For non-US residents interested in the US election today

[cactuswatcher]

Due to the considerable damage caused by the hurricane last week, extraordinary voting procedures are being allowed in New Jersey and New York. New Jersey allows early voting and has encouraged people to use that option leading up to today. New Jersey is also allowing voting by e-mail today, which is controversial, but should be secure as long as those votes are verified and counted manually. New York City does not have early voting, but voters will be allowed to vote where they can, rather than at their assigned poling places today, by means of a process called provisional voting. All that means is that those ballots will be handled separately from those cast normally at assigned polling places.

The result is that there is a possibility that if the Presidential election is close in those states that there will be no clear winner in those states and as a result no clear winner nationally, conceivably for days. Here in Arizona provisional ballots are not usually counted until days after the election. I'm certain that New York will do everything possible to speed up the count, but it will be a time consuming process.

If we're lucky the vote won't be close in those states and we'll all know the result of the Presidential election sooner rather than later.

Comments

[ponygirl2000.livejournal.com]

I just bought a lot of wine! Fingers are crossed.

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

Win or lose wine is always good.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Don't forget Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania - which are also doing provisional voting, and Ohio is requiring people to appear in person to verify.

Fingers crossed that this isn't Gore vs. Bush take 2.

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

It's been quite awhile since I lived there, but if I remember correctly, in Ohio you had to have lived for a certain length of time in one place to vote in the state and local part of elections. Provisional voting in Ohio, I think, was a way you could vote for President even if you hadn't lived at your current residence long enough to vote on anything else. It used to be you showed up like everyone else on election day, but they gave you a different ballot. I have no idea what a mail-in version would entail, given the time limitations. It sounds like they have some kind of mail-in voter registration for which you have to show up at official place xyz ahead of time and verify your ID. That's a slightly different but overlapping issue with provisional voting.