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59,803 | Does my vote even matter? | <p>If I'm voting republican in a state such as California, does it even matter?</p>
<p>I decided not to vote since CA is overwhelmingly blue and I thought my vote would be pointless</p>
 | united states presidential election polling | 0 |
59,807 | US Election 2020 - California call early? | <p>Why was California deemed to be democratic win when only 77 percent of votes tallied?</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/bWu8x.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/bWu8x.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
 | united states election | 1 |
59,809 | Why is there such a large difference between the US population and electorate? | <p>At the time of writing this question, a total of 143.1 million votes have been counted in the 2020 US Presidential election (73 488 248 democratic, and 69 622 407 republican). Most estimates have put the turnout somewhere in the region of 70%, albeit with quite a large confidence interval (e.g. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-us-election-voter-turnout/" rel="noreferrer">Bloomberg</a>).</p>
<p>What I don't naïvely understand as an outsider is this: if you take this as a point estimate of the size of the electorate, you get 143.1 / 0.7 ≈ 200 million. But the USA is estimated to have a population of around 330 million (forgive me for citing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States" rel="noreferrer">Wikipedia</a> for this claim).</p>
<p>Why is there such a big difference? I know that in most countries demographics differ from the electorate due to either age, immigration status, or people currently being in prison. Yet it doesn't seem right that nearly a third of the population of the united states is either not a citizen, under 18, or currently in prison!</p>
 | united states presidential election demographics disenfranchisement | 1 |
59,810 | What are the fundamental reasons for indirect presidential vote in the US? | <p>I am French and therefore have understandably a hard time understanding the <strong>cultural</strong> aspects of indirect voting in the United States. I read the history of this approach and some of the main technical consequences (Wikipedia's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election" rel="nofollow noreferrer">United States presidential election</a> article is quite informative there).</p>
<p>While every country has its own way of electing representatives, there is usually a reason behind that (a cartel of main parties that want to keep the status quo for instance).</p>
<p>What is the core reason for that indirect voting system in the US?</p>
<ul>
<li>is this because of Article 2 of the Constitution that cannot be changed?</li>
<li>or because Democrats and Republicans agree that this is in their best interest to keep it like this?</li>
<li>or because there is a strong attachment to the state-run elections of the population, ingrained in the culture, where each state sends their representatives in a "winner gets all" fashion?</li>
<li>or something else?</li>
</ul>
<p>Our counting system in France is flawed as well<sup>(*)</sup>, but there is no particular will to change that - probably because people do not know much about other counting methods (such a as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting" rel="nofollow noreferrer">preferential voting</a> - when I was in middle-school in the 80's we had an explanation of the voting systems, now it is not the curriculum anymore). On the other hand, the US system is so unusual (and you have direct voting for other representatives) that it stands out quite a bit.</p>
<hr />
<p><sup>(*) the Frech one is flawed as almost any others - by making it difficult for some entities to have a presence in the Parliament despite popular support, the prime example being the <em>Rassemblement National</em> (a right wing party). Please note: I am not trying to start a war here, merely mentioning that their representative (Marine Le Pen) was one of the two final pretenders to the presidency (33% of the votes), but her party has only a handful of deputies (1%)</sup></p>
 | united states presidential election voting systems | 1 |
59,811 | With Covid-19, what governments/societies pose the lowest restrictions for their people? | <p>With Sweden being the obvious first choice, I wonder what other (specifically developed countries) governments/societies choose not to react to the virus in the "usual" extent (<em>i.e.</em> lock-downs, social isolation).</p>
<p>I am interested in governments/societies that choose to live normally with the risk of the virus. Normal meaning no lock-downs, no forced social isolation, no collective punishments (as in your neighbor has it, you PCR test negative but are still quarantined).</p>
 | covid 19 virus international | 0 |
59,814 | Does conceding an election have any effect on the outcome? | <p>In US politics it seems to be commonplace for the losing candidate in an election to publicly concede - i.e., admit defeat - after an appropriate number of votes have been tallied.</p>
<p>I can see that this has an important <em>political</em> purpose - it gives them the opportunity to make one last speech to their supporters and possible to exert some influence on political points of view. They might signal support for unity, for instance. And it is courteous to their opponent & their supporters.</p>
<p>However, does such a concession have any <em>actual tangible effect</em>? Does it actually remove them from the running in an official way? My impression was that its the actual formal vote count which decides the outcome; so if a candidate were to concede prematurely and the vote turned out in their favor, would the concession matter?</p>
<hr />
<p>I saw this other question which was asking for historical events, but I didn't think it really addressed this. Also it concerned Australia & Portugal, but I'm asking about the US. <a href="https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/41531/has-any-politician-party-ever-conceded-an-election-and-then-won">Has any politician/party ever conceded an election and then won?</a></p>
 | united states election | 0 |
59,821 | Who breaks the tie in the Senate election of Vice President | <p>In the event of an electoral college tie, the vice president is elected by the newly elected Senate. What if the Senate splits the vote 50/50? Normally the vice president would break a tie in the Senate, but in this case we're <em>electing</em> the vice president. I suppose, since the new Congress is convened before the inauguration of the president, the previous vice president would still be in office. Does that mean that the vice president of the previous administration in his capacity of President of the Senate would get to cast the decisive vote (possibly for himself in the event he's running for reelection)?</p>
 | united states presidential election vice president | 0 |
59,822 | Do any other countries have a similar system as the United States of America's electoral college? | <p>In the United States, the Presidential election is determined by individual popular votes of each State, and the candidate needs at least 270 of these electoral votes to be declared the winner (for the sake of this question, let's not worry about if no candidate receives a majority). Each State's electoral votes equals the amount of members in the Congress for that State.</p>
<p>Are there any other countries in the world that hold a national election <em>not</em> decided by a popular vote of the entire country?</p>
 | united states election presidential election electoral college | 1 |
59,825 | Why don't more democratic countries reject all candidates if NOTA exceed candidates's votes? | <p>Why don't more democratic countries have the option to allow voters to vote NOTA ("None of the above") and reject all candidates if NOTA exceed candidates's votes? Doing that would leave that government position open.</p>
<p>I have an example to show what I mean:</p>
<p>Total vote: 100%, NOTA: 97%, Candidate 1st: 2%, Candidate 2nd: 1%</p>
<p>More democratic countries should reject both, isn't it.</p>
 | voting international | 1 |
59,826 | In 2020, did Biden win the fewest counties of any winning US presidential candidate? | <p>Hillary Clinton won 487 counties despite winning the popular vote in 2016. But she lost the Electoral College so that doesn't matter.</p>
<p>Did Joe Biden win the fewest counties out of any winning presidential candidate? And how many counties did win?</p>
 | united states presidential election joe biden | 1 |
59,834 | What exactly happens in a ballot recount (Wisconsin for example)? | <p>I am intrigued by the mechanism of ballot recounts. In Wisconsin, for example, this <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/11/05/931478765/trump-asks-for-a-wisconsin-recount-though-its-unlikely-to-change-the-outcome" rel="nofollow noreferrer">NPR article</a> quotes a spokesperson, Murtaugh, who claims that some ballots in Milwaukee County had been "cured" by poll workers, tainting those ballots. Murtaugh estimates 15-20% of the Milwaukee County ballots were thusly tainted.</p>
<p>In looking at the pictured vote tabulator (which happens to be a ES&S machine), one can readily see that there are three bins into which the scanned ballots are sorted. Those bins correspond to 1) ballots that had no problem being scanned, 2) ballots with write-ins and 3) ballots that require poll workers to resolve problems (such as check marks where there should have been oval fill-ins).</p>
<p>It's unclear if Murtaugh is claiming that 15-20% of the ballots in the "problem" bin were altered, or if he means 15-20% of all ballots were altered or "cured".</p>
<p>So my initial question with regard to mechanics of recount is: Are these "problem" ballots segregated from the entire pool of ballots, or are they physically mixed with all "non-problem" ballots?</p>
 | united states voting wisconsin | 0 |
59,836 | How exactly might Trump's contesting the election results determine the transition of the presidency? | <p>The fact that Trump is going to contest the election results raises the following possibilities:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Trump fails to persuade the court that there were significant number of violations in the counting process</strong>. In this case, everything is relatively simple, Biden just becomes a president as usual.</li>
<li><strong>Trump manages to persuade the court that there indeed were enough violations to influence the elections</strong>. What happens next? Will the results be recounted in some way or a new election be held? Supposing that the main violation was an inadmission of observers, it would be impossible to estimate the result for the scenario in which there were no such violation. Does it mean that a new vote will be held?</li>
<li><strong>A court fails to reach a verdict within a short period of time</strong>. Say, the dispute continues for a year and before the dispute ends, it is unclear who is a winner. Does this mean Trump will stay in office for the period of the dispute?</li>
</ol>
 | united states donald trump presidential election contested election | 0 |
59,840 | Correlation between presidential & senate 2020? | <p>I am curious about the correlation between Senate and President. I have found that Susan Collins winning by a relatively large margin appears to be an outlier.</p>
<p>The senate races seem closer to the president in 2016, which is my hypothesis. <strong>Based on preliminary data, excluding Georgia's regular, what is the correlation between two party Dem vote share for President and Senate in each state?</strong> And was my hypothesis correct? (The correlation was about 91%.)</p>
<p>I also feel the US is a quasi parliamentary democracy right now in the sense that people vote for and based on parties and not so much based on the individual candidates. That is a topic for a different question but I put this in for context.</p>
 | united states presidential election senate | 1 |
59,843 | Why is Nevada so slow to count the vote? | <p>I've been watching the results come in at the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/trump-biden-election-day-2020" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wall Street Journal</a>, and I've noticed Nevada is unbelievably slow at counting. By my estimate, only 11% was counted in the last 24 hours.</p>
<p>What's up with this?</p>
 | united states presidential election | 0 |
59,844 | What's the point of legalising dangerous drugs in some states in the US? | <p>4 American states - New Jersey, Arizona, South Dakota and Montana- recently agreed to lift their ban on marijuana. And Oregon became the first state in the history of the USA to descriminalize possession of street drugs. FoxNews reported that more than 50% of Oregon's population shared this opinion. So, there are 15 states to the moment which have a policy of this kind.</p>
<p>However, this innovation seems to be a controversial to a certain extent. The number of people living in the territory of those states encompasses about 100 million. If to carry out some calculations, we can see that almost one third part of America gets into the category. So it puts the people at risk of facing drugs even against their will. For example, there's possibility for children to accidentally come across drugs, for there are no restrictions for keeping them at home. It may undermine the nation's gene pool.</p>
<p>Of course, drug dealing is still forbidden and not encouraged there, but punishment for having drugs at home in large amounts is not prosecuted anymore and there's only 100-dollars' fine for it, which doesn't make a very big sum of money and is difficult to believe it can prevent people from using drugs or storing them further.</p>
<p>Thus, my question is as follows: What is the point of legalising such dangerous drugs? Do disadvantages not outweigh advantages at this point?</p>
 | united states drugs public health public safety cannabis legalization | 0 |
59,851 | Why do some states forbid pre-counting mail ballots? | <p>According to a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/politics/mail-in-voting/" rel="noreferrer">handy map by CNN</a>, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Alabama do not allow pre-counting of mail ballots. Why is this the case? Why not count mail ballots as soon as possible to report the results quickly on election day?</p>
 | united states election vote by mail | 1 |
59,853 | Why are Democrats more likely to vote by mail than Republicans? | <p>What reason explains why Democrats are more likely to mail in their ballots?</p>
 | united states election presidential election parties vote by mail | 0 |
59,857 | Why aren't the US presidential election results posted only once the winner has been decided? | <p>The <a href="https://politics.stackexchange.com/q/59718/2231">slowness of the vote counting</a> during the 2020 US presidential elections seems to fair a few amount of turmoil, especially given the <a href="https://politics.stackexchange.com/q/59853/2231">vote-by-mail voter distribution</a>. Why aren't the US presidential election results posted only once the winner has been decided?</p>
 | united states presidential election voting | 0 |
59,858 | Why did Google/AP call Arizona for Democrats when at 90% reporting Ds only have a 1.3% lead, still shrinking? | <p>It would appear that Google has been showing Arizona for Democrats since several days ago, and continues to do so even now when at 90% reporting there's only a 1.2% lead between D and R -- meaning that if Republicans continue to get 60% of the remaining votes as has been the case for the late counting in Arizona, then they're clearly on a path to winning Arizona. In fact, this has been widely reported in the media, and even CNN has not called Arizona yet as of Friday, November 6, afternoon.</p>
<p>I did some quick math myself just to make sure the reported 60% figure does check out based on Google's data of 90% Reporting for Arizona and 1.561M votes for D and 1.520M votes for R, as of Friday, Nov 6 around 13:00 MST:</p>
<ul>
<li>(1.561+1.520) / 0.90 / 2 = 1.711M expected total votes each when we go from 90% reporting to 100% reporting;</li>
<li>with D at 1.711 - 1.561 = 0.150 M more votes required for equilibrium at 100%;</li>
<li>with R at 1.711 - 1.520 = 0.191 M more votes required for equilibrium at 100%;</li>
<li>the equilibrium would then be reached if the remaining votes are 0.191 / (0.150 + 0.191) = 56.0% R to 46.0% D -- not even 60% as reported elsewhere in the media; plus there's the third-party vote, which means it can even be sufficient to get slightly less than the full 56% of the remaining 10% of ballots to get the election swung back to R (as has been the case for Arizona since 2000, or even since 1952 if we ignore the 1996 performance and the lack of ranked-choice voting).</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://politics.stackexchange.com/q/59788/6696">Given that Alaska is still not called for Trump</a> -- even though it's not considered at play, and it's been Republican since 1968, far longer than California has been continuously Democrat since only 1992 -- why did Google/AP not retract their clearly premature calling of Arizona yet? Do they not expect it to flip, even though many local sources in Arizona expect the flip to still occur, after all? Or do they not plan to retract the call until it actually happens, betting on the possibility that it might not happen?</p>
 | united states presidential election | 0 |
59,859 | Has a recount ever changed the winner of any major election in US history? | <p><a href="https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/59698/has-a-recount-ever-changed-the-winner-of-a-state-during-a-presidential-election">Has a recount ever changed the winner of a state during a presidential election?</a> mentions that no recount was ever successful in transferring electoral votes to a different candidate. To expand the scope of that question a bit, was there ever a recount that successfully changed the winner of <em>any</em> major election in US history?</p>
<p>The definition of <em>major</em> would be any election with at least 100k eligible voters.</p>
 | united states election | 1 |
59,869 | At exactly what time/date could Trump be forcibly removed from the Whitehouse? | <p>If Trump loses this election but just refuses to leave the Whitehouse, as commander in chief he presumably can't be made to leave until he loses that position. Exactly when would be the first moment when he could be forcibly removed?</p>
 | united states president | 0 |
59,871 | Is it uncommon for a party to win presidency, but lose house seats? | <p>In the United States' 2020 Presidential election, it appears as if Joe Biden and the Democrats have won the presidency, however as of writing this, have lost 5 seats in the house, and will likely lose more once the rest of the votes are counted.</p>
<p>How common is it for this type of behaviour to happen when a president is defeated by an opposing party? I would assume that typically the senate/house roughly reflect the presidency.</p>
 | united states presidential election congress history | 0 |
59,873 | What determines the number of electors in each state of the US | <p>I would like to know what determines the number of electors in each state of the US for presidential election. I have read that "Every State is allocated a number of votes equal to the number of senators and representatives in its U.S. Congressional delegation" <a href="https://www.archives.gov/electoral-college/allocation" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a></p>
<p>So then the question is: what determines this new number ? Is it only based on demography ?</p>
 | united states election electoral college | 1 |
59,874 | Observation of ballot counting - appropriate vs actual | <p>According to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/05/philadelphia-pennsylvania-vote-count-trump-chaos" rel="noreferrer">this Guardian article</a> about the counting of the 2020 US presidential elections in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Trump campaign’s strategy on Thursday was built around a claim
that its observers in the city were not being given adequate access to
observe the count. Even though observers from both parties have been
given access to the convention center, the Trump campaign complained
its observers had not been able to get close enough. It secured a
court order Thursday morning allowing observers to get up to six feet
of workers counting.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What observation rights are the presidential campaigns (or the parties, or the public) afforded during the counting process - throughout the US and in Pennsylvania specifically?</p>
<p>And, given current information, to what extent, if at all, has the Trump campaign been denied exercising these rights in Philadelphia?</p>
 | united states election presidential election | 1 |
59,877 | Why are rural counties more likely to vote Republican? | <p>In most states, the counties around big cities are voting Democrat while the rural counties are voting Republican. Why is this?</p>
 | united states election parties | 0 |
59,878 | What do US presidents and their executive branches usually do during their lame duck periods? | <p>What do US presidents and their executive branches (like immigration related agencies, e.g. USCIS, ICE) usually do during their lame duck periods?</p>
<ul>
<li>Push harder forward their policy plans/proposals and enforcement, because it is their last chance?</li>
<li>or the opposite?</li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks.</p>
 | united states president | 0 |
59,879 | Why are votes counted so quickly on election day, then slow down afterwards? | <p>In following the ongoing US election, I notice that most states seem to count votes much faster on day 1. For example on election night, Pennsylvannia counted ~80% of its total votes, but it's been several days since and they still haven't counted the remaining 20%.</p>
<p>Why is the pace of vote counting so fast on the first day? Why does it slow down afterwards?</p>
 | united states presidential election | 0 |
59,882 | Can the Democrats eliminate the filibuster with 50 votes? | <p>It seems like the maximum number of seats the US Senate Democratic caucus will obtain is 50. This means that they would be able to pass legislation using the VP to break ties, assuming there is no filibuster. Does the VP also have the ability to break ties for senate rule changes, such as eliminating the filibuster?</p>
 | united states senate senate rules | 1 |
59,885 | How to understand population sentiment underlying the US 2020 vote count? | <p>In the 2020 US presidential election, we see a roughly 50/50 split between votes for Trump and votes for Biden, some 60+% of the eligible electorate. Mainstream media rhetoric anticipated a decisive Biden victory, potentially a landslide; the actual outcome appears much narrower, suggesting that perhaps US election results are not a true reflection of voter sentiment.</p>
<p>My question pertains to the sentiment of Americans generally, not just those who cast a vote. I'm curious about how much various factors could or will affect the eventual election outcome, and how they played into the apparent divergence between mainstream media expectation and the outcome actually developing at the ballot box:</p>
<ul>
<li>Declining to register for lack of trust in the system, lack of belief that "my vote matters", or other reasons</li>
<li>Declining to vote because "my vote won't matter" despite having registered</li>
<li>Declining to vote because "I don't like/trust/accept either of the candidates"</li>
<li>Voting for the candidate purely due to charisma, regardless of policy position, competence, or other factors about the person/personality</li>
<li>Voting for a candidate based upon a singular policy point such as immigration, gun control, abortion, economy, etc. as opposed to general alignment with multiple, most, or all of the candidate's declared policies.</li>
<li>Voting for the candidate due to party affiliation, regardless of the candidate's qualities</li>
<li>Voting for or against a candidate base on trust or confidence in that candidate's ability to "do the job"</li>
<li>Strategically voting against the opposing candidate on personality, policy or other reasons ("holding one's nose")</li>
<li>Backing the anticipated winner</li>
<li>Other factors</li>
</ul>
 | united states voters | 0 |
59,887 | By how much have past state recounts differed from their original vote counts? | <p>In past US Presidential Elections, by how much have state recounts differed from their original counts? (in terms of absolute number of votes, but most importantly, in terms of percent of overall votes for that state)</p>
 | united states president statistics recount | 1 |
59,889 | Could Biden appoint Mitch McConnell to a Cabinet position in order to remove him from the Senate? | <p>Assuming Biden wins but does not have a majority in the senate, could Biden appoint Mitch McConnell as say, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, in order to remove him from his position as Senate Majority Leader? Of course, McConnell would be replaced by another Republican senator via appointment, but with him gone, the next Senate Majority Leader might be slightly more willing to negotiate and to allow bills that pass the House to be debated. Especially if some of the more moderate Republicans such as Collins or Murkowski vote across party lines, some pieces of relatively uncontroversial legislation such as infrastructure bills and whatnot might actually get passed this way. So would this be a plausible strategy?</p>
 | united states senate cabinet | 0 |
59,891 | History of the Three Word Slogan | <p>What's the history of the three word slogan in Politics? I'm aware of individual cases like "strong and stable" but was it ever as prevalent as it is now? It would be good to know if it happens in other languages/countries as well</p>
<p>Here are some examples of three word slogans in the states:</p>
<ul>
<li>Build the wall</li>
<li>Four more years</li>
<li>Lock her up</li>
<li>Drain the swamp</li>
<li>Keep them out</li>
<li>Yes we can</li>
</ul>
<p>and in the UK:</p>
<ul>
<li>Brexit means Brexit</li>
<li>Get Brexit done</li>
<li>Taking back control</li>
<li>Wear a mask, Protect the NHS</li>
<li>Hands, space, face</li>
</ul>
 | rhetoric | 1 |
59,901 | Can a third-party candidate “donate” their votes to another candidate? | <p>Is there any provision in US constitution which allows one candidate, say Jo Jorgensen, to “donate” their votes in a given state to another candidate?</p>
 | united states presidential election voting electoral college third party | 1 |
59,907 | Why may one be "faithless" if "winner-takes-all" is already applicable? | <p>From Wikipedia article on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College" rel="nofollow noreferrer">United States Electoral College</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All jurisdictions use a winner-take-all method to choose their electors, with the exceptions of Maine and Nebraska, which use a one-elector-per-district method while also assigning two electors based on the winning ticket of the statewide popular vote.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>From, Wikipedia article on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_elector" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Faithless elector</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>In United States presidential elections, a faithless elector is a member of the United States Electoral College who does not vote for the presidential or vice-presidential candidate for whom they had pledged to vote.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Not having enough knowledge on the US elections, both seem contrasting to me. I am confused on :</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>If the whole state's (any except the two exceptions) votes go to either of the two major parties, how may one become "faithless" or decide not to vote for whom he/she has pledged to vote earlier?</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>I did realise:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>there are laws specific to each state, and</p>
</li>
<li><p>historically, there has been cases of faithlessness.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>but this simple problem (in bold above) is where I am stuck.</p>
<p>Apologies, if this is a duplicate. I would appreciate any guidance regarding this.</p>
 | united states presidential election electoral college faithless elector | 1 |
59,914 | Has Joe Biden made any promises to revert Trump's US pullouts out of global alliances? | <p>According to <a href="https://theprint.in/world/paris-deal-to-who-the-11-organisations-donald-trumps-us-has-pulled-out-of-weakened/432486/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this article</a>, Donald Trump has managed to pull out US from a series of international organizations such as Trans-Pacific Partnership, Paris Climate Agreement, UNESCO, Iran nuclear deal, WTO.</p>
<p>BBC mentions that Biden's intentions are to revert (some or all of) these pullouts:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>President Trump has praised autocrats and insulted allies. At the top
of Joe Biden's To-Do list is a full-court press to repair strained
relationships, especially in Nato, and rejoin global alliances. A
Biden administration would return to the <strong>World Health Organization</strong> and
seek to lead an international coronavirus response.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>WHO and NATO are the only explicit organization names and I am wondering if all other pullouts will be reverted.</p>
<p>I am interested if Joe Biden or some other official made a more detailed statement related to the pullouts.</p>
 | united states international relations joe biden | 1 |
59,915 | Supreme Court decision on faithless electors question | <p>I'm talking about this decision:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/06/supreme-court-electoral-college-ruling-states-can-force-electors-to-abide-by-popular-vote.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/06/supreme-court-electoral-college-ruling-states-can-force-electors-to-abide-by-popular-vote.html</a></p>
<p>I want to understand the meaning of the title of the article:</p>
<p>"Electoral College voters can be forced to back state popular vote winners"</p>
<p>What does this mean exactly? Does this mean that if the elector votes against the state, the state can nullify and revert his vote? In that case... what's the point of even having electors vote at that December meeting... just count the votes automatically.</p>
<p>Or does this mean that the elector's vote will count even if he votes against the state, but he will face punishment from the state afterwards?</p>
 | united states supreme court electoral college faithless elector | 0 |
59,918 | What new data caused Biden to be declared winner by the news? | <p>At around 07.11.2020, 16:30 UTC (one and half hours ago), it seems like many news outlets in the US decided to call the 2020 presidential election for Biden, which prompted celebration, congratulations, and so on.
This seems to root on the Associated Press and Edison Research deciding that a win for Biden now surpassed some magical threshold of certainty, in particular due to the projection that Biden won Pennsylvania (which would give him sufficient votes in the electoral college).
So far, I get this.</p>
<p><strong>But what new data caused this change?</strong> Again, going by many major news outlets, the situation in Pennsylvania looks pretty much the same as 24 hours earlier, with about 5% of the votes left to be counted and Biden having a lead of 0.5 percentage points or about 30.000 votes on Trump. None of the reports I have seen so far mention data about another bunch of votes coming in or similar. So this seems to come pretty much out of the blue (at least on a short time scale).</p>
 | united states presidential election media | 0 |
59,924 | Could Trump maintain power by combination of executive orders and supreme court decisions? | <p>Since Trump is still president until January, and he has already packed the supreme court, would it be possible for him to be president eternally by extending his power through executive orders, and the supreme court validating their legality?</p>
<p>Or is there any mechanism to prevent this?</p>
 | united states president donald trump presidential election supreme court | 1 |
59,925 | Why did South Texas shift towards the Republicans? | <p>The results of the 2020 US election are coming into focus, and, broadly speaking, there remains a large gap between how racial/linguistic groups vote. The Republicans ran a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/us/politics/trump-suburbs-housing-white-voters.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">distinctly</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/7/25/12270880/donald-trump-racist-racism-history" rel="nofollow noreferrer">racist</a> <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/nl/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/american-government-politics-and-policy/white-identity-politics?format=HB&isbn=9781108475525" rel="nofollow noreferrer">white-identitarian</a> campaign,* and again attracted a lot of support from white working class and rural voters, and retained an overall advantage among white voters. On the other hand, Latinx and, especially, black voters heavily supported Democrats. There were some localized shifts, with, notably, many Latinx voters shifting towards the Republicans in South Florida and South Texas.</p>
<p>The S. Florida shift is fairly easy to account for, as the largely Cuban-American Latinx community there is skeptical of left-wing politics due to concerns about left-wing regimes in Latin America. Also, reporting before the election flagged a large amount of misinformation about Joe Biden and the Democrats as circulating in S. Florida for whatever reason (<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/14/florida-latinos-disinformation-413923" rel="nofollow noreferrer">‘This is f---ing crazy’: Florida Latinos swamped by wild conspiracy theories //A flood of disinformation and deceptive claims is damaging Joe Biden in the nation’s biggest swing state.</a>).</p>
<p>The S. Texas shift is more surprising, at least to me, and doesn't particularly seem to have carried over to other largely Mexican-American areas of Arizona or California. So what accounts for this shift?</p>
<p><sub> *Response to some comments about this language: That the Republican Party under Trump has run racist campaigns is the mainstream judgement of the field of political science and of reputable media outlets, as those added links may indicate. The point of mentioning this is not to "soapbox" but to indicate a reason that a shift towards the GOP within a minority group is at least somewhat surprising or interesting. </sub></p>
 | united states presidential election identity politics texas | 0 |
59,927 | Would the remaining votes help Al Gross in Alaska? | <p>According to stats I got <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-elections/alaska-senate-results" rel="nofollow noreferrer">from NBC News</a> at the time of writing this, Dan Sullivan is leading over Al Gross by ~54k votes, while there are ~200k votes left to count. Doing some rough napkin math, that means Al Gross would need ~%62 of the remaining vote to get the lead.</p>
<p>Biden has earned a similar margin of the mail-in vote in Georgia and a significantly higher margin then that in Nevada and the rust belt, which would make me believe that Al Gross can close the gap and even take the lead. However, I am aware of exceptions to the rule (like Arizona), and I know Alaska is no ordinary state in that regard.</p>
<p>Is it realistic to assume the remaining votes in the state would go for Al Gross in such margins?</p>
 | united states election senate | 0 |
59,931 | Is it possible for a president to circumvent the senate confirmation process by selectively firing some of the existing cabinet members? | <p><strong>The Senate has to approve a cabinet member's hiring, but not their firing.</strong> If the existing head of a cabinet is fired, acting heads are typically assigned based on a line of succession. In this hypothetical, let us assume that the top 3 candidates in line of succession are from the opposite party and the 4th person in line would represent the interest of the President.</p>
<p>If the Senate and the president are from opposing parties, is it possible for a president to circumvent the Senate confirmation process by selectively firing the top three people in line thereby making the fourth person the acting cabinet members? How long can the acting head act without being confirmed by the Senate?</p>
 | united states president congress senate cabinet | 1 |
59,932 | Why don't Democrat or Republican partisans register and vote in swing states? | <p>Since swing states are often the deciding factor in US presidential elections, why don't Democrat or Republican partisans register and vote in swing states? Or perhaps they are already doing so and it's already part of the US election traditions?</p>
<p>Looking at <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id.aspx#Details" rel="noreferrer">https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id.aspx#Details</a> (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201107211924/https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id.aspx" rel="noreferrer">mirror</a>), it seems one can simply use one's passport when voting, and looking at one example of vote registration form (I took New Jersey as an example), one is supposed to have only stay in the state <a href="https://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/voter-registration.shtml" rel="noreferrer">30 days</a> (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201107213049/https://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/voter-registration.shtml" rel="noreferrer">mirror</a>) before the registration and I'm not even sure whether it is really checked since it seems <a href="https://voter.svrs.nj.gov/register?ref=voteusa" rel="noreferrer">SSN is enough to register</a> (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201107212150/https://voter.svrs.nj.gov/register?ref=voteusa" rel="noreferrer">mirror</a>). Staying somewhere a few weeks (or perhaps less) in a swing state to vote there sounds like something some Democrat or Republican partisans could do. Or did I miss something?</p>
 | united states presidential election voting | 0 |
59,933 | When are the election results official? | <p>Every single newspaper is saying that “Joe Biden is elected the 46th president of the United States”, but Trump will fight this any way he can.</p>
<p>My question: when are the results official with no possibility of the outcome changing? Trump won’t concede and it’s still possible that his actions (ie. Lawsuits, fraud, recounts, etc) may affect the results.</p>
<p>When will this chapter be officially closed?</p>
 | united states president presidential election | 0 |
59,940 | What legal avenues are there for a foreign national to aid a US election? | <p>putting it bluntly: suppose I as a Belgian citizen want to help the Democratic party win the 2 Georgia Runoff elections because it would help the entire world to have an undivided US government (for example better climate goals), but without risking legal problems for either me or any of the US politicians involved. I already know that I can't be donating money because the US law explicitly bans US campaigns from knowingly accepting foreign donations. I know that the easiest option in fact is to just stay out of this entirely to avoid any semblance of interference entirely, but it already felt so frustrating to have to sit through the Presidential election race without being able to impact such a globally important event.</p>
<p>Is there anything I as a Belgian citizen can do to help the Democratic party win the 2 US Senate runoff elections?</p>
 | united states election senate foreign interference | 0 |
59,942 | With a single transferable vote, how are the transfers selected? | <p>With a single transferable vote, when a candidate's votes exceed the quota, the remaining votes are transferred to the next ranking candidate on each of the excess ballots.</p>
<p>However, how is it decided which ballots are selected to transfer? e.g. if the quota is 4000 and they received 5000 votes, then how are the additional 1000 picked?</p>
<p>I was told they were just picked at random but I've been reading a bit more from people supposing that maybe they calculate the proportions of the next ranked candidate and pick ballots that represent that proportion, or transfer all the votes but each is only worth a fraction of a vote depending on the excess and the quota. This seems very laborious and error prone, also I live in Ireland where we use STV and I've never heard of this being done.</p>
 | voting systems stv | 0 |
59,944 | When the US president is declared after winning enough states for 270 electoral votes, have they definitely won? | <p>Watching the counting of the recent presidential election on the US, there was a point where Joe Biden had 238 electoral votes and was leading in enough states to get to 270.</p>
<p>If he had gotten to 270, by the way pundits and people were talking, I'm quite certain that he would have been declared the winner by all the news channels and he would have been celebrating and giving victory speeches.</p>
<p>But, as I understand it, a win in a state <em>does not guarantee all the state's electoral votes</em>. Is this the case? Is he not still at the mercy of the electoral college? I have read about "faithless" electors and that they may face penalties for voting against the public but it's still possible. Could, say, a Nevadan elector, taken in by Donald Trump's talk about fraud, feeling so strongly about it that they were willing to face the punishment, just cast their vote for Trump, thereby potentially denying Biden the presidency? And would he just have to accept it?</p>
 | united states presidential election electoral college faithless elector | 0 |
59,945 | Is it unusual for foreign leaders to congratulate US presidential candidates before their opponents have conceded? | <p>This quote from the <a href="https://www.voanews.com/2020-usa-votes/world-leaders-offer-congratulations-biden-harris" rel="noreferrer">Voice of America</a> suggests that it is not usual:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some Trump supporters expressed frustration with foreign leaders.<br />
“These early calls by foreign leaders congratulating Biden are deliberate election interference,” tweeted Kyle Shideler, an analyst at the Center for Security Policy, a pro-Trump policy organization in Washington. “It is beyond inappropriate for these leaders to weigh in at this time."</p>
</blockquote>
 | united states presidential election diplomacy | 1 |
59,950 | What do we know of Evangelical voting for Trump in 2020? | <p>I believe he had nearly <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/how-the-faithful-voted-a-preliminary-2016-analysis/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">80% support in the past from Evangelicals</a>.</p>
<p>However, there have been <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/december-web-only/trump-should-be-removed-from-office.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">calls for repudiation</a>. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Falwell_Jr." rel="nofollow noreferrer">Jerry Falwell</a>, a big supporter, also resigned in scandal.</p>
<p>Have these, and the events of the last four years led to any drop in actual Evangelical votes for him in 2020? Will we know, taking into account ballot secrecy?</p>
<p>I am not so much interested in the reason for their support, that's been discussed before. Rather what their voting patterns ended up being. In the breakdown of vote counts by state, most detailed reports included data about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-georgia-president.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">% Trump vs % Biden by sex, race, and age</a>. Can we expect something similar here?</p>
 | united states donald trump presidential election | 1 |
59,951 | Will the demographic inversion between Democrats and Republican reverse post-Trump? | <p>Party <strong>demographic inversions</strong> are not uncommon, i.e. when the demographics that make up a party or the ideology of the party invert. It was not long ago that southern states tended to vote Democrat while northern-eastern states tended to vote Republican. The way states generally vote in presidential elections had stayed the same since 2000, i.e. West-coast, Northeast, and northern Midwest blue. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_United_States_presidential_election" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Scroll Through Elections Here (top right)</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Are we overdue for a political inversion in the near-future?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Since Donald Trump there has been a modest shift in the demographics that make up the Republican party. It was not long ago, 1996-2014, that the wealthier you were and the more educated you were the more likely you were to vote Republican. That demographic has slowly shifted. It is still true that the wealthier you are the more likely you are to vote Republican, though this is less-so the case than historically.</p>
<p><strong>Sources:</strong> <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2018/03/20/1-trends-in-party-affiliation-among-demographic-groups/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Education Stats (1994-2017)</a> <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/11/does-your-wage-predict-your-vote/264541/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Income Stats (2012)</a></p>
<p>The gains below were more intense in the presidential election of 2016 and 2020, and less intense for the non-presidential elections. Note that the source I sent only goes up to 2017. You can see noticeable upticks and downticks right at 2016. This fades a little in 2017. Recent 2020 results confirm the continuation of the trends below.</p>
<p><strong>2020 Republicans Gains:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Blue Collar Democrats and Independents</li>
<li>Hispanics</li>
<li>African Americans</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>2020 Democrat Gains:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Suburban Middle and Upper-Middle class White Republicans and Independents</li>
</ul>
<p>I know quite a few college-educated Republicans that voted Democrat because of some disagreements Donald Trump. They are likely to vote Republican in 2022. I don't see the Blue Collar collation that Donald Trump gathered voting Republican again. They liked Trump, not so much establishment Republicans. As for Hispanic voters, since they traditionally were more conservative in the past, before immigration issues, it is possible they will remain Republican. Especially if Republicans are soft of immigration issues. The Republican Party historically would get 4-8% of the African American vote. Recently Trump has been hitting 10-12%. I am unsure if this will shift back.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Question 1: Is it likely that the Republican and Democrat Party will
revert back to their pre-Trump demographics, or will the demographic shift continue
inverting?</p>
<p>Question 2: What has caused past political inversion?</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Early Disclaimer:</strong> Feel free to suggest edits for this question. Happy to make corrections. For example, I would like to add more <strong>sources</strong> and <strong>bullet points</strong> above. Education and income can be a sensitive topic. We should not stereotype a group of people as uneducated or low-income for their political beliefs. Please be mindful that there are great minds on both sides, and politics really comes down to a difference in opinion now days. Republicans and Democrats agree on far more than they disagree on.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xk3Zf.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xk3Zf.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/FoNHz.png" alt="enter image description here" /></p>
 | united states donald trump parties demographics | 0 |
59,954 | Has the (highly possible) 46th POTUS Joe Biden declared the names of people in his cabinet? | <p>Has the (highly possible 46th POTUS) Joe Biden told anything about or hinted whom may he include in his cabinet? If it is not declared (most probably) when may he declare it?</p>
 | united states cabinet joe biden | 1 |
59,956 | If VP becomes POTUS, how often can he be elected as president afterwards | <p>In the USA one can only be president for two legislative periods. Also, when a president is removed from office or dies, the vice president becomes president.
Does this count as the VP's first term or can he still be presidential candidate for two further times?</p>
 | united states president presidential election vice president presidential term | 0 |
59,959 | Does the US have 2 presidents until Jan 20? | <p>With Joe Biden winning the presidential election, what kind of power does he have until Jan 20? What can he effectively do?</p>
<p>In this <a href="https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/59914/has-joe-biden-made-any-promises-to-revert-trumps-us-pullouts-out-of-global-alli">question</a> "<em>Has Joe Biden made any promises to revert Trump's US pullouts out of global alliances?</em>", he said, for instance, he will recommit to the Paris Climate Agreement. Can he do that (initiate the process) before Jan 20?</p>
<p>Note that <a href="https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/54058/what-powers-does-a-us-president-have-between-the-end-of-an-election-and-the-inau">this question</a> "<em>What powers does a US president have between the end of an election and the inauguration of the next president?</em>" is quite the opposite of this one.</p>
 | united states donald trump presidential election joe biden presidential term | 1 |
59,964 | Absolute votes by political party | <p>I'm looking for data on the absolute votes received by each of the political parties (Democrat and Republican most importantly) over recent elections (since at least 2000) in the USA, including (estimates) for the current election.</p>
<p>In particular I'm trying to answer a query: <em>In past elections, democratic turnout has been a critical factor to the outcome, whereas republican turnout has been quite consistent from year to year, in terms of absolute numbers. With the record turnout this year I want to know to what degree this trend has held for the current election.</em></p>
 | united states voter turnout | 1 |
59,965 | Has a leader of a major democracy recently tried to prevent themselves from leaving after losing an election? | <p>There is a report that US president Donald Trump may want to barricade himself in the Oval Office. But the Constitution is very specific in that the presidency terminates at noon Jan 20 in the calendar year after election.</p>
<p>I suspect Trump will not attempt this though I may be wrong. I am asking this from a global perspective. Have any leaders of democracies tried to prevent themselves from leaving after losing an election? If so, what is a list of this happening?</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/11/donald-trump-no-concession" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/11/donald-trump-no-concession</a></p>
 | election democracy | 0 |
59,966 | Why did the Trump administration hold a press conference in the parking lot of a landscaping company? | <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Nihay.jpg" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Nihay.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>I’m assuming we’re allowed to ask questions for events that happened recently, or in this case, very recent - this past weekend.</p>
<p>The picture on the right is clearly Rudy Giuliani, and I’m assuming the rest of it is not photoshopped. So, I’m wondering why did the 45th POTUS, a hotelier himself, decide that a parking lot is a good place to have a press conference — a “big” conference — at a parking lot?</p>
<p>My <a href="https://www.complex.com/life/2020/11/donald-trump-four-seasons-total-landscaping-tweet?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=complexmag" rel="noreferrer">research</a> tells me that it was a conference for his legal team, to deny that they lost the 2020 Presidential Election and they booked this quixotic spot, between a mortuary and a porn shop, purely by accident. But they held it there anyway?</p>
<p>I’m wondering what “big picture” or background info am I missing? Couldn’t the administration just re-schedule or book another (more) suitable location? All jokes and sarcasm aside, no one is that inept. Therefore, I wonder if the purported mistake is true.</p>
<p>Which is why I’m asking, as per question, why did they have a “big” conference in such a location?</p>
 | united states donald trump media | 0 |
59,970 | How do these different methods of measuring the closeness of an election compare to each other? | <p>Suppose we have an election held over multiple districts (e.g., a first-past-the-post legislative election, or a US-presidential style electoral college). There are several ways you could measure how close the election is:</p>
<ol>
<li>Overall popular vote margin (e.g., Biden is currently up by about 4.3 million votes nationwide)</li>
<li>Tipping-point margin (e.g., the current tipping-point state is PA, in which Biden is up by about 43,000 votes)</li>
<li>The cumulative margin: the total number of votes required to flip the election if those votes are optimally distributed (e.g., at the moment Trump could win the election by gaining 43,000 votes in PA, 19,000 votes in AZ, and 10,000 votes in GA for a total of about 72,000 votes). Usually seen in the wild in arguments that an election was closer than it appeared.</li>
</ol>
<p>Or, of course, percentage-based versions of the popular vote and tipping point margins (the correct denominator for the cumulative margin is a little unclear).</p>
<p>Has there been any study of how these measures are likely to relate to each other?</p>
<p>I'm specifically curious about how the cumulative margin relates to the other two. My intuition is that popular and tipping point margins should be roughly linear functions of each other, while the cumulative margin is a non-linear (probably quadratic?) function of the other two. I would be happy with an answer based on 538-style models rather than directly on actual election data.</p>
 | election electoral college voting districts | 0 |
59,974 | Who determine the rules of the US primaries? | <p>At first I thought each individual state's party decided how to do the primaries for themselves, as private organizations.</p>
<p>But then I read that elections in some states are organized by the government, not the party.</p>
<p>If I created a new nation wide political party, would I be able to hold the primaries however I wanted, for instance by using some obscure Condorcet method, or in some states I would be required to use some preestablished rules? Which are such states and what are the rules?</p>
<p>What about the national convention? Is there some rule specifying how the states primaries results should be computed? Instead of having delegates, could my party simply sum all the individual votes from every state to get a simple majority?</p>
 | united states primaries | 0 |
59,979 | What projections are there, if any, of the final margin of the election? | <p>At this point, Biden is the president-elect, with every major network including Fox having called the election in his favor, and with a probable end result of 306 electoral votes to 232 for Trump. That assumes that Biden retains Arizona and wins Georgia, and Trump wins North Carolina and Alaska. That said, a number of commentators and pundits have noted that his margin of victory, which currently is around 3% in the popular vote, is smaller than the polls would have predicted considering that Biden polled at an average of 8.4% over Trump in the days before the election.</p>
<p>However, while most eyes may have been on vote counts in swing states, many other states are still counting, even though their electoral results have not been in doubt. These states are disproportionately Democratic, and if the ballots still being counted are primarily absentee ballots, one might expect them to favor Biden. For instance, California has only counted 86% of its votes, suggesting that about 2.2 million are left to count. We might expect the uncounted ballots to increase or at least change Biden's percentage of the popular vote. On the other hand, there are a few states like Alaska that lean Republican and have also not counted many votes.</p>
<p>Are there any forecasts of Biden's likely eventual margin of victory in the popular vote?</p>
 | united states presidential election voting polling | 0 |
59,980 | When and how does the GSA ascertain the President-Elect? | <p>All major news organizations from across the political spectrum have projected that Joe Biden has won the 2020 US Presidential Election. Today, the nonpartisan Center for Presidential Transition <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/08/general-services-administration-biden-win-435203" rel="noreferrer">issued a letter</a> asking the General Services Administration (GSA) to ascertain Joe Biden as the President-Elect. Under the Presidential Transition Act, the GSA needs to do this before the Biden transition team can receive federal funding and federal agencies can start communicating with the transition team to ensure a smooth transition.</p>
<p>My question is, what is the process by which the GSA ascertains someone as the President-Elect? What criteria does a candidate have to meet? I don’t think they wait all the way until the election outcome has been certified or the electoral college has met, they do it much sooner than that. Do they just wait until news organizations project a winner, or until the runner up in the election has conceded, or what?</p>
 | united states election presidential election | 0 |
59,981 | Wouldn't it be beneficial for Democrats to support a bipartisan investigation into voter fraud allegations? | <p>Obviously there's a big divide between the opinion that no voter fraud happened in the 2020 Presidential Election, and that such widespread voter fraud happened in enough states so as to swing the election in multiple states. Realistically it seems obvious to me that a non-zero amount of people attempted to commit voter fraud, and a non-zero amount of clerical errors were made in the process of counting votes. Leading me to conclude that an unknown, but probably negligible amount of fraudulent votes would have been counted.</p>
<p>Using the most plausible sounding allegation I've read about for example: mail-in votes from deceased registered voters.</p>
<p>Some obvious possibilities are either individuals acting alone and mailing in the extra ballots they'd received in the post - then the counters not properly verifying the voter details, or simply a clerical error having marked of the wrong person as having voted.</p>
<p>If fraud is found, it allows for the system to be improved to prevent the same issue in future - given how long was spent investigating allegations of foreign interference in the 2016 election this seems like it's an issue for the Democrats as well.</p>
<p>If no fraud is found then it solidifies the legitimacy of the new Democrat Administration, and the public confidence in the system.</p>
<p>If a small amount of fraud is found, but would not have affected the outcome then the system can be improved so that it's not possible next election.</p>
<p>In the worst case (highly unlikely) scenario for the Democrats - widespread voter fraud occurred undetected by officials, but somehow is detectable after the fact - it would be impossible to determine with certainty which side had committed the fraud - so the only course of action would be to rerun the election.</p>
<p>If managed well to the effect of "we believe so strongly in the Democratic process, and in the legitimacy of this election vote that we support the investigation because we know we're the legitimate winners" - wouldn't the Democrats be in a situation where no matter the outcome of the investigation they'd be positively impacted?
Or would it be simply perceived as too dangerous a political move to cooperate with the Republicans and risk it being interpreted by the public as a confession of guilt?</p>
 | united states presidential election election fraud | 0 |
59,986 | Why is the possibility of state legislatures invalidating the popular vote being discussed? | <p>It has been discussed that one of the alternatives for Trump to keep the presidency is that...</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Republican legislators in states like Pennsylvania would invalidate the electoral results and simply award their electoral votes to Trump <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/11/6/21552446/trump-loss-biden-kevin-mccarthy-lindsey-graham-ted-cruz-newt-gingrich" rel="nofollow noreferrer">(source)</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>I just read on <a href="https://campaignlegal.org/update/can-state-legislature-overturn-presidential-election-results" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this site</a> that this is not possible:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One question has been: Can a state legislature substitute its judgment for the will of the people by directly appointing their preferred slate of electors after Election Day?</p>
<p>The answer? No. State Legislatures Are Prohibited by Federal Law from Usurping the Will of the Voters After the Election.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>According to this <a href="https://politics.stackexchange.com/q/59768/28747">recent Q/A</a> it seems that the quote above is correct, state legislatures cannot do that.</p>
<p>However, if that's correct, how is it possible that a senator (Lindsey Graham, who by the way is a lawyer) has discussed this alternative and several media networks (CNN, Vox, MSNBC etc...) commented on it as if it was legal? Shouldn't a senator and several political commentators know better?</p>
 | united states presidential election electoral college | 1 |
59,987 | Why is the Republican Party going along with Trump's legal challenges to the election results? | <p>From most reports, the Trump campaign's legal challenges to the presidential vote counting process have little merit (several have already been thrown out by the courts) and a practically negligible chance to swing the election in his favor.</p>
<p>But many high level Republicans, including Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham, are going along with him. They must know that this is a fruitless endeavor. And since Trump is going to be out of office soon, they no longer need to kowtow to him.</p>
<p>Why are Republican party leaders letting him get away with this? Does the GOP actually gain any political value from it? Or do they just not have the power to rein him in and get him to concede graciously?</p>
 | united states election donald trump | 0 |
59,988 | Why are there run-off elections in Georgia this year? | <p>I was surprised to hear that <strong>run-off</strong> elections were to take place in Georgia.</p>
<p>Presumably this is part of a system of "proportional representation", whereby in circumstances where there are more than two candidates, a winner with more than 50% support has to be discovered.</p>
<p>There are various voting systems, used around the world, particularly in Europe to achieve this - multi-member constituencies, run-offs, single transferable votes etc. In Britain none are used - the "first-past-the-post" system is used universally in parliamentary and local government elections.</p>
<p>Does the fact that "run-offs" are being used in Georgia, mean that they are governed by the rules of the US Senate, or is this a rule peculiar to Georgia?</p>
 | united states senate proportional representation | 0 |
59,993 | If every legal challenge that Trump has mounted since the election succeeds, could he win the presidency? | <p>I am not certain of exactly which legal cases he has launched, but let us imagine that all of them (recounts, discarding votes, etc.) are decided in his favo(u)r, exactly as he wishes.</p>
<p>In that case, could be mathematically win 270 electoral college votes and be re-elected?</p>
<p>[Update] 9th December, 2020 - <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/12/08/trump-and-the-gop-have-now-lost-50-post-election-lawsuits/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Trump And The GOP Have Now Lost 50 Post-Election Lawsuits</a> - although I believe that they won one (minor) lawsuit; feel free to edit this to link to it</p>
<p>[update++] 29th December, 2020</p>
<p>After 60 lawsuits being dismissed, many by trump appointed judges, and one by the supreme court, and despite <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/11/texas-dan-patrick-voter-fraud-reward" rel="nofollow noreferrer">blatant bribery</a>, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/26/us/politics/republicans-voter-fraud.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">single win</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the single case Mr. Trump won, his campaign challenged a state-ordered deadline extension in Pennsylvania for the submission of personal identification for mailed ballots, affecting a small number of votes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Further, from the same source:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>according to a New York Times analysis, they did not even formally allege fraud in more than two-thirds of their cases</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So, I imagine th .. th .. th ... that's all, folks</p>
 | united states presidential election us state laws | 1 |
59,996 | Why has the state of Arizona taken so long to return results in the 2020 US Presidential Election? | <p>Despite an <a href="https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/59858/why-did-google-ap-call-arizona-for-democrats-when-at-90-reporting-ds-only-have">early call by the Associated Press and Fox News</a>, Arizona was generally considered one of the last uncertain states after the 2020 presidential election. In fact, still as of Sunday night, five days after the election, most other outlets (including ABC\CBS\NBC\CNN\NYTimes) have felt too uncomfortable to call it:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/QS7Xjm.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/QS7Xjm.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>This list from <a href="https://www.azfamily.com/news/politics/election_headquarters/arizona-has-235k-votes-left-to-be-counted-statewide/article_fbbb8750-1e65-11eb-a6a5-9b9c0d2c5625.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">a story by local television networks</a> shows that there are still outstanding ballots in every county in the state.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/T70Jbm.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/T70Jbm.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>Perhaps the smaller counties come from the listed 7,553 needing further verification or the 44,668 provisional ballots, since the remaining count hasn't changed in those places in days. But 47,178 ballots are listed as "ready for tabulation", suggesting there's nothing particularly unique about the ballots left in the larger counties where results gradually have been changing.</p>
<p>Other states with slower results have pointed to issues with:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vopp-table-16-when-absentee-mail-ballot-processing-and-counting-can-begin.aspx?fbclid=IwAR0N-pm3781bMqWIWNqymKODQk7WVhVDvW4Va47-QONUffqLhb7xsXV4H7M" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Rules that prevent early counting of mail-in/absentee ballots</a> (AK\GA\MI\NV\PA\WI)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.vote.org/absentee-ballot-deadlines/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Rules that allow arrival of ballots after election day if postmarked on time</a> (AK\NV\NC\OH\PA)</li>
<li>Unexpected delays like <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-news/fulton-election-results-delayed-after-pipe-bursts-in-room-with-ballots/4T3KPQV7PBEX3JVAIGJBNBSVJY/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">pipe bursts</a> or <a href="https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/internet-outage-reported-at-osceola-county-supervisor-of-elections-while-counting-ballots" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Internet outages</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Wisconsin was a state among the later calls on election night, and had similar rules to Arizona... but <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/04/wisconsin-results-down-wire-again-milwaukee-ballot-count/6123344002/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this Milwaukee Journal story</a> suggests all locations except one town of 300 people were completed seven hours after polls closed.<br />
Florida, likewise a close state, likewise with similar rules to Arizona (and always highly regarded for election success!), had 99% of precincts reporting <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2001/may/7/20010507-022913-4617r/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">six</a> to seven hours after polls closed according to this <a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/politics/2020-election/os-ne-2020-general-election-live-updates-20201102-esqefqczu5fydguae4bmezj5u4-story.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Orlando Sentinel story</a>.<br />
I haven't checked into every last no-contest state to see if any of others with helpful deadlines have had delays, but haven't come across any.</p>
<p>And <a href="https://www.12news.com/article/news/politics/elections/arizona-ballots-counted-2020-election-biden-trump-kelly-mcsally/75-96f7a64f-18d8-425d-91b0-c721f96fe6bb" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this story</a> suggests that counting of both early votes and mail-in ballots were indeed started two weeks before Election Day.</p>
<p><strong>So what in the world has been the particular widespread delay across the state of Arizona?</strong></p>
 | united states presidential election | 1 |
59,997 | Does a mail-in ballot stay valid if the voter died between mailing it validly and the election date? | <p>In the U.S. some (all?) states allow mail-in ballots.</p>
<p>Let's imagine the case of someone who is well informed of their state laws on mail-in ballots and did all the procedures to be able to send it. That person sends their mail-in ballot on time and the counting center receives that ballot before election date.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, that person dies before the election date.</p>
<p>Is that ballot still valid?</p>
 | united states vote by mail | 1 |
60,003 | Is it possible to vote multiple times in a US presidential election i.e. in more than one state? | <p><a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/nov/5/trump-campaign-announces-nevada-lawsuit-over-non-r/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">It has been reported that the Trump campaign has announced a Nevada lawsuit over non-resident voters</a> alleging <em>inter alia</em> that a significant number of Nevada voters were resident outside the state, and hence under Nevada law ineligible.</p>
<p>If all election law is governed by the state, who is meant to look out for people who may have residences, or voting registrations in multiple states?</p>
<p>In Britain it is possible to be on the electoral roll (a compulsory registration completed annually by householders) in more than one place. However it is illegal to cast more than one vote in the same election e.g. a parliamentary election, held on the same day.</p>
<p>One can in the UK, however, vote in two separate local council elections on the same day - I was surprised to discover - if one is registered in two places.</p>
<p>So is it possible that some of the Nevada absentee voters. also voted elsewhere?</p>
 | united states presidential election voting systems voting registration | 0 |
60,005 | What happens if the would be president elect dies before the race is called? | <p>This isn't specific to the recent election, but I will use the names Biden and Trump to explain myself more clearly.</p>
<p>Assuming nothing changes with the current outcome of the election (eg. Biden is president elect and will be sworn in in January), what would be the correct course of action if Biden died <em>before</em> the race was called but <em>after</em> voting had ended?</p>
<p>My naive assumption is that it just passes down to Kamala Harris (the VP elect) and she would inherit the role of president elect, but there's a few question marks here for me:</p>
<ol>
<li>In the US you don't vote for a party you vote for a person (you tick Biden/Trump on the ballot not Republican/Democrat)</li>
<li>If that person is never sworn in even though they win, does this cause any issues?</li>
<li>My understanding is that the VP is picked by the president (and their party) and not strictly voted for - does this violate any legislation on voting rights etc.</li>
</ol>
<p>I should note I'm not American, so if you're taught the answers to this in school please forgive my ignorance!</p>
<p>Edit:</p>
<p>As per comment, there may be two different answers to that:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Biden dies before the electoral college meets</p>
</li>
<li><p>Biden dies after the electoral college meets and votes for Biden, but before he's sworn in</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>I'd like an answer for each scenario if possible!</p>
 | united states president presidential election vice president | 0 |
60,009 | Correlation between 538's urbanization index and vote margin 2020? | <p>538 did <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-urban-or-rural-is-your-state-and-what-does-that-mean-for-the-2020-election/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">an article</a> about the urban-rural divide. It said that in 2016, the correlation between urbanization and Dem voting was 0.69 in 2016 and 0.55 in 2012. (There was one big exception: Vermont.)</p>
<p>What was the correlation between the preliminary results and the urbanization index in the 2020 presidential election? I think I can ask now because there are enough results made so far. (538 said it increased, and I say I think it has as well but I want to make sure.)</p>
 | united states presidential election statistics demographics | 0 |
60,012 | Why did Maine vote to re-elect Republican Senator Susan Collins? | <p>In the 2020 election, the majority of voters in Maine voted for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. Wouldn't Biden supporters want to make it easier for him to enact his policies by having the Democrats control both the House (which they already did) and the Senate (which Republicans controlled)?</p>
<p>But the majority of voters in Maine voted for the re-election of Republican Senator Susan Collins. Maine is so far the only state in this election where the party that won the presidential vote did not also win the Senate seat. Have any reputable sources explained why this occurred?</p>
 | united states presidential election senate | 0 |
60,013 | What is the specific mechanism of voting done by the electoral college? | <p>When the electoral college meets to vote on the next president, how does this vote take place? Do the members fill out a ballot privately; with those ballots then collected and counted? Or are the the members asked one at a time who their vote is for? Are they allowed to discuss with each other for whom they are going to vote ahead of time; if someone is going to be a faithless elector will the other members know this before the vote?</p>
<p>I do see that in the 12th amendment to the constitution, it specifies that the vote is done "by ballot", but that still leaves a lot of room for interpretation and different ways that voting by ballot can be done.</p>
<p>For example, in the 2016 election, Colin Powell received 3 electoral votes. I would guess this isn't a coincidence and the 3 members collectively decided to do this.</p>
 | united states presidential election voting electoral college | 1 |
60,016 | Where can I find data on US party affiliations, broken down geographically? | <p>Where can I find data on US party affiliations, broken down geographically?</p>
<p>I'd like to do some statistical analysis on party affiliations within states, broken down geographically.</p>
<p>Here's the kicker: everything I've seen as a data source is never more granular than the voting district.</p>
<p>I want to do some trending using below that level, possibly city blocks or rural roads.</p>
<p>I'd like to try identifying shifts <strong>within</strong> districts, over the last several elections.</p>
<p>I'd also like to try to do some "what-if" scenarios based on drawing districts differently.</p>
<p>Ultimately, I'd like to get a web application set up to allow others to do similar "what-if" scenarios.</p>
<p>So, does anyone know any source for data at that level of granularity? Preferably open data not encumbered by usage terms.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
 | united states statistics demographics local government data sources | 1 |
60,017 | How are U.S. states allowed to put marijuana legalization on ballots when it's against federal law? | <p><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/marijuana-legalization-measures-pass-states/story?id=74008722" rel="noreferrer">Five states will now legalize marijuana for both recreational and medical use.</a></p>
<p>During the November elections, A majority of <strong>New Jersey and Arizona</strong> residents voted yes on ballot measures to make recreational marijuana legal. Voters in South Dakota approved marijuana for medical use.</p>
<p><strong>Montana</strong> voted for two initiatives to legalize, regulate and tax recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older, according to the Great Falls Tribune.</p>
<p><strong>South Dakota</strong> has a second ballot measure that would legalize recreational marijuana, but the votes are still being counted.</p>
<p>This question isn't so much as the federal government not enforcing already existing law but rather States not being challenged or being able to put legalization on the ballot when it's a crime?</p>
 | united states law us state laws drugs cannabis legalization | 1 |
60,020 | What accounts for the Republican shift in Appalachia? | <p>I was reading through county level swings in presidential elections. I found one area that has been consistently trending Republican: Appalachia and some (other) rural areas in the eastern half of the US, where rural areas are more populated. I put Appalachia in the title because it's concentrated there.</p>
<p>This trend is consistent dating back to at least comparing 2008 to 2004 where Appalachia was the one major region that backed McCain more than Bush.</p>
<p>Looking at this swing from 2012-2016, it appears that this swing may have elected Donald Trump by giving him the votes needed to secure victory in the three Great Lakes states that put him over the top in the Electoral College.</p>
<p>What is causing this trend?</p>
 | united states demographics | 0 |
60,026 | Is the 25th amendment a viable remedy against a rogue lame duck president? | <p>Given that Donald Trump has not been willing to concede, and appears willing to actively impair the process of an orderly transition of power, would the 25th amendment be a viable remedy?</p>
<ul>
<li>Could it be justified by the president's actions/inactions under the circumstances?</li>
<li>Could it be invoked quickly enough to prevent an orderly transition of power from going off the rails?</li>
<li>Would it depend on the co-operation of key individuals still loyal to the current president?</li>
<li>Would it make any difference anyway? Would it only shift powers from the president to someone else still loyal to him and willing to do his bidding?</li>
</ul>
 | united states presidential election 25th amendment | 0 |
60,030 | What's the red, white and blue (with stars) banner that Trump was using on the stage in his election campaign? | <p>During election campaign rallys, Trump was always on stages decorated with a red-white-blue-white-red banner with white stars on the blue part. I of course know that's the US colors and the stars are a reference to the national flag - but, is there a name for this flag / banner? I also saw a round version with the blue in the middle (IIRC) and then white and red circles around that.</p>
<p>Is that just a "let's throw some patriotic colors together and make it look nice"? Or does it have any deeper meaning?</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/yHESc.jpg" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/yHESc.jpg" alt="Trump election campaign ralley" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/31/biden-and-trump-in-battleground-blitz-us-election-live-news" rel="noreferrer">Source</a></p>
 | united states flag symbols | 1 |
60,035 | Could President Obama Legally Serve in President Biden's Cabinet? | <p>Could President Obama legally serve in President Biden's Cabinet?</p>
<p>I understand that President Obama may not serve as President ever again, but could he serve in another President's Cabinet?</p>
 | united states cabinet | 1 |
60,038 | Could blockchain voting bring both secrecy and traceability to elections? | <p>This was raised in a <a href="https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/9119/how-do-i-know-that-my-vote-was-counted/9121#comment37162_9121">comment in another thread</a> and a user:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It's not impossible, especially not with the kind of technology we have today. When you cast a vote, you could be given a randomly generated GUID which can identify your vote, but cannot be reversed engineered to identify you, unless you tell someone else what your vote GUID ...</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This seems absurd to me, its trivial to steal or brute force that.</p>
<p>Is it true that, "It is impossible to have a secret ballot AND traceability of the actual votes"?</p>
 | voting voting systems electronic voting | 0 |
60,041 | When are absentee ballots typically rejected? | <p>I'd been reading a bit about the absentee ballots that were rejected in my home state of Wisconsin. I was wondering, if they'd rejected upwards of 23,000 ballots in the April 2020 election, could the number be twice that in the general election? And if so, were those ballots already rejected or do they get rejected in the canvass/certification process?</p>
 | united states election ballot | 0 |
60,049 | Does US' foreign policy depend upon the party or does it have a special board that recommends it what is best irrespective of the ruling party? | <p>I have learned that Iran sanctions are not new but was intensified (maybe/maybe not for good) by Prez Trump's administration. Relations with China too was with ups and downs if we see it historically.</p>
<p>Recently, Trump administration has imposed new sanctions on Iran.</p>
<p>Details and clarity: <a href="https://sputniknews.com/world/202011101081118836-us-slaps-new-iran-related-sanctions-on-four-individuals-six-entities/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://sputniknews.com/world/202011101081118836-us-slaps-new-iran-related-sanctions-on-four-individuals-six-entities/</a></p>
<p>And delisted East Turkestan Islamic movement from Terrorist List. This angered China!</p>
<p>East Turkestan Islamic Movement was listed by President Bush who was republican. This is relevant, please read till the end.</p>
<p>If I see things from a bird's eye view I feel:</p>
<ol>
<li>US had a gradual improvement in foreign relations with countries with which it didn't have very good relations in the past.</li>
<li>Or, US improved situations where it needed.</li>
<li>Or, destroyed what it needed to destroy. (Take the last sentence in a lighter note)</li>
</ol>
<p>Media will give opinions. Russian media will have its own opinion. Chinese will have theirs. Others will have others.</p>
<p>Honestly, I wanted to ask "How would new sanctions imposed by a lame duck president hamper the new president in case of the USA?". If I did so, there was a good chance that it would have been deleted, so I am trying to make it appropriate. Tried my best! Change the body appropriately if necessary.</p>
<p>Does US' foreign policy depend upon the party or does it have a special board that recommends it what is best irrespective of the ruling party?</p>
 | united states foreign policy | 1 |
60,052 | Why haven't Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia been called a week after the election? | <p>Looking at the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-president.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage" rel="nofollow noreferrer">New York Times</a> election map, one can see that Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina have not been called yet for Trump or Biden despite having counted nearly every vote by now. Alaska hasn't been called either, but they've only counted 61% of the votes so it makes sense.</p>
<p>Why is this the case? Why not call NC for Trump and Arizona/Georgia for Biden? What are these news outlets waiting for?</p>
 | united states presidential election | 0 |
60,060 | Is the vote count in each US state relevant after the Electoral College vote? | <p>Some are speculating that President Trump will fight the vote count in court all the way until January 20th, when the next-term President (presumably Biden) is sworn in. But the Electoral College <a href="https://apnews.com/article/when-do-electoral-votes-need-to-be-in-970e6b8c8474c77ac6ab4fb0d56caa5b" rel="nofollow noreferrer">votes on December 14th</a>, and in the end it's the Electoral College that determines the President, not the votes. Wouldn't the vote count in each state essentially be irrelevant after that? I understand why the President is contesting the votes <em>now</em>, but would there be any point in continuing to do so after December 14th?</p>
 | united states electoral college | 0 |
60,063 | What is the reasoning behind nighttime restrictions during pandemic? | <p>Many countries apply different forms of <strong>nighttime</strong> restrictions during pandemic: curfews, early restaurant closings. What is the reasoning behind that? Intuitively it seems to me that people are less likely to crowd up during nighttime.</p>
 | covid 19 virus public health | 0 |
60,070 | What is the source that the media outlets use for reporting the counted votes and % reporting? | <p>All the major media outlets have a nice interactive map that shows the total counted votes and the percent of the total reported votes. What is the source for this data? Is it accessible to the public?</p>
<p>For example, the map that Google presents is from the Associated Press:
<a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/WYlna.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/WYlna.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
 | united states voter turnout vote by mail election security | 0 |
60,071 | Why do California and New York need so much time to count their votes compared to other states? | <p>As per the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-president.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">New York Times</a>, California has only counted 89% of the votes so far and New York has counted 84%, even though its now been nearly a full week since the election has been concluded. Almost every other state is showing up on the same map as having more than 98% of the votes counted, so presumably they're pretty much done tallying up the votes.</p>
<p>Why do these two states need so much time? Mail voting cannot be the only reason, as states like Oregon or Washington are pretty much done counting despite having all-mail voting in place. Surely the vast majority of ballots would've been delivered via the postal system by Friday at the latest?</p>
 | united states election | 1 |
60,082 | Could Senator Harris ask for a briefing from Cabinet members? | <p>Location: USA</p>
<p>At this moment, it is widely reported that the curent president has ordered cabinet secretaries and executive department heads to not participate in any transition activities with the apparent(*) next president. The apparent next vice president is currently a sitting senator from California.</p>
<p><strong>As a sitting senator, could she ask (with an expectation that they would comply) for a briefing from each of those secretaries and agency heads?</strong> (**)</p>
<p>*To avoid argument about semantics, no one is the officially the next president until the EC votes are cast and counted. It is clear he will get enough votes from enough states.</p>
<p>**To avoid trivial answers, I know anyone can ask for anything. I did not want to say demand. Somewhere on the ask-summon-demand spectrum. I am also aware that the Senate is in GOP control, so she cannot get relevant committee chairmen to subpoena them.</p>
 | united states senate vice president | 0 |
60,083 | What happened to the Pennsylvania Presidential vote count at 9:14 on election night? | <p>This is an excerpt of data scraped from the New York Times election tracking website. At line 5969, the vote count suddenly drops by 340k votes, then at line 5972 it drops again by 114k votes, then at line 5974 it suddenly goes up 500k votes, then at line 5977 it drops nearly 600k again.</p>
<p>To be clear, I'm <strong>not</strong> alleging fraud here. I'm simply wondering whether anybody knows what happened. If you look at the ratios, Trump gained a 3.6% swing between lines 5968 and 5977. That works out to 249k votes for Biden "vanishing" between those lines and only 122k for Trump. Comparing line 5968 to 6003 when the vote count finally gets back up to that level again, Trump gets a 21.2% swing between those two similar lines, so if this vote subtraction benefited anybody, it benefited Trump.</p>
<p>So, anybody know the story?</p>
<pre><code>line state timestamp d_ratio r_ratio votes
5966 pennsylvania 2020-11-04T02:10:32Z 0.65 0.342 1087107
5967 pennsylvania 2020-11-04T02:11:01Z 0.643 0.349 1106477
5968 pennsylvania 2020-11-04T02:13:11Z 0.641 0.351 1111586
5969 pennsylvania 2020-11-04T02:14:32Z 0.592 0.399 871782
5970 pennsylvania 2020-11-04T02:14:56Z 0.59 0.402 877724
5971 pennsylvania 2020-11-04T02:16:43Z 0.586 0.406 888907
5972 pennsylvania 2020-11-04T02:17:03Z 0.689 0.301 774021
5973 pennsylvania 2020-11-04T02:17:32Z 0.685 0.306 781428
5974 pennsylvania 2020-11-04T02:18:59Z 0.677 0.299 1288475
5975 pennsylvania 2020-11-04T02:19:33Z 0.677 0.299 1288604
5976 pennsylvania 2020-11-04T02:21:59Z 0.664 0.312 1325632
5977 pennsylvania 2020-11-04T02:22:45Z 0.627 0.363 739443
5978 pennsylvania 2020-11-04T02:23:32Z 0.629 0.361 779178
5979 pennsylvania 2020-11-04T02:24:00Z 0.625 0.364 786831
...
6003 pennsylvania 2020-11-04T02:41:23Z 0.532 0.455 1125611
</code></pre>
<p><a href="https://static01.nyt.com/elections-assets/2020/data/api/2020-11-03/race-page/pennsylvania/president.json" rel="noreferrer">Dataset source</a></p>
 | united states presidential election | 0 |
60,084 | What are some cases of US politicians going back to more 'junior' positions? | <p>So for the purposes of this question there is sort of a loose hierarchy of US political positions in terms of responsibility and power. Like this:</p>
<p>State legislator < House representative < Senator/Governor < Cabinet member < President</p>
<p><strong>How often has a politician, after completing a term/losing an election, gone back to a lower level role?</strong></p>
<p>The only one I'm familiar with is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Howard_Taft" rel="noreferrer">President Taft</a>, who became the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court nine years after losing the presidency.</p>
 | united states history | 1 |
60,087 | Where is vote tally data aggregated? | <p>Where do major news companies collect their vote tally data in US elections from? My intuition tells me that there has to be an agency of some sort that aggregates vote tally data before disseminating it out to news networks, but I can’t seem to find any information about it.</p>
<p>I’m probably way off, but I am very curious how vote tally data is collected and also how the actual process of verifying votes/counting on a national level works.</p>
<p>To clarify, I’m curious about the tallied vote counts that get reported throughout election day. Example being, AP reporting Wisconsin being XX% blue with n% of precincts reporting.</p>
 | united states election | 1 |
60,093 | Can the Secret Service be fired by the President? | <p>Can a sitting American President hire and/or fire members of the Secret Service at his discretion?
Or could the entire Secret Service be abolished or replaced if the President wanted to?</p>
 | united states separation of powers | 1 |
60,095 | Who can call a Royal Commission in Australia? | <p>The <a href="https://www.moadoph.gov.au/blog/royal-commissions-what-are-they-and-how-do-they-work/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Museum of Australian Democracy</a> explains:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A Royal Commission is formally established by the Governor-General on behalf of the Crown and on the advice of Government ministers. The government decides the terms of reference, provides the funding and appoints the commissioners [...]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A recent <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/petition_list?id=EN1938" rel="nofollow noreferrer">popular petition</a>, promoted by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd calls on the "House" to "support" a Royal Commission.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We therefore ask the House to support the establishment of such a Royal Commission to ensure the strength and diversity of Australian news media.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A <a href="https://twitter.com/sarahinthesen8/status/1326393798000250885" rel="nofollow noreferrer">recent tweet</a> by Senator Sarah Hanson-Young reports:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Breaking: The Senate has agreed to establish an Inquiry into media diversity following the record breaking petition promoted by @MrKRudd.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And goes on to explain why she thinks the issue is important.</p>
<p>[She doesn't use the word Royal Commission, but I assume that's what she is referring to.]</p>
<p>I am confused about who calls a Royal Commission. I understand it is the Governor General's decision, but would it normally be the Prime Minister making the request? Or a bill that passes both houses? Or is the Senate enough? Or is it any Government minister who can make a good enough case to the GG? Or some other process?</p>
 | australia royal commission inquiry | 1 |
60,099 | Which governments have carried out programmes of forcible vaccination and when? | <p>In 1904, some 16 years after the law abolishing slavery, the government of Brazil ordered "sanitary brigades" accompanied by police units to enter homes in Rio de Janeiro and vaccinate residents against smallpox by force. This action triggered the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_Revolt" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Vaccine Revolt</a>, including in the predominantly Afro-Brazilian district of Saude. After 30 people were killed the authorities abandoned forcible vaccination, only to reintroduce it in 1909 after <a href="https://library.brown.edu/create/fivecenturiesofchange/chapters/chapter-5/modernization-in-rio/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">removing many working class people from central Rio</a> and deporting hundreds of rebels by packet boat.</p>
<p><strong>On what other occasions either in Brazil or in the rest of the world have governments carried out programmes of forcible vaccination?</strong></p>
 | government public health brazil vaccine | 0 |
60,101 | Who "spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the [2016] election"? | <p>Mitch McConnell, discussing the 2020 US presidential election, was <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-senator-calls-on-trump-to-cooperate-with-biden-transition" rel="noreferrer">quoted</a> as follows:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Republican
in Congress, said that Trump is "within his rights" to challenge the
outcome, and criticized Democrats for expecting the president to
concede.</p>
<p>“President Trump is 100% within his rights to look into allegations of
irregularities and weigh his legal options,” McConnell said. “Let’s
not have any lectures about how the president should immediately,
cheerfully accept preliminary election results from the same
characters who just spent four years refusing to accept the validity
of the last election.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>What was he referring to by "spent four years refusing to accept the validity
of the last election"?</strong> e.g., has he, or other officials previously made statements to that effect in more detail?</p>
<p>Political opponents of President Trump (i.e., Democrats) obviously were displeased by the 2016 election, and some of that might have come from the fact that Trump "lost" the popular vote even while winning the Electoral College. However, displeasure doesn't automatically rise to the level of "refusing to accept" the election results, so I assume the senator is referring to something more specific?</p>
 | united states presidential election | 0 |
60,110 | Georgia doing "hand recount" of 2020 Presidential Election Ballots. Why is "hand recount" better than "computer rescan"? | <p>My initial judgement is that a "computer rescan" would have less chance of being biased and less change of making mistakes than a "hand recount", and so the "hand recount" can only introduce more uncertainty and a worse quality result. Is there any reason I should think otherwise? And if the result is not qualitatively better, then what? 2 out of 3?</p>
 | united states presidential election contested election | 1 |
60,111 | What is the reason for the date of the Georgia runoff elections for the US Senate? | <p>On Election Day 2020, both US Senate seats for Georgia were up for election. However, no candidate received more than 50% of the vote, and so both races go to a second round. This runoff election will be on January 5th, 2021.</p>
<p>My question is: why this date? The new US congress gets sworn in on January 3th, so having the runoff election two days after that seems a little late?</p>
 | united states election senate | 1 |
60,124 | Can Trump use lawsuits to stop the electoral college from voting in order to use the House to install him as President? | <p>Some news sources (like zeit.de, in German only, sorry) report that Trump could use a large number of lawsuits to keep the Electoral College from voting on Dec 14th. As I understand it, all legal battles have to be finished by then and an official election result has to be available.</p>
<p>If the Electoral College wouldn't be able to vote, the House would have to decide who to become President. In this case, which is said to have happened before in 1824 (why then?), the House would vote not with its members but with two representatives from each state. Since the majority of states are Republican, this would mean Trump would be the next president, having bypassed the actual election result.</p>
<p>Did I reproduce the scenario correctly? How would it look in detail? How realistic is it? What would have to happen in order for it to be successful?</p>
 | united states donald trump electoral college house of representatives | 0 |
60,127 | Why is active income taxed more than passive income? | <p>In the United States, ordinary wage income is taxed at a much higher rate than capital gains. It changes from year to year but in general the maximum bracket is 35% vs 25%.</p>
<p>This is counter intuitive to me: wouldn't the economy be more productive if we made hard work more fruitful than passive capital gains? While investments are important, it makes the reward for earning $5k by buying stocks more than earning $5k at your job.</p>
<p>Holding stocks for longer than a year or investing in qualified dividends lets you convert ordinary income into capital gains. I can understand the incentives behind these rules, but what is the economic reason behind them?</p>
<p>I'm not trying to align with any political side here; I'm genuinely curious why we don't lower the income tax and raise the capital gains tax rate.</p>
 | united states economy taxes finance | 0 |
60,130 | Has anyone gained power via election fraud? | <p>Elections are generally associated with democracy, but <a href="https://politics.stackexchange.com/q/2918/2130">they do happen in dictatorships as well</a>. The difference is that the election result in a dictatorship is manipulated to confirm the current government's power. This could be by making sure there is no opposition, not using secret ballots and intimidating voters, ballot stuffing, or by outright making up results. But all of these require the government to already be in power, in order to manipulate the vote to stay in power.</p>
<p>Are there any historical examples of a challenger manipulating a vote to <em>gain</em> power in the first place? Or do dictators have to gain power some other way (coup, legitimate election, invading army, etc) first, and only then manipulate things to keep it?</p>
 | voting history dictatorship | 1 |
60,134 | Is any part of the Peace of Westphalia still valid today? | <p>The treaties comprising the Peace of Westphalia contain many clauses. Most were invalidated since then. Is any of the clauses still legally valid? If not, when was the last of them invalidated or replaced?</p>
 | international law | 0 |
60,135 | What states used voting equipment by Dominion Voting Systems for the 2020 election (if any)? | <p>I heard about that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Voting_Systems" rel="nofollow noreferrer">"Dominion"</a> system of electronic voting.</p>
<p>Did any states use it during the 2020 election? And if so, which exactly?</p>
 | united states presidential election voting voting systems | 1 |
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