WASHINGTON – Americans have come to expect that they will know who their next president is on election night, but that’s likely to change this fall.
In fact, because of a huge increase in mail-in voting in states that are not used to it, the presidential election could take a week or more to be decided. Public officials and advocates are just now beginning to grapple with how to prepare themselves, and the country, for this unprecedented situation.
“It’s a culture shift that’s going to be required,” said Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, in an interview. “We should be prepared to wait at least a week before results can be certified.”
Gupta, who oversaw the Justice Department’s civil rights division from 2014 to 2017, said her organization — one of the oldest civil rights groups in the country — would work with other groups over the next several months to raise awareness and create an expectation among both voters and journalists that results should not be expected on election night.
“People are going to have to be able to be patient to wait for the results,” Gupta told Yahoo News. “That’s an uncomfortable position for a lot of people. The media’s not used to it. The public’s not used to it.” – read more
Listen to the insightful Thomas Paine Podcast Below --