[ad_1]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Forget the “Great British Bake Off”. My new “favorite” entertainment TV show is a live broadcast from the Philadelphia Elections Commission that shows agents counting millions of votes by mail in Pennsylvania.
For the past 24 hours, I have played this live stream while trying to do something a bit productive. If you look at it from time to time, the story unfolds. A new employee shows up with coffee in hand, and a new packet of ballots comes in waiting to ‘unpack’.
Most of the time, though, it’s just the socially distant, masked counting agents sitting in their seats and processing the ballots one by one.
Live streaming of the vote count is a common way to show transparency in the electoral process. Similar live broadcasts are taking place across the country. Sometimes wide shots appear to show the view of the convention center or gym, which is the opening site. It also shows the counting process in detail from various angles.
In previous elections, whenever the announcers turned to the accountants’ workplace, the cynical figure within me was revealed. This is because it seems to be inserted to fill the airtime of the endless ‘Election Night’. (Either that’s the case, or if a five-member panel comes out and something new comes out, they make useless guesswork.)
However, in elections where there are many more reasons for anxiety (the president of the United States stating at risk that the democratic electoral process has been manipulated, or repeatedly saying that he will not agree with the results), people do the same a and again. It is a strange comfort to see him practice diligently. It can be said that it is a trivial regularity that finds itself in the midst of the chaos created by the extremely chaotic 2020.
Jessica McGowan via Getty Images
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The state of Pennsylvania prohibits the pre-counting of mail-in ballots and absentee ballots before Election Day, so results will not be announced until Thursday (5) or Friday (6). It may not be very good for your health.
If you want to take a moment to switch from stressful binges, compulsively searching for bad news on Twitter, updating the home page of a state election authority, or displaying worst-case scenarios on the map, where voters tie 269-269 , squeeze your throat and watch democracy move.
* Translated and edited by HuffPost US Watching Election Workers Process Ballots Is The New Comfort-Food Television.
[ad_2]
