There is a big difference between faith in individual politicians, and faith in the political process itself.
Yes, there have always people suggesting voter fraud and other similar problems. And sometimes they are even true (look up Tower Hamlets for a recient UK example). What matters though is not wether it's true or not, what matters is if a significant proportion believe it to be true.
For example, rumours that the son of the unpopular king James II had miscarried, and a replacement "smuggled in a warming-pan" was widely believed, despite being arrent nonsense, and this contributed to the overthrow of James, to be replaced by William & Mary.
None of this is new. The only thing different about this election from previous elections was how much both candidates were absolutely despised by everyone. The morale characters of both candidates were under question by even their own supporters from the beginning, and few people thought either candidate was qualified; the rest voted for who they believed was less unqualified.
Politicians, the media, everyone has been saying for years that the system is broken and needs to be fixed. Corruption abounds within our government and few people have faith in it anymore.
It is incorrect to imply that Trump is effectual enough to convince people that the system is broken, and thus undermine their faith. He is only saying what many people already believe and twisting it to his own advantage. At the very most, that is just adding fuel to an already blazing fire.
Not "the system" as such. Yes, that has always been broken (indead some historians maintain that it was deliberately designed to be broken). Confidence that even a broken system has been correctly applied - that is much lower than it has ever been, with both Trump's supporters and his non-establishment opponents attacking the result.
And you are making the error of only looking at what has happened in American history. With respect, the USA is a young country, that to date has only had one civil war, and has never not been a democracy. To understand the possible consequences of a catastrophic loss of faith in the system, you need to look at the history of countries that have existed much longer: England, France, Russia, etc.
Indeed, it is more useful to look at monarchies, since by their nature they more regularly throw up mad, bad, or stupid rulers.
I live in a plutocratic dictatorship which also bears some similarities to an oligarchy. We have an election system where no matter who you vote for, you support the interests of robber-barons who employ nepotism and cronyism and whose alliances are based solely on power and money. Our soon-to-be dictator is defrosting relationships with other dictators around the world and praising their iron-fisted rulership, most likely to line his pockets further with backroom trade deals. We are currently looking to reverse about 150 years or so of progress.
Even if it isn't right away, do it in a year or two's time so that it won't put everyone in a panic, but those machines should be looked at to remove any doubt.
This was my main fear with Trump. Being an idiot in your own country is one thing, but this guy being in charge of diplomatic relations with other countries is the real terror for me.
Not "the system" as such. Yes, that has always been broken (indead some historians maintain that it was deliberately designed to be broken). Confidence that even a broken system has been correctly applied - that is much lower than it has ever been, with both Trump's supporters and his non-establishment opponents attacking the result.
And you are making the error of only looking at what has happened in American history. With respect, the USA is a young country, that to date has only had one civil war, and has never not been a democracy. To understand the possible consequences of a catastrophic loss of faith in the system, you need to look at the history of countries that have existed much longer: England, France, Russia, etc.
Indeed, it is more useful to look at monarchies, since by their nature they more regularly throw up mad, bad, or stupid rulers.
I'm afraid I don't understand how the relevance of whichever country's history considered applies to my point that Trump hasn't started this suspicion and wouldn't be capable of doing so even if he had tried.
[rant] For how many decades does the rest of the world have to pretend that fiction is reality? How long can two countries exist with separate governments, economies and militaries before we can call them separate without the bigger one throwing a tantrum. Hey China, insisting that the sky is green doesn't make you look strong, it makes you look like a crybaby. [/rant]
Seriously, I know Trump just did this because he doesn't know any better, but this longstanding "diplomatic" fantasy just grates on my last OCD nerve.
The official position of the U.S. government is that there is one China, and that the mainland government is the legitimate government of China. The U.S. makes a point of not doing anything that would recognize Taiwan as an independent country, because the U.S. wants to keep China happy. Taiwan generally does not mind; currently China mostly just leaves it alone, and Taiwan has been doing quite well in this arrangement.
But there are Taiwanese who want to declare their independence from China, and there are voices in the U.S. government which support Taiwanese independence. Taiwan, after all, is an advanced pro-American democracy while mainland China is a semi-meritocratic oligarchy that deeply distrusts the United States. And declaring independence from a foreign government generally sounds good to American ears--since that's how our country was born. There's an ideological if not realpolitik incentive to support Taiwan over China.
The mainland Chinese have made it very clear that a declaration of independence would be an act of war, and that they would invade Taiwan if it declared independence, even if that meant going to war with the United States. Popular polls have found that ordinary Chinese would also support an invasion of Taiwan in response to a declaration of independence.
They've been saying this for 70 years. They mean it.
If Trump gets too chummy with pro-Taiwanese independence people, and the right people end up in charge of Taiwan during his presidency, we might well see a Taiwanese declaration of independence. If that happens, it would require a massive diplomatic effort to avoid war between the United States and China. Such a war could easily bring in South Korea, North Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, and even Russia and India.
U.S. law requires us to intervene on Taiwan's behalf. If Trump violates that law and fails to defend Taiwan, the Chinese will wipe a stable, functioning, prosperous, pro-American democracy from the map, as they have been threatening to do since 1949. People have been talking about the possibility of World War III beginning in Taiwan for years; this isn't just the latest paranoid scare.
I do not think this will happen. But nobody really knows what Trump's policies really are. He's already backtracked on some of his most important campaign promises despite being under no pressure to do so.
There's concern over whether the states will be able to complete their recounts in time for the electoral vote - otherwise, they won't be included in the vote.
After two days, Wisconsin has reportedly recounted about one-seventh of the total ballots cast - Hillary gained two additional votes, and Trump five, for a net gain of two votes for Trump.
I've also come across several articles that now say Stein is dropping the recount effort in Penn:
"The Green Party is dropping its court case seeking a recount of Pennsylvania's Nov. 8 presidential election. It had wanted to explore whether voting machines and systems had been hacked and the election result manipulated.
The Green Party's filing came Saturday, saying it couldn't afford the $1 million bond the court had set."
While it makes political sense, favoring China while Taiwan desires independence seems hypocritical to the core values America was founded on.
It has nothing to do with politics, it has to do with avoiding World War III. We don't just get to tell the most populated country in the world with the second-largest military what to do, or provoke them without consequences. China exists the way it does, and throwing our muscle around and bragging doesn't impress them one bit. Trump himself is problem enough, but on top of that, his National Security Adviser and candidate for Secretary of Defense call to mind General Ripper and his "precious bodily fluids", taking Dr. Strangelove from parody into real-life.
Its not telling people what to do, its us as a country saying, "Yeah okay we agree with China's stifling of Taiwan". There is a difference between holding to your values and telling someone else to hold them.
While it makes political sense, favoring China while Taiwan desires independence seems hypocritical to the core values America was founded on.
It has nothing to do with politics, it has to do with avoiding World War III. We don't just get to tell the most populated country in the world with the second-largest military what to do, or provoke them without consequences.
No one has told China "what to do" - he acknowledged a phone call with Taiwan, and that's it. Bush Jr. made similarly "bold" statements in support of Taiwan while he was president, and Bill Clinton "accidentally" dropped a bomb on a Chinese embassy shortly after discovering that they had been spying on us, and neither incident led to WW3. We've been in a FAR more worrying situation over the past year with our involvement in the powder keg called Syria and Turkey shooting down a Russian warplane than a simple phone call.
While it makes political sense, favoring China while Taiwan desires independence seems hypocritical to the core values America was founded on.
It has nothing to do with politics, it has to do with avoiding World War III. We don't just get to tell the most populated country in the world with the second-largest military what to do, or provoke them without consequences.
No one has told China "what to do" - he acknowledged a phone call with Taiwan, and that's it. Bush Jr. made similarly "bold" statements in support of Taiwan while he was president, and Bill Clinton "accidentally" dropped a bomb on a Chinese embassy shortly after discovering that they had been spying on us, and neither incident led to WW3. We've been in a FAR more worrying situation over the past year with our involvement in the powder keg called Syria and Turkey shooting down a Russian warplane than a simple phone call.
Bill Clinton isn't running for presi- oh wait we're not doing this again the race is over. That was just the canned response when Trump people would attack Bill when Hillary was the one running.
For the record, the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was indeed a freak accident, though the Chinese government refuses to believe the U.S. does anything by accident--they have trouble imagining that the U.S. military could make a mistake of that magnitude.
Bill Clinton "accidentally" dropped a bomb on a Chinese embassy shortly after discovering that they had been spying on us
Even the Chinese don't say that was the reason for the bombing. Tang Jiaxuan, the former Foreign Minister of China, discussed the incident at length in his book Heavy Storm and Gentle Breeze, and he claimed that the U.S. was just trying to humiliate China for the sake of humiliating China (Chinese officials think that's the motive for a lot of U.S. foreign policies).
When you think about it, the notion that the bombing was a punishment for Chinese spying is silly. If the U.S. wanted to punish China for spying--or anything, really--then bombing a Chinese embassy would not be anyone's idea of an effective response.
"Hey, they're spying on us! Let's bomb a diplomatic outpost!"
How would that accomplish anything?
Even if you thought the Clinton administration was willing to murder innocent people just to punish a foreign government, it still doesn't make any geopolitical sense to bomb an embassy.
EDIT: Also, the U.S. apologized immediately after the bombing, before the Chinese even requested an apology. There were multiple such apologies, including one directly from President Clinton himself.
Good god, the man who is going to be President in about 6 weeks is on Twitter BITCHING AND WHINING about his Saturday Night Live impression. EVERY US President has taken this in stride, and had fun moments with the people playing them. Dana Carvey and George Bush, Darrell Hammond and Bill Clinton, Will Ferrell and W. Bush, and whoever the hell played Obama (didn't watch much in these last 8 years). Not to mention Hillary playing along with Kate McKinnon's portrayal of her. It comes with the territory. It is absolutely childish and probably a sign of a severe psychological disorder that someone who is going to be the most powerful man in the world in less than 90 days is up on a Saturday night tweeting this:
The thing about Trump is all he really wants is respect. He wants to sit in the big chair and have flunkies and foreign leaders bow and scrape to him. And he is willing to do or say absolutely anything to achieve that goal. So yeah, he cares more about people taking the piss out of him on TV than he does about running his country or actially achieving anything he said to get people to vote for him. That is why it rankles so much that he lost the poplular vote that he is willing to undermine his own position to challenge it.
The thing about Trump is all he really wants is respect. He wants to sit in the big chair and have flunkies and foreign leaders bow and scrape to him. And he is willing to do or say absolutely anything to achieve that goal. So yeah, he cares more about people taking the piss out of him on TV than he does about running his country or actially achieving anything he said to get people to vote for him. That is why it rankles so much that he lost the poplular vote that he is willing to undermine his own position to challenge it.
Its hard to believe that people knew he was like this: a faker, a blowhard, a guy only wants to enrich himself, a thin skinned guy who wants to surround himself with suck ups, a guy who's proud of cheating other people to get ahead, a man with no plan other than "being the best".
And people thought well yeah he's like that but I'm going to vote for him anyway.
As if maybe once he got elected and entrusted with power he would suddenly transform into a decent human being.
And all the mud slinging he was throwing at Hillary he was already doing ten times worse himself. But because he was the loudest throwing a temper tantrum they believed him I guess?
- Drain the swamp? He's draining it into DC. Billionaires and insiders are his cabinet.
-Crooked Foundation? He doesn't even know how to hide that his foundation is out for the enrichment and benefit of himself. Much less do anything for humanity.
- you don't want 4 more years of Obama? Well it'd be better than climate deniers in the EPA, an education secretary who hates public education, etc etc etc etc
"The WEC is asking counties to report a reason for any large changes in votes. Those notes for Saturday were:
Eau Claire County: Increase of 11 votes in Town of Brunswick and 13 votes in Town of Seymour due to ballots marked incorrectly on Election Day.
Manitowoc County: Increase in 24 votes in Town of Centerville due to a stack of ballots missed on Election Day.
Walworth County: Increase in 10 votes in Town of Whitewater Wards 1-2 due to ballot jams on Election Day.
Washburn County: Discrepancies in Town of Bashaw were due to an error in the previous certification. The total ballots for Trump/Pence should have been 385 instead of the 352 reported.
On Sunday at 1 p.m. the WEC posted these additional changes from day three and posted a new spreadsheet.
Dane County: 12 Absentee ballots were left in their certificate envelopes, unopened, on Election Night, for City of Monona Wards 6-10. Ballots were oepend and canvased by the board during the recount.
Fond Du Lac County: 13 absentee envolopes were missing from Election Night and 1 absentee ballot counted on Election Night was rejected during recount canvassing of Town of Fond Du Lac Wards 1-8. A draw-down was done resulting in a loss of 7 votes for Trump/Pence and a loss of 7 votes for Clinton/Kaine.
Grant County: Village of Woodman and Village of Livingston removed from Day 4 results pending verification of recount numbers by Grant County Board of Canvas.
Racine County: Increase of 13 votes for Clinton/Kaine, votes were not counted on Election Night due to non-standard pens used to mark ballots.
Other changes in the spreadsheet were one vote or less per reporting unit that has been completely recounted. Because those changes amount to at most a few hundred votes, Donald Trump’s 27,000 vote lead over Hilary Clinton does not appear to be in jeopardy."
"The WEC is asking counties to report a reason for any large changes in votes. Those notes for Saturday were:
Eau Claire County: Increase of 11 votes in Town of Brunswick and 13 votes in Town of Seymour due to ballots marked incorrectly on Election Day.
Manitowoc County: Increase in 24 votes in Town of Centerville due to a stack of ballots missed on Election Day.
Walworth County: Increase in 10 votes in Town of Whitewater Wards 1-2 due to ballot jams on Election Day.
Washburn County: Discrepancies in Town of Bashaw were due to an error in the previous certification. The total ballots for Trump/Pence should have been 385 instead of the 352 reported.
On Sunday at 1 p.m. the WEC posted these additional changes from day three and posted a new spreadsheet.
Dane County: 12 Absentee ballots were left in their certificate envelopes, unopened, on Election Night, for City of Monona Wards 6-10. Ballots were oepend and canvased by the board during the recount.
Fond Du Lac County: 13 absentee envolopes were missing from Election Night and 1 absentee ballot counted on Election Night was rejected during recount canvassing of Town of Fond Du Lac Wards 1-8. A draw-down was done resulting in a loss of 7 votes for Trump/Pence and a loss of 7 votes for Clinton/Kaine.
Grant County: Village of Woodman and Village of Livingston removed from Day 4 results pending verification of recount numbers by Grant County Board of Canvas.
Racine County: Increase of 13 votes for Clinton/Kaine, votes were not counted on Election Night due to non-standard pens used to mark ballots.
Other changes in the spreadsheet were one vote or less per reporting unit that has been completely recounted. Because those changes amount to at most a few hundred votes, Donald Trump’s 27,000 vote lead over Hilary Clinton does not appear to be in jeopardy."
I have no illusions the recount will do anything. I believe Trump just happened to (barely) win in these 3 states, thus making the votes of the over 2 1/2 million more people who voted for Hillary across the country irrelevant. The focus on trying to get the results to be different in these states is misguided. The focus should be on why the hell we continue to allow these areas of the country to have wholly disproportionate influence on who takes the office. The fact is that 100,000 people in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania decided this election, and everyone else might as well have pissed in a pot instead of voting. Much like healthcare, there is a reason NO other country in western world does things this way. American exceptionalism only applies to our ability to hold onto stupid, 250 year old ideas implemented to appease slave-owners in the Southern states.
I am perso relieved if not excessively surprised that van der Bellen got elected definatevly in Austria, for the role of the President - ceremonial but influential.
I assumed after first, annuled tight result that the electorate a bit complacent but committed to parliamentary democracy and EU cooperations would mobilise, whereas Hofer had his supporters all but ready. I am meanwhile glad.
More concerned for Italy that I think essential EU partner, but we shall know tomorrow.
This said, I am deeply upset about the triple homicide in Imatra, Finland - I was literally born at maternity unit there, at a time when rural hospitals had maternity services. Not much is known, except those three women seem to have ended up victims as random. My hypotheses is that the perpetrator took an exceptionally cruel and vengeful way to be incarcerated, but nothing is known thus far.
Much like healthcare, there is a reason NO other country in western world does things this way. American exceptionalism only applies to our ability to hold onto stupid, 250 year old ideas implemented to appease slave-owners in the Southern states.
No electoral system is perfect. In Canada where I am the government is chosen by electing a member of parliament in each the electoral district, based on the old British system. The party that gets the most seats elected is the official government,and their leader becomes head of state. The second best party is the official opposition. A majority government can be elected with much less then a majority of popular votes, especially when we have three parties competing (a government with over 50% of seats can pass whatever law without opposition even if they had only 30% of total votes).
"The WEC is asking counties to report a reason for any large changes in votes. Those notes for Saturday were:
Eau Claire County: Increase of 11 votes in Town of Brunswick and 13 votes in Town of Seymour due to ballots marked incorrectly on Election Day.
Manitowoc County: Increase in 24 votes in Town of Centerville due to a stack of ballots missed on Election Day.
Walworth County: Increase in 10 votes in Town of Whitewater Wards 1-2 due to ballot jams on Election Day.
Washburn County: Discrepancies in Town of Bashaw were due to an error in the previous certification. The total ballots for Trump/Pence should have been 385 instead of the 352 reported.
On Sunday at 1 p.m. the WEC posted these additional changes from day three and posted a new spreadsheet.
Dane County: 12 Absentee ballots were left in their certificate envelopes, unopened, on Election Night, for City of Monona Wards 6-10. Ballots were oepend and canvased by the board during the recount.
Fond Du Lac County: 13 absentee envolopes were missing from Election Night and 1 absentee ballot counted on Election Night was rejected during recount canvassing of Town of Fond Du Lac Wards 1-8. A draw-down was done resulting in a loss of 7 votes for Trump/Pence and a loss of 7 votes for Clinton/Kaine.
Grant County: Village of Woodman and Village of Livingston removed from Day 4 results pending verification of recount numbers by Grant County Board of Canvas.
Racine County: Increase of 13 votes for Clinton/Kaine, votes were not counted on Election Night due to non-standard pens used to mark ballots.
Other changes in the spreadsheet were one vote or less per reporting unit that has been completely recounted. Because those changes amount to at most a few hundred votes, Donald Trump’s 27,000 vote lead over Hilary Clinton does not appear to be in jeopardy."
I have no illusions the recount will do anything. I believe Trump just happened to (barely) win in these 3 states, thus making the votes of the over 2 1/2 million more people who voted for Hillary across the country irrelevant. The focus on trying to get the results to be different in these states is misguided. The focus should be on why the hell we continue to allow these areas of the country to have wholly disproportionate influence on who takes the office. The fact is that 100,000 people in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania decided this election, and everyone else might as well have pissed in a pot instead of voting. Much like healthcare, there is a reason NO other country in western world does things this way. American exceptionalism only applies to our ability to hold onto stupid, 250 year old ideas implemented to appease slave-owners in the Southern states.
@jjstraka34 You have expressed many times your absolute distaste for the electoral college. Considering that the odds of it being abolished in favor of the electoral college are almost zero, I would be interested in hearing your opinion for a viable replacement (which is much more likely).
Comments
If those machines were hacked, wouldn't everyone want to know so it doesn't happen in the next election?
Politicians, the media, everyone has been saying for years that the system is broken and needs to be fixed. Corruption abounds within our government and few people have faith in it anymore.
It is incorrect to imply that Trump is effectual enough to convince people that the system is broken, and thus undermine their faith. He is only saying what many people already believe and twisting it to his own advantage. At the very most, that is just adding fuel to an already blazing fire.
And you are making the error of only looking at what has happened in American history. With respect, the USA is a young country, that to date has only had one civil war, and has never not been a democracy. To understand the possible consequences of a catastrophic loss of faith in the system, you need to look at the history of countries that have existed much longer: England, France, Russia, etc.
Indeed, it is more useful to look at monarchies, since by their nature they more regularly throw up mad, bad, or stupid rulers.
How are the politics in your country?
And Russia has had spies working in suburban areas before. So I honestly, wouldn't put it past them.
Even if it isn't right away, do it in a year or two's time so that it won't put everyone in a panic, but those machines should be looked at to remove any doubt.
For how many decades does the rest of the world have to pretend that fiction is reality? How long can two countries exist with separate governments, economies and militaries before we can call them separate without the bigger one throwing a tantrum. Hey China, insisting that the sky is green doesn't make you look strong, it makes you look like a crybaby.
[/rant]
Seriously, I know Trump just did this because he doesn't know any better, but this longstanding "diplomatic" fantasy just grates on my last OCD nerve.
But there are Taiwanese who want to declare their independence from China, and there are voices in the U.S. government which support Taiwanese independence. Taiwan, after all, is an advanced pro-American democracy while mainland China is a semi-meritocratic oligarchy that deeply distrusts the United States. And declaring independence from a foreign government generally sounds good to American ears--since that's how our country was born. There's an ideological if not realpolitik incentive to support Taiwan over China.
The mainland Chinese have made it very clear that a declaration of independence would be an act of war, and that they would invade Taiwan if it declared independence, even if that meant going to war with the United States. Popular polls have found that ordinary Chinese would also support an invasion of Taiwan in response to a declaration of independence.
They've been saying this for 70 years. They mean it.
If Trump gets too chummy with pro-Taiwanese independence people, and the right people end up in charge of Taiwan during his presidency, we might well see a Taiwanese declaration of independence. If that happens, it would require a massive diplomatic effort to avoid war between the United States and China. Such a war could easily bring in South Korea, North Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, and even Russia and India.
U.S. law requires us to intervene on Taiwan's behalf. If Trump violates that law and fails to defend Taiwan, the Chinese will wipe a stable, functioning, prosperous, pro-American democracy from the map, as they have been threatening to do since 1949. People have been talking about the possibility of World War III beginning in Taiwan for years; this isn't just the latest paranoid scare.
I do not think this will happen. But nobody really knows what Trump's policies really are. He's already backtracked on some of his most important campaign promises despite being under no pressure to do so.
I don't know what he's going to do.
After two days, Wisconsin has reportedly recounted about one-seventh of the total ballots cast - Hillary gained two additional votes, and Trump five, for a net gain of two votes for Trump.
I've also come across several articles that now say Stein is dropping the recount effort in Penn:
http://www.wkyc.com/news/politics/green-party-drops-statewide-pennsylvania-recount/362387741
"The Green Party is dropping its court case seeking a recount of Pennsylvania's Nov. 8 presidential election. It had wanted to explore whether voting machines and systems had been hacked and the election result manipulated.
The Green Party's filing came Saturday, saying it couldn't afford the $1 million bond the court had set."
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/03/world/asia/trump-taiwan-and-china-the-controversy-explained.html
When you think about it, the notion that the bombing was a punishment for Chinese spying is silly. If the U.S. wanted to punish China for spying--or anything, really--then bombing a Chinese embassy would not be anyone's idea of an effective response.
"Hey, they're spying on us! Let's bomb a diplomatic outpost!"
How would that accomplish anything?
Even if you thought the Clinton administration was willing to murder innocent people just to punish a foreign government, it still doesn't make any geopolitical sense to bomb an embassy.
EDIT: Also, the U.S. apologized immediately after the bombing, before the Chinese even requested an apology. There were multiple such apologies, including one directly from President Clinton himself.
This is just pathetic. We've elected a 70-year old toddler to hold the keys to the US military and nuclear weapons.
And people thought well yeah he's like that but I'm going to vote for him anyway.
As if maybe once he got elected and entrusted with power he would suddenly transform into a decent human being.
And all the mud slinging he was throwing at Hillary he was already doing ten times worse himself. But because he was the loudest throwing a temper tantrum they believed him I guess?
- Drain the swamp? He's draining it into DC. Billionaires and insiders are his cabinet.
-Crooked Foundation? He doesn't even know how to hide that his foundation is out for the enrichment and benefit of himself. Much less do anything for humanity.
- you don't want 4 more years of Obama? Well it'd be better than climate deniers in the EPA, an education secretary who hates public education, etc etc etc etc
You can watch livestream of the Wisconsin recount here:
https://livestream.com/accounts/22555538/events/6706477
Updates on the recount from http://theuptake.org/2016/12/03/wisconsin-vote-totals-change-little-on-recount-day-3-absentee-votes-still-not-reported/
"The WEC is asking counties to report a reason for any large changes in votes. Those notes for Saturday were:
Eau Claire County: Increase of 11 votes in Town of Brunswick and 13 votes in Town of Seymour due to ballots marked incorrectly on Election Day.
Manitowoc County: Increase in 24 votes in Town of Centerville due to a stack of ballots missed on Election Day.
Walworth County: Increase in 10 votes in Town of Whitewater Wards 1-2 due to ballot jams on Election Day.
Washburn County: Discrepancies in Town of Bashaw were due to an error in the previous certification. The total ballots for Trump/Pence should have been 385 instead of the 352 reported.
On Sunday at 1 p.m. the WEC posted these additional changes from day three and posted a new spreadsheet.
Dane County: 12 Absentee ballots were left in their certificate envelopes, unopened, on Election Night, for City of Monona Wards 6-10. Ballots were oepend and canvased by the board during the recount.
Fond Du Lac County: 13 absentee envolopes were missing from Election Night and 1 absentee ballot counted on Election Night was rejected during recount canvassing of Town of Fond Du Lac Wards 1-8. A draw-down was done resulting in a loss of 7 votes for Trump/Pence and a loss of 7 votes for Clinton/Kaine.
Grant County: Village of Woodman and Village of Livingston removed from Day 4 results pending verification of recount numbers by Grant County Board of Canvas.
Racine County: Increase of 13 votes for Clinton/Kaine, votes were not counted on Election Night due to non-standard pens used to mark ballots.
Other changes in the spreadsheet were one vote or less per reporting unit that has been completely recounted. Because those changes amount to at most a few hundred votes, Donald Trump’s 27,000 vote lead over Hilary Clinton does not appear to be in jeopardy."
I assumed after first, annuled tight result that the electorate a bit complacent but committed to parliamentary democracy and EU cooperations would mobilise, whereas Hofer had his supporters all but ready. I am meanwhile glad.
More concerned for Italy that I think essential EU partner, but we shall know tomorrow.
This said, I am deeply upset about the triple homicide in Imatra, Finland - I was literally born at maternity unit there, at a time when rural hospitals had maternity services. Not much is known, except those three women seem to have ended up victims as random. My hypotheses is that the perpetrator took an exceptionally cruel and vengeful way to be incarcerated, but nothing is known thus far.
We DO have healthcare, however.
You have expressed many times your absolute distaste for the electoral college.
Considering that the odds of it being abolished in favor of the electoral college are almost zero, I would be interested in hearing your opinion for a viable replacement (which is much more likely).
This whole situation makes China look far worse than it does Trump IMO.