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Jonathan Lai 🙊 賴柏羽 Profile picture
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4 Nov, 9 tweets, 3 min read
President Donald Trump is tweeting about Pennsylvania and the counting of votes.

If you’re confused, here are some facts, and then some specific responses to his tweets.
Vote totals change as votes are counted.

That’s how it works.

inquirer.com/politics/elect…
There are a lot of mail ballots still to be counted, and they’re coming primarily from Democrats. That’s one of the reasons we expect a sizable “blue shift” in the votes.

inquirer.com/politics/elect…
It’s also why we can’t support Trump’s claim of victory in Pennsylvania.

The evidence just isn’t there. He *could* win — that’s why the AP and others haven’t called it for Biden — but we don’t know that yet. We just don’t.

inquirer.com/politics/elect…
Votes take time to count and are never final on election night. Ever.

Among other things, military and overseas voters’ ballots can arrive through next Tuesday.

The deadline to certify the vote is *20 days* after Election Day. That’s Monday of Thanksgiving week.
The votes have already been cast.

What elections officials are working hard to do is count those votes as quickly AND accurately, safely, and reliably as possible. Screenshot of Trump tweet that reads: They are working hard
“Leading” in the partial vote count doesn’t mean you win. There’s a reason we count the votes, not just an arbitrarily chosen batch of them. Screenshot of Trump tweet that reads: Last night I was lead
Just like “leading” in the partial vote count doesn’t mean you win, “winning” the partial vote count doesn’t mean winning the election in the end.

inquirer.com/politics/elect… Screenshot of Trump tweet that reads: We are winning Pennsyl
This isn’t how the Electoral College works. Candidates’ claims — in this case, made against all available evidence — don’t create a result just on the basis of speaking or tweeting them. Screenshot of Trump tweet that reads: We have claimed, for

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Jonathan Lai 🙊 賴柏羽 Profile picture
6 Nov
One think that’s so striking to me about the way this has played out in PA (dayslong count, strong blue shift) is it was so predictable.

I mean, we predicted it. Repeatedly. It shouldn’t catch us off guard.

It’s the direct outcome of the electoral system and clear set of facts.
In January, we warned it could take days to call the election.

Why? It’s the first year all PA voters could vote by mail. That meant there would be a lot of ballots.

At the time, counties couldn’t open ballots before 8 p.m. Election Day.

inquirer.com/politics/elect… Screenshot of the January 1...
The secretary of state disagreed. She said it wouldn’t be a problem bc counties would count mail ballots after polls close and before the first in-person results come in.

This was before the pandemic surged demand for mail ballots. In March, it was changed from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m.
Read 10 tweets
Jonathan Lai 🙊 賴柏羽 Profile picture
5 Nov
Philly elections officials paused their counting of mail ballots Thursday, according to a source familiar with the situation, as they scrambled to accommodate a state court order to allow representatives from President Donald Trump's campaign to more closely observe the process.
Kevin Feeley, spox for Philly elections officials, just gave super brief statement:

“The count is going forward. There was a brief pause earlier today in light of the ongoing litigation. But it has resumed in accordance with the law.”
Updates on this and everything else will be on our live blog as they come in:

inquirer.com/politics/elect…
Read 4 tweets
Jonathan Lai 🙊 賴柏羽 Profile picture
4 Nov
Donald Trump is wrong about Pennsylvania.

He’s wrong about the remaining vote totals and whether Biden can win based on those numbers. (He can.)

He’s wrong about the votes coming from areas in his favor. (They’re not.)

inquirer.com/politics/elect…
Trump: “We’re up 690,000 votes in Pennsylvania … it’s going to be almost impossible to catch.”

The results of most of PA’s mail ballots aren’t known yet, with at least 1.44 million left to be counted or included in the totals as of 3 a.m., according to PA Dept of State data.
And those votes will almost certainly be heavily for Biden.

First of all, mail ballots in general were used much more by Democrats than Republicans. Even in most counties Trump won in 2016, Democrats outnumbered Republicans when it came to voting by mail.
Read 6 tweets
Jonathan Lai 🙊 賴柏羽 Profile picture
4 Nov
No, Philly hasn’t stopped counting mail ballots.

And it isn’t behind schedule.

inquirer.com/politics/elect…
I’m not sure where this is coming from.

You can literally *watch a livestream* of mail ballots getting counted in Philadelphia right now.

If anything, I’m told, Philly is AHEAD of schedule on counting mail ballots. Not behind. Not stopped.
Read 6 tweets
Jonathan Lai 🙊 賴柏羽 Profile picture
3 Nov
Pennsylvania voters, here are various unrelated things to know based on what I’m seeing/hearing:
The satellite elections offices some counties set up as temporary sites for “early voting” are still open in many of those counties for people to drop off ballots or request replacement ballots.

*But satellite offices are not polling places.*

Don’t go there to vote in person.
Trying to drop off your mail ballot? You can hand-deliver it to a county elections office (including one of the satellites) or use a drop box.

*You can’t turn in your voted mail ballot at a polling place to be counted.*

Polling places are for in-person voting only.
Read 7 tweets
Jonathan Lai 🙊 賴柏羽 Profile picture
3 Nov
Election Day like no other is finally here, a day that felt like it was always around the corner yet would never arrive.

Here’s my look at how we got here in PA, with new voting machines, new vote-by-mail system, a pandemic, and a whole lot of pressure:
inquirer.com/politics/elect…
“I’m medicated this year,” Lebanon County elections director Michael Anderson told me. “I don’t know how many election directors aren’t.”

I thought he was joking. He wasn’t.

The anxiety about the election got so bad that after the primary, his doctor prescribed medication.
Anderson would be unable to stop thinking and worrying about the election, he said:

”just not being able to stop. Your brain is constantly running, especially at night. I’d wake up and think about, ‘I have to do this, I have to do that.’ And just the anxiety of it all.”
Read 5 tweets

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