THREAD: Knowing this year’s election victor may take longer than Americans expect—and so it's worth offering a “Schoolhouse Rocks” education in the process tomorrow and thereafter. Let me explain just how tightly proscribed the process is: politico.com/news/magazine/…
1) First, it's *fine* and normal for vote-counting to take days or weeks. We're used to unofficial tallies by the news media yielding a projected winner by early Wednesday, the official system is slower and tightly guided by state laws, federal laws, and the Constitution itself.
2) Those official night-of tallies are updated, checked, and double-checked before local officials report election results to their state's designated election official—usually the secretary of state, governor, or lt. governor—who certifies election results.
3) That process can stretch without problem until December 8th, the so-called “safe harbor” date of 3 US Code § 5, whereby disputes have to be resolved six days ahead of the electoral college vote. Don't fret if it takes a while. The system allows that. law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/3/5
4) Certificates with the names of the chosen state electors are then under 3 US Code § 6 communicated to the US Archivist “by registered mail under the seal of the State.”  law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/3/…
5) Then on December 14th, as dictated by 3 US Code § 7, the electors meet on “the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December” to officially elect a new president and vice president. law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/3/7
6) Meeting in their respective state capitals, the electors will each follow 3 US Code § 9 and 3 US Code § 10 and sign and seal “six certificates of all the votes” for president and vice president. law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/3/9
7) Those certificates are—according to 3 US Code § 11— delivered or sent by registered mail to the Senate President (aka @VP), the state secretaries of state, the US Archivist, and a local judge. (3 US § 14 says any messenger who fails to deliver the certificates is fined $1k.)
8) The electors' votes and choice is then reported to the new 117th Congress, who according to the 20th Amendment will begin its term “at noon on the 3d day of January.”
9) According to 3 US Code § 15, “on the sixth day of January… the Senate and House of Representatives shall meet in the Hall of the House of Representatives at the hour of 1 o’clock in the afternoon” to certify the official election results.
10) Then the official "president-elect" will, as dictated by the 20th Amendment, assume office beginning “at noon on the 20th day of January.”
If the election gets complicated this year, controversies may unfold around these individual events. It’s helpful to understand what threats the US actually faces, what dates matters, and what might alter the outcome of the election. Read this for more: politico.com/news/magazine/…

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More from @vermontgmg

2 Nov
This remarkable story about the president giving up on his intelligence briefings sort of slipped by over the weekend amid election news—but I think it's worth re-highlighting for three particularly worrisome reasons: nytimes.com/2020/10/30/us/…
1) It is *bonkers* that the President has not had a regular intelligence briefing in over a MONTH. That should set off all kinds of alarm bells. We spend $60 billion a year to ensure the President is the smartest person in every room he's in. Trump has turned all of that aside.
2) Separately, the fact that he is now only getting briefings from John Ratcliffe—a man so unqualified for his job that Congress literally wrote a law to keep people like him away from becoming ODNI, but the GOP confirmed him anyway—is super troubling. wired.com/story/john-rat…
Read 7 tweets
2 Nov
THREAD: There has been a lot fretting and anxiety over recent weeks about this year's election—and there are real threats and real reasons to be anxious—but based on my reporting ... [[DEEP BREATH!]] ... let me also offer five big reasons for optimism that tomorrow will be okay:
1) In many ways, Tuesday will be the most secure and safe election in US history. Local and state election administrators have been rushing since '16 to secure systems, ensure paper backups, and otherwise prep to ensure the day's voting and counting goes smoothly as possible.
2) It will surely be the most resilient election in US history — potentially 2/3 of all votes will have already been cast, which means there will be fewer crowds, fewer opportunities for things to go wrong, and fewer people affected if/when things do go inevitably wrong.
Read 8 tweets
2 Nov
THREAD: I've been talking to all sorts of experts about how the next four months might unfold. Here's an organized, chronological guide to six pieces that you should read as we wait to see the results tomorrow:
1) Here are ten principles I wrote with @vivian that media organizations need to follow as they report election results—including using precise language and numbers, make clear a "slow count is a good count," and don't parrot premature claims of victory. cjr.org/politics/2020-…
2) Here are top cyber threats to watch for tomorrow. The main threat is what @ngleicher calls "perception hacks." Chances hackers change election results? Very small. Chances they'll try to convince us they did & the vote is not legitimate? Quite high. wired.com/story/election…
Read 7 tweets
19 Oct
THREAD: Covering election results will be one of the hardest challenges the news media has faced in modern history. @vivian & I talked to a lot of smart people and came up with 10 principles that news orgs should abide by as they prepare their coverage: cjr.org/politics/2020-…
If you're a reporter or editor, I hope you'll take a few minutes to read these principles & think about what it means for your own work and your own news organization and how you should responsibly report and frame the unofficial tallies on election night: cjr.org/politics/2020-…
1) Problems are not failures. Make sure to draw lines between "normal stuff" going wrong and systemic failures. Not every mishap is evidence of a rigged system. At the same time, there are already signs of suppression & trouble—and systemic problems should be reported as such.
Read 14 tweets
14 Oct
SHORT THREAD: This fake Biden-Burisma scandal today might actually be a fascinating example of the FBI learning an important lesson from 2016: They appear to have avoided stumbling back into the mistakes of the Weiner laptop.
1) If we believe the NY Post and that the suspicious laptop is in possession of the FBI—and given the NYP, that's a big *if*—then the bureau got it in the midst of the impeachment scandal last year. That likely set off alarm bells inside the bureau.
2) The FBI surely looked at it fast, to avoid the 2016 problem w/ Weiner's laptop, when it accidentally sat around for weeks without action. Assuming they looked at it, they said *nothing*—didn't report finding it, didn't report investigating it, didn't say it was credible or not
Read 5 tweets
8 Oct
THREAD: Here are the photos from the wedding of the daughter of the White House chief of staff, mid-pandemic. Let's take a look shall we? events.emberwed.com/meadows-kocher/
1) Georgia guidelines in May prohibited gatherings larger than 10. Here's the White House Chief of Staff with all of the 70 guests: events.emberwed.com/meadows-kocher…
2) And here's a photo of the bride and her bridesmaids—which alone is a gathering of 12, larger than the state allows: events.emberwed.com/meadows-kocher…
Read 13 tweets

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