballots. The race is within the 1% margin of error allowed by the state, so it’s within his right to do so. The head of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, Megan Wolfe, took offense to the President’s comments that the process was rigged and unfair. “Anybody’s welcome to watch that process," she said. "Some of the places even live-streamed their tally last night and so I think that it’s insulting to our local election officials to say that. Yesterday’s election was anything but an incredible success that was a result of years of preparation and meticulously, carefully following the law.”
Even with social media’s effort to curb false information during the election, false posts were being made yesterday. For example, a post on Facebook claimed that more people cast ballots than were registered to vote in Wisconsin. That is not true. The post used data from two years ago. In total, just over 89 percent of Wisconsin's 3.68 million registered voters cast a ballot in the November 2020 election. According to election results, just under 3.3 million voters cast their ballots. Wood County had to issue a statement regarding a story that was run on Fox News. According to the report, some municipalities in Wood County had run out of ballots during the election. That is also false. Wood County Clerk Trent Miner released the following statement regarding that story: “It has been reported that Fox News, in their election coverage last night, stated that Wood County, Wisconsin had run out of ballots in some of their precincts, without attributing their source of this information. This, in turn, was picked up by some local media outlets and shared. At no time during Election Day did any municipality contact my office stating they were running out of ballots. I want to emphatically confirm that NO precincts in Wood County ran out of ballots at the November 3, 2020 General Election. Any suggestions that infer otherwise are false and without merit.”
Another reason the results are taking time is because of the sheer number of ballots cast. Over 140 million people voted in this election, more than in any other election. Wisconsin saw about 88% of registered voters cast a ballot in this election. That's up from 67% in 2016 and 72% in 2004. With early voting, 1.9 million Wisconsinites cast their ballot even before the November election. Clark County saw 93% of registered voters cast a ballot. Marathon saw 91.27%, Wood County saw, 91.65% and Taylor County saw 92%.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.