So, are we ready for the nightmare that election night will surely be?

Do we think Biden is already assembling a legal army to deal with this?

Yes he is R1

He absolutely is r1. I’m ready for anything and everything, they can bring it all, hit me with your best shot mother fuckers!!!! It’s my country too, I am equal to every other citizen, and I will fight for my country harder than they ever could.

“days following...” try “months”, OP.

Patience might be key. On election night, won't all the initial returns show a Trump lead but as mail-in votes are counted over the next few days, heavily leaning toward the Biden camp, Biden will overtake the electoral college. Do we need to prevent all out chaos by protesters on election night and convince them they are simply prematurely over reacting? Or will cities burn in the wee morning hours of November 4?

Some of this difficulty could be avoided if state laws permitted mail ballots to be counted before election night (some states do permit this). If that were the case nation-wide, there would not be the potential that mail ballots would change the apparent result in election night. If counted early, of course, the result would not be disclosed until the close of the polls on Election Day. However, there is no time to change state laws.

Is this America or some Third World banana republic? Never had I ever imagined this could be happening in 'Murica!!!

[quote]Patience might be key. On election night, won't all the initial returns show a Trump lead

I seem to recall that Republicans always appear to be winning early on election night due to the fact polling places close earlier in the south than in the coastal states. For that reason, things don't start to turn around and look good for the Democrats until much later in the evening.

I found this list on Twitter so I'm not 100% convinced of it's accuracy. But, hopefully, if true this will help a bit.

EARLY VOTING BEGINS:

MINNESOTA --September 18

VIRGINIA--September 18

VERMONT--September 20

OHIO--October 3

NEBRASKA--October 4

SOUTH CAROLINA--October 5

MONTANA--October 12

TEXAS--October 13

RHODE ISLAND--October 14

TENNESSEE--October 14

NORTH CAROLINA--October 15

MASSACHUSETTS--October 17

NEVADA--October 17

NEW MEXICO--October 17

SOUTH DAKOTA--October 18

UTAH--October 20

WEST VIRGINIA--October 21

NEW YORK--October 24

OKLAHOMA--October 29

I would love to see Biden win and I do anticipate a court battle.

If the Al Gore battle is an indicator. The US Supreme Court justices will vote in a partisan manner. Sigh.

Here is a list of the justices & which POTUS appointed them:

1. Thomas, Bush the 1st

2. Ginsburg, Clinton

3. Breyer, Clinton

4. Roberts, Bush the 2nd

5. Alito, Bush the 2nd

6. Sotomayor, Obama

7. Kagan, Obama

8. Gorsuch, Trump

9. Kavanaugh, Trump

Democrat-appointed: 4 Republican-appointed: 5

Here is how to request a mail-in ballot for the Nov election for the state of Massachusetts. Your own state will be different, if you live elsewhere.

Why go through it! Vote early. Get your absentee ballot and take it to a ballot box. I don't trust Ivanka's voting machines and Putin's modems.

Besides. I'm going to be out of town on election night. It will be a wreck.

R10, Some of the conservative SCOTUS justices, I think, would be fair, like Roberts. Some would be, well, very conservative, like Alito. I find it hard to imagine that Trump could be close to winning.

[quote]Is this America or some Third World banana republic? Never had I ever imagined this could be happening in 'Murica!!!

You've ALWAYS been a banana republic!

I don’t want Trump to leave the WH gracefully as every other President has in the past. I want to see the entire family dragged out of the WH with people watching and clapping.

Some of this difficulty could be avoided if Dump were deservedly jailed NOW.

That's what happened in 2008, r8; early results had McCain winning and I was *very* nervous. After about an hour, Obama started chalking up the wins.

R16, I also think it could be avoided if he were deservedly forced to resign in light of the Woodward tapes as any other President would have been.

Isn't it possible the NYS attorney general will indict him and the Trump Organization before election day?

OP, you prompted me to look at MI and WI Polls, and Biden looks well ahead. In that sample I looked at. It seems unlikely that things could be close enough to be contested, God willing!

I wish the whole election was over, the pandemic is scary enough.

R19, I suppose, but what I understand is that the Justice Dept. will not indict a sitting President. Is the NYS attorney general not under the authority of the Federal Justice Dept?

No, the New York State attorney general is a state official, not a federal one.

We have to be prepared for the worst. We'll survive. We survived Chimp Bush.

Just mind your p's and q's, lay low, play it safe. Trump doesn't have the Obama economy to coast on (and take credit for) anymore. It's going to get dark and ugly.

And then you can say 'I toldja so'.

Yes, r23, and this pandemic. I think it will just keep getting exponentially worse as time passes. It’ll be awful at Election Day, then really, really awful by Inauguration Day.

Trump is dangerous, the good thing about having a free press, an open democratic society and one with (we hope) law an order, is that his attempt at creating an alternate world isn't the only narrative.

Narcissists are dangerous but if and when Trump loses, the rejection, I predict, will crush him thoroughly, his health will decline and he will be dead within 18 months.

They [narcissists] simply can't function without us, because they have an aborted soul within them.

As the White House is no longer open for public tours I have no problem with it being fire bombed either by the military or the public.

However I don’t think that will be necessary. Trump may very well be the most technology dependent adult in the whole world. He can’t live without Twitter much less without electricity.

Just shut off the White House Internet access and he’ll come out crying within a few hours.

If we can put up with four years of the forever impeached President Covid, we can put up with a few weeks of discomfort as his defeat/humiliation is sorted out and confirmed. I just want this demented sociopath’s removal to be as slow and painful as possible.

They cut the residential part off from the offices. White House staff cease to follow his orders. No maid service, no food prepared, they cut off the internet and then all electricity. And he knows all this so wouldn't risk it. He is a huge physical coward, intensely vain and is also petrified of looking bad. He will absolutely not risk anything that has him looking what he thinks as undignified in public or on camera.

R9, The states that matter are the ones that do not have "early voting," such as mine---Pennsylvania. And our mail-ins don't need to be received until 8:00 p.m. Election Day.

R12, Mail-in ballots aren't considered "early voting." See link below.

DL FYI, Pennsylvania hasn't sent out any Absentee or Mail-in ballots to requestors yet.

I realize you're all just fluffing yourselves, but this thread is fucking alarming.

I was so convinced that Hillary was going to win in 2016 that I was, in all seriousness, looking forward to election night. I was so relaxed that I didn't even follow the results at first; I sat and listened to Bob Dylan. Then I went online and saw people freaking out, saying Trump was doing much better than they'd expected. I started to panic and kept waiting for Hillary to overtake him, but she didn't. I still remember being bleary-eyed on the bus the next morning, unable to believe that Trump had won. I really did expect that by the end of the day, an announcement would be made that there'd been some sort of mistake.

R31 If journalists had been more honest about Clinton's chances it wouldn't have been such a traumatic shock for everyone. There were plenty of seasoned political commenters saying she might lose, who were laughed at and put down. The press went off the deep end thinking they were on the cusp of some triumphant chapter of history.

But R32, didn't pretty much every poll suggest Hillary would win?

I think the press likes to make every election [italic] seem [/italic] to be a close contest. Because of that, it’s hard to know what to believe when you hear “it’s close”. Just like today. Trump [italic] should [/italic] lose by a gazillion votes. He completely mishandled and still continues to mishandle the pandemic. I, personally, feel that we’ll continue to feel economic shocks because of that. So, he should lose, but I don’t know what to believe.

R33, I think they were blathering on about national polls, and not electoral polls, which of course are what really matter. Something like that.

Trump really won by accident. Every close contest seemed to fall his way.

Biden needs to add MI, WI and PA, and the election's just about over. The claims about MN are exaggerated at this time. It's closer than it looks with the national polls, but with Biden's people pouring their resources out and Trump's broke assholes pulling back and cancelling, that should help.

Harry Enten notes that the main decisions in an election are being made between now and about two weeks from now. Trump is shitting himself while Biden and the Dems are keeping focused. After this "lock-in" period the polls, especially from the end of September and the first of October, will show likely outcomes, as well as the areas where concerns will continue until after the election count.

Trump can say anything he wants. He can unleash his storm troopers to hassle voters. He can get GOP flaks and other fascists to "lose" ballots or screw up absentee and mail-ins. At some point the system, as the courts especially see the chance to restore normality, will come down hard. The military will keep quiet or quietly deflect any bullshit Trump attempts. The House will take action. I am not concerned about a drawn-out process. I'm concerned about this poisonous cabal of special interests and lunatics and fascists continuing to fuck the country over as the Democrats take control and try to address the usual shit the Republicans leave in their wake.

I do not want to see Trump for the rest of my life, unless it is in the worst and most painful settings.

Let's take a break from our predisposition for cynicism. Force yourself to be optimistic, breathe the light in and send positive energy into the universe.

Pray that Trump dies a painful death on or before November 3rd.

I’m not worried about Trump not leaving office. He’s too narcissistic to pull that. What I’m worried about is when he wins and the riots and protests that will increase. I don’t think we can survive that.

Either way, we’re heading for a Second Civil War.

Fucking Dixville Notch!

I agree with cut off the electricity, without a working tanning bed Cadet Bone Spurs will scurry out of the WH.

R29, what? All states matter. And this is not an "all lives matter" joke. I get that you're saying states that still could go either way in this election are crucial, but even if you go ahead and take solidly blue states for granted, that doesn't mean our votes don't matter. That's the foundation on which Biden's victory would be built. Would you say California, with its 55 electoral votes, doesn't matter? I'm just saying, the language we use to talk about these things is important. Never give anyone the idea that their vote won't count.

To add to the list above, early voting in Illinois begins September 24.

Here's the website where you can find out the deadlines and registration links to every state.

I think these horrifying predictions are a very possible outcome. And I don’t want the violence, I don’t romanticize it, it’s humankind in its most debased form, I don’t give a fuck how mad you are (I’m angry all the fucking time), it’s still grotesque..

But.....I’m also not going to pretend I’m going along with them if they try to pull a victory out of thin air. It’s so strange because I think I’m a pacifist, but this is my “exception to the rule” scenario.

I think we need to stay positive, but OVERprepare. Be prepared for violence meaning have a plan to protect yourself, and stay away from violence. But if our side wants to peacefully march on Nov. 4th??? I’m totally there because it’ll be just like the inaugural marches, 100% peaceful protest. I won’t have that freedom taken from me, period, end of. I realize his side will come out too, but I can’t worry about that.

I think these horrifying predictions are a very possible outcome. And I don’t want the violence, I don’t romanticize it, it’s humankind in its most debased form, I don’t give a fuck how mad you are (I’m angry all the fucking time), it’s still grotesque..

But.....I’m also not going to pretend I’m going along with them if they try to pull a victory out of thin air. It’s so strange because I think I’m a pacifist, but this is my “exception to the rule” scenario.

I think we need to stay positive, but OVERprepare. Be prepared for violence meaning have a plan to protect yourself, and stay away from violence. But if our side wants to peacefully march on Nov. 4th??? I’m totally there because it’ll be just like the inaugural marches, 100% peaceful protest. I won’t have that freedom taken from me, period, end of. I realize his side will come out too, but I can’t worry about that.

R31 We had a similar experience. I had pink champagne on hand to celebrate Hillary's victory. It stayed in the fridge until the final day of Obama's term. We stayed up all night drinking it and savoring the last few hours of Obama's dignified and sane leadership.

R98, the Ohio early voting is correct. Early voting in Ohio starts October 3rd.

Also, the state automatically mailed out absentee ballot requests to every Ohio voter so we have multiple options this year.

For those of you worried about ballot counting on Election night, from what I understand, don't most of the mail in ballots get counted that night as well?

Yes, there are some states that accept ballots that are POSTMARKED by Election day but that seems to be mostly blue states.

Why would that ballot counting be any different than waiting for the heavily populated areas to tabulate votes?

Every news room constantly says, "we are still waiting for the count from county X, which is the main county where city Z is located" . They always say that. And they always remind people that vote counting in cities takes longer so sparsely populated areas post first

r46, first of all, we’ve never had this volume of mail in ballots to count, so it requires armies of workers. And guess what? We don’t have enough poll workers even if this were a normal election. So it’s a fucking problem.

The most bizarre -- yet totally possible -- scenario I read was this:

Days before the election, Trump declares he's postponing the election, and directs his supporters to not vote.

He of course has no power to do this, so the election still goes on, but this results in a hugely lopsided Biden win... like 75/25.

Trump then declares the election illegitimate. His supporters in the media support this, his voters support this, and it becomes a complete nightmare of chaos.

Trump uses this gambit to delegitimize elections, the media that won't go along with him, and refuses to leave office. If it doesn't spark all-out civil war, it results in a Trump dictatorship.

I think Trump will love being a media star after the election, though even his supporters will tire of his inability to speak in complete sentences.

He will fear prosecution for a variety of reasons, but probably thinks his lawyers can delay things long enough, plus it won’t look good to prosecute a former President. He’ll lose the election, but escape prosecution.

Sorry but what nightmare of chaos, r48? People are not required by law to vote. If they dont, their votes are not cast and they lose their say. Seems like a dream scenario for us! And of course a president doesn’t determine whether an election is legitimate or not.

There are several disasters looming but I don’t think this is one of them.

R50, the GOP successfully stole a Supreme Court seat without any repercussions.

The GOP installed Trump illegitimately, stealing the election, without any repercussions.

The GOP installed a drunken unqualified rapist to the Supreme Court without any repercussions.

The GOP refused to remove an Impeached president without any repercussions.

Trump has incited violence, incited people to commit felonies, and lied LILTERALLY 20,000+ times (and those are just the ones fact-checked) without any repercussions.

There's a trend here, and it's getting worse and worse.

R50 and R51 - I actually agree with both of you. Both points are correct and that truly is a scary thing. The norms that this fool has shattered have been enormous. I, along with many Americans, had no clue the MANY things that the executive branch could just "get away with" with no mass citizen uproar and no fear of judicial branch repercussions (yes, I also realize that Repugs have been stacking judges from top to bottom). The legislative branch has also been perplexing - particularly Moscow Mitch as Senate Majority Leader who has corrupted Congress to the point that in many ways (we have listed them all before ad nauseam) he is an authoritarian dictator in his own right. Yet as citizens - we seem powerless to do more than just watch it happen. These are scary times; I don't put anything past this revolting pack of criminals that make up the current GOP. The tug boat has been nudging the battleship bit by bit for so long that we no longer resemble the constitutional republic that we once were and are dangerously close to authoritarian.

I'm terrified that Trump might win again. To make myself feel better, today I looked at the polls in every state. I counted up all the electoral votes for each candidate, assuming they will win the states they're ahead in right now. (There are four too-close-to call states with only 1% separating Trump and Biden - Ohio, Texas, Georgia and Florida. To be on the safe side, I assigned all those electoral votes to Trump.)

The finally tally: Biden 287, Trump 242. Now I feel a bit more encouraged.

I suspect the real reason Trump is so afraid of mail-in voting is that the Russians can't hack it like they can voting machines. So to make sure my vote will be counted, I plan to hand carry my ballot downtown to City Hall.

I might add that the fat fuck Barr will file charges and investigations to overrule a Biden win.

I worked in Downtown Tallahassee during the 2000 election and still remember the scores of satellite and news trucks surrounding the Florida Supreme Court. Watch or rewatch the movie Recount. It is pretty good.

They have the bribe money ready to make the ballots in democratic voter areas disappear. Dump will do anything to win a second term and unfortunately there's not much that's holding him back.

This is not a normal government anymore, this is a mobster syndicate.

Not sure who will save this country?

FBI, CIA, military, joint chiefs of staff?

If worse comes to worse, I hope there's a Plan B.

I think the most important thing we can all do is shift our thinking paradigm. There will never be a single event that corrects this. We are in a battle for DECADES to come because we sat back and let them take over the judicial branch. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I think there are two approaches and both must be used. The first involves fixing social media, improving education, aggressively holding onto power when we have it, install our judges. The second arm of the solution is about undoing their work. So, actually uninstalling officials, impeaching judges, firing firing firing. Black ball anyone tied to him. If we can win, we also need to sanction the fuck out of Russia, akin to when Obama threw them out them window with their vodka bottles.

But the most important thing that will change history, for better or for worse, is social media. We’ve got to hold sm companies accountable for the affects of their platforms, and I see them coming around to this more and more. They’re finally connecting the dots that you can’t have limitless greed, we can’t post lies just to make money. Oh! I forgot my last point — firing squad Zuckerberg. God I hate him for unleashing this shit on us while he gets to hide in his fucking compound. Greed greed greed greed. Revolting.

(Since there's not Thots with Thoughts thread, I'll just leave this right here)

I totally agree with this gentleman at r58. If you are a blue state and don’t suck tRUMP’s tiny pecker, you don’t count.

It won't be that big of problem if Trump clearly loses, but what is more likely to happen is Trump will be able to question the results enough that half of the country will think it was an unfair election. Say Biden wins in Arizona and Florida, but the Republican election officials and Governors, both of who are Trump toadies, refuse to certify the election results. If those states don't send their electors to the Electoral College there won't be enough for either Trump or Biden to win, throwing the election into the House of Representatives, where each state gets one vote. Trump is reelected and the nightmare continues with the country more divided than ever.

Plus just think, the last four years have been policies in hopes of Trump getting reelected, just think of the nightmare policies when he can't get reelected and doesn't care what any of the voters think.

As he has successfully done for millions of Americans regarding their thinking of mainstream media now as "Fake News!", Trump is working to turn the Presidential voting process into "Fake election!"

"Fake votes! Fake election!" Remember where you first read the terms, when Trump inevitably says them.

The more people talk about a nightmare election night, the more I believe it won't be a problem at all.

Throw these thoughts into the dust bin with a few other ideas. It seems like only yesterday that the media was proclaiming that the Democrats would have a vicious, bloody, protracted convention. Absolutely nothing came of that.

The media needs to tone down the hysterical. I'm sure there will be some low level seats that will have to wait for a recount, and I'm sure that Trump will be a nightmare when he loses, but it's just not going to be that close at the end.

FYI, Florida has in-person early voting as well... from Saturday, October 24 through Saturday, October 31. Be warned that this is the maximum range, but it's up to individual counties and election officials to set the exact locations, hours, and policies... so if you're depending upon voting early, do NOT just take for granted that you can blindly show up at a likely polling site at 5pm on Saturday, October 31 and vote. DO NOT wait until the last minute.

Personally, I'm not encouraging Floridians to vote by mail... I'm encouraging Floridians to vote early, in person... say, mid-afternoon on Tuesday or Wednesday of early-voting week... AFTER the initial crush (when it'll be less crowded and safer), but safely before the last minute. That way, we can at least make Trump sweat bullets all day, and shit a brick at 11pm when CNN declares Trump to be the winner of Florida ON Election Day PRECISELY because he's a point or two behind Biden with 99% of precincts reporting (and the remaining 1% all being overwhelmingly-Democratic precincts where the polls closed late because there was a line of socially-distanced people a literal mile long waiting in line to vote). If Trump is behind Biden IN FLORIDA when early and in-person votes have been counted, declaring Florida for Biden will be safe... and from that point, other states with close races will start to feel like, "If Trump could lose FLORIDA, he probably lost HERE, too". Biden's victory will escalate into a landslide.

I DON'T want to see Trump resign, die, or get removed before the election, though. I think that would be BAD. With Trump gone, a lot of anti-Trump Republicans would sigh with relief, smile, and vote for Pence on Election Day. A lot of Democrats would sigh with relief and think the fight is over (without bothering to go vote for Biden). The more disgraced Trump becomes, the better... but for the sake of electoral strategy, it's important that Trump is still officially the President (and Republican candidate for President) until the last polling site closes on election day.

I see a NYT 4" headline that says, "HISTORY" and underneath are two pictures. One is Joe taking the oath of office and the second is Kamala standing in a white or tan pantsuit taking the oath of office.

Joe looks relieved. Kamala is beaming. You can see her smile from the International Space Station.

I see the editors of every newspaper in America, wringing their hands and agonizing about whether or not the time has finally arrived to print the headline that's been ready for weeks... two lines, in WWII-sized font, filling the entire top half:

YOU'RE

FIRED!

When in December do you see that happening, R65?

R51, there were some repercussions. The Republicans did poorly in 2018 and they might lose the Senate in 2020. I know it’s small change, but it’s something.

I would like to know if any of the voting machines that will be used to count the votes are from Ivanka and her mysterious patent that she got from China. No doubt it was her father who wanted the voting machines so they could be programmed to cheat. There is nothing that criminal family would not do to steal the election.

There is nothing that criminal family would not do. FULL STOP.

"Just shut off the White House Internet access"

I wonder if it's a secure connection?

What are the chances the Supreme Court will have to decide on a charge by trump that the election results are invalid?

R60, Republicans aren't the only citizens who know the Second Amendment.

R71, Nil. Trump can declare anything he wants. The Blue Tide will not halt.

Don't ask me, r70!

Should I vote in person, not trusting electronic machines, or should I do mail in, not trusting the mail to get delivered or be tampered with?

Ditch Mitch!

[quote]What are the chances the Supreme Court will have to decide on a charge by trump that the election results are invalid?

That's my biggest fear too!

Quite frankly, the problem with the high number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions could be fixed with better sex education in schools and better/easier access to contraceptives. The US has one of the highest numbers of child pregnancies. Yes women need to have save access to abortion clinics, but the problem doesn't have to be as bad as it is. Problem is, hardcore religious repugs undermine any efforts to fix this because they are obsessed with keeping women down and from emancipation.