I’m a fan of early voting. Simply put, it allows more people to participate in the process and I think that’s a good thing. Kellyanne Conway is NOT a fan of early voting although, she says she’s resigned to the reality that early voting is here to stay. She said so on ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’ the other night. But then she asked why they don’t count the votes as they come in, and then count the votes cast on election day and announce the winner the night of the election? “Why do we have to wait?” She wanted to know.

The question goes back to a MAGA talking point about 2020. Every American knew there was going to be a red wave and then a blue wave. (I’m not sure MAGA knew…) The red wave would come from the machines as cons across the land cast their ballots, which were then counted first. THEN, the blue wave would come as the mail-in ballots were counted and when all was said and done, we would know who won. BUT…

MAGA had, on Donny’s instructions, largely turned their backs on mail-in voting. So they all toddled out in their walkers and voted on election day. Red wave. Then, the mail-in ballots were counted in the subsequent, predicted blue wave. Biden caught up and overtook Donny’s early lead. MAGA started screaming about how unfair it is Secretaries of States were continuing to count votes just because there were still legally cast votes to be counted.

So that’s the origin of Kellyanne’s question, a massive misunderstanding of the process. I continue to distinguish between rank-and-file MAGA, the deceived, and those doing the deceiving, like Kellyanne. For example, I’m sure rank-and-file MAGA don’t KNOW that many states have made it illegal to count mail-in ballots before election day. Kellyanne does, though. She just ignores that bit because it hurts her talking point.

The other thing she likely knows but won’t say to the faithful, there’s at least one specific reason they wait. If they keep a running tally of the votes as they come in, somebody, somewhere knows the standing of the race at any given moment. IF that information somehow (ahem…) got “leaked” before the election – and you KNOW it would – that running tally could have an affect on the turnout on election day. Literally, the ONLY way to prevent that, for sure, is if nobody knows how the mail-in ballots are trending and the only way to do that is to not count them early.

As an example, in 2020, the blue wave would have come first. Had the cons known they couldn’t win the Oval, they might not come out at all. That, in turn, would likely have hurt down-ballot candidates in their races. In short, had they done as Kellyanne suggested, Donny would have lost 2020 even worse than he did and it’s possible some of the cons now serving in Congress might not be there. Hmm, Now that I think about it, America would have been better off…

Oh, alright, history. Do you know that originally in this once-great nation, the President wasn’t inaugurated until March? Do you know why? Because it took awhile to collect, process, and count the ballots and then transmit the information to the Capitol. But…that means…oh, horror of horrors…everyone had to wait! No early projections? No instant calls the moment polling places closed? How could they manage? How could they stand it? Oh, the humanity!

But, wait they did. Nobody seems to have suffered from it. It all worked out okay. Apparently, they all just went about their business and at some point a winner was announced. The loser, if he was a decent person and man enough to acknowledge his loss and not a fragile and self-serving, narcissistic blowhard, conceded. Then the country enjoyed yet another peaceful transfer of power, a process that repeated itself over and over again for 230 years, only to be disrupted by the tiniest of would-be, tin-pot dictators.

I’ll tell you this: I think accuracy is more important than speed and I understand the process. I understand why they wait. I’m willing to wait, too…