1. It's not normal. If you go back to the 1990s or prior....fifty states concluded vote counting around six to ten hours after the polls closed. Absentee ballots were counted the next day (in most states), but were generally limited to Americans who were overseas.
2. Most states today still conclude vote-counting that night, with the exception of absentee ballots.
3. Once tabulators and computerized voting came into the landscape....problems started to be added.
4. The case of Maricopa County, AZ? The system is managed for the most part by the county commission....which seems to get enjoyment out of five days of counting.
I would speculate that they've either hired incompetent people to manage the system, or added so many regulations...that normal counting can't really take place.
5. All this excess day-counting....to lead to a federal crisis? I would suggest part of this drama is orchestrated to have the federal authorities managing national voting. But if you ask....how they can fix it anymore than state or local authorities....I'm at a loss.
6. People in Iraq, Turkey, or Honduras...looking at this 'drama' and asking....how can they be this stupid?
7. If you quietly ask people about their trusting nature of the counting....I doubt if you get past 60-percent of Americans having real trust in the system to work as advertised.
8. Most Americans (at least employed ones) stop off to vote....on their way to work, or on their way home. If the polling station isn't geared to handle surge moments like this....then we are admitting that something has occurred in the past thirty years to lessen effective voting operations. Investigative journalists? Maybe it's time to reflect on what happened and why the system has crapped out.
