If you've ever seen the movie Stardust, this is me today. I'm the external poll observer for my precinct. I'm about as far from any "frontlines" as you can expect, but this is what I've been asked to do and it needs doing.



OK, my imagination might be running a bit wild. I need to entertain myself.

Y'all stay safe!

This morning Forbes ran an article ( https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckdevore/2020/10/29/trump-by-a-landslide-in-texas-early-voting-numbers-are-diverging-strongly-from-the-polls/?sh=303b08751fca) suggesting a Trump landslide based on early voting data compiled by NBC (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-elections/texas-results).

There are too many new variables going on, though. The massive increase in voting in Harris county due to officials there tearing down voter suppression barriers, the blue wave moving up from the south, etc.

But my local observations tell me it's anybody's race. I am seeing far more blue signs in my deep red town in a deep red county than I've ever seen before. Yards which I KNOW are typically GOP are either silent or showing blue. The most notable is my neighbor who was a GOP CANDIDATE and caucus chair a few years back. His yard is more blue than mine. I have my Biden signs but he has gone full blue.

So Forbe's predictions based on past behavior are very very uncertain.

My fingers are crossed, my toes are crossed and, based on my ulcer I think my intestines have twisted themselves into a lovely braid. Even my face is blue from hlding my breath.

Just a few more days... breathe.... breathe...

How well connected are they? Do they vet callers?

A few years back when I was providing tech support to a campaign I became aware of L2political. The amount of readily available voter data they have there is astonishing. I would assume that if I call my senator they would pull up my name, look at my D registration, list of D donations see zero R support and instantly set my comment aside as not relevant.

Are they in 21st century or am I just paranoid?

I am ecstatic!!!

I didn't know our new voting machines print paper ballots to scan! Granted our little county doesn't matter much but it's a HUGE relief to have an auditable paper trail!

It's not perfect. To improve it the ballot should have a detachable part with a unique id printed on it that matches the ballot. Then voters could confirm their ballots are correctly counted and/or not lost.


EVERY voter should be able to vote like this.

538 now puts a Biden win at 80:20 one point higher than ever before.

I know, I know. Don't get lax, don't believe the polls but if I can spend a few hours believing in Harry Dresden fighting alongside Santa Claus I can spend 5 minutes fantasizing that probability is actuality.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-election-forecast/

Biden's new ad gave me a tool I needed. For all my leftist friends whining about "no difference" between trump and Biden I've given them Biden's new ad with the comment "Can you tell the difference yet? The difference is crystal clear, more than that, it's clear as krystalnacht."

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1311268302950260737?s=20

"Everybody knows he's a liar"

Hit him!!

Anybody use an online broker that is not located in the US? I'm feeling a need to move at least some of my assets somewhere safer than the US if the worst happens. Looking for recommendations.