Just got up, so I'm sure there's already a thread, but why weren't more ballot counters hired

[Leghorn21]

in the last month or two so votes could be processed more quickly?

There would have been plenty of time to train people and do background checks (if that’s a requirement) and people need jobs these days, so - ??

Please direct me to an existing thread about this, if there is one, THANK YOU!!

[Coleman]

1. Budgets

a limited number of ballot scanners.

[Leghorn21]

3. Ah, SCANNERS!! (and budgets already stretched thin)

Thank you Coleman, I had obviously not considered the scanner-factor!!

Many, many thanks!!

[Wounded Bear]

2. Some of the states have laws preventing early counting of mail-in votes...

not much we can do about that. States like Pennsylvania weren't allowed to process ballots early.

Just the way it is.

[Tommymac]

4. Wisconsin and Michigan too.

They were following the laws as written by the Republican dominated State Houses.

[Leghorn21]

5. Copy that, thank you!

[Leghorn21]

6. BOOM!! - just like you said, Bear!!

Again: the GOP created this delay and they’re now turning around and claiming there is something suspicious about the fact that it’s taking longer to count votes.

MI Secretary of State Benson: "Why are we still waiting to hear from MI? ... for about 18 months election clerks and I called on the state legislature to update ours law to provide time for preprocessing of ballots ... our legislature chose not to make that change."

Link to tweet

you scumbuckets??!??

[BumRushDaShow]

7. I'ma keep posting this - a $10,000,000 grant allowed Philly to hire workers

obtain PPE for them, lease the PA Convention Center, buy supplies/postage for the mail-ins ballots, buy printers for the ballots printed at the satellite locations, buy extra scanners and letter extractors, and we are processing ballots, 10,000/hr with 3 shifts of workers 24/7 AND streaming it!

Our GOP state legislature only allowed canvaassing them ON election day, so the workers started at 7 am yesterday and have gone non-stop since.

I even found what the scanners looked like and what is done for the canvassing (from the state site) -

ETA the state had about 2.5 million total absentee ballots (regular and "no-excuse" ) and I believe ~425,000 were for Philly alone.

[uponit7771]

8. omfg, this kinda shit could tilt a freakin election ... just damn, we need election reform in this

... country

[BumRushDaShow]

9. If we could have started verifying the voter info on the exterior envelopes, extracted the ballots

and started counting them BEFORE election day, then we would have been done on election day with results. But they couldn't start removing the ballots from the envelopes until the polls opened yesterday at 7 am thanks to our GOP legislature in PA.

The legislature offered an extortion bill to allow "early canvassing" in exchange for getting rid of the drop boxes and satellite offices and f-that!

[Leghorn21]

10. Thanks, Bum...this is too insane to contemplate

[BumRushDaShow]

11. I kept the livestream going all night on one of my laptops

and they have been changing shifts but working steadily in an assembly line trying to get the ballots done.

Thankfully we even had this option because if not, the lines at the reduced polling places with "social distancing" and restrictions for people indoors, would have literally meant all-day waiting vs hours-long for those who still went "in person" (which included quite a number of Democrats afraid to use the mail-ins due to the USPS snafus).

[Leghorn21]

12. Yes, in fact, I "tuned in" to that live feed for a few minutes last night, and peeps were working

away!! I just totally did NOT know the backstory here, which you’ve so beautifully laid out —

Yeah,

[BumRushDaShow]

13. My sisters and some DUers mentioned that CNN and MSNBC

briefly broadcast the stream.

The other 4 counties surrounding Philly are also canvassing their mail-ins 24/7. The 5 counties have about 1/3rd of the state's total population.

I'm not sure what Pittsburgh is doing on the other side of the state but I would think they have a large share of their own ballots to do too.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

14. There's a bunch of weird crap.

I'm thankful that the huge piles of uncounted mailed ballots in Milwaukee didn't burn to ashes briefly before election day! That sort of decision about ballot-counting is just begging for a disaster someday.

Example from this Spring:

[tblue37]

15. Covid has devastated state and local budgets.