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Eleven Three Twenty: The 8 Key Things to Look for on Election Day
November 2, 2020
On the eve of Election Day, I thought I’d share the 8 key things I’ll be looking for tomorrow, so that you can be looking for them as well. These are presented in chronological order, from when the polls open tomorrow morning until we know who will be the next President of the United States (which, unfortunately, may not be for days — see number 8).
- How Big and Where is Election Day Turnout?
One of the largest unknowns heading into tomorrow is how big turnout will be. By the time the polls open tomorrow morning, approximately 100 million Americans will have already voted, according to Dr. Michael McDonald of the United States Election Project. To put that mind-boggling number into perspective, approximately 136 million votes were cast during the entire 2016 election.
The $64,000 questions are these: did this massive early-voting turnout simply poach voters who would have voted tomorrow anyway? Or does it portend a huge voter turnout — one that could smash modern turnout records? I lean toward the latter, believing we are going to set records in terms of actual votes and voting percentages. We should have an answer to these questions fairly early tomorrow.
