Hi Ranty Nation! Ranty McRantyson har agin!
Over the last few weeks ah bin hearin more an more frum Trump supporters bout how “we have to know the results of the lection on lection night!” At furst, ah thunk maybe it was jus a few young folk who’re too durned impatient to wait fur anythang cause of “internet time” (sum of them dun got the attention span of a baby). Then ah saw Pres Trump say it on TeeVee! Ah know ah’m startin to say this a lot har, but that jus don’t make no sense!
Whut’s up wit knowin the Results of the Lection on Lection Day? There ain’t no rule or anythin that we’all have to know who the president is on Nov 3. Heck, other than the TeeVee networks “callin” an lection on lection day, we’all really ain’t know fur sure til at least the next day. Sumtimes not fur weeks (e.g. 2000).
After all, TeeVee is a purty durned new invention. Fur most of our country’s history, we’all didn’t have no TeeVees! Fur that matter, we didn’t have telephones, much less cell phones, or even the InterTubes. Ah know that must be a shock fur y’all younger folk. Heck, when ah was a kid, we dun had “party lines”. Mah family dun had one! (Note: A party line’s a telephone that dun be shared by a number of folk on the same street. Y’all had to take turns usin the phone!)
Anyhoo, at the start of our great democratic republic, it would often take weeks fur the votes to be counted an sent, by horseback, to the Capital in Philadelphia (betcha didn’t know that Washington, DC weren’t always the capital, did ya?). Then the separate counts of the towns, cities, and states had to be validated (provin they weren’t no cheatin) an the Electors notified an made to vote, an the winning candidate had to be notified (agin, by horseback). Y’see, way back then, the Presidential swearin in ceremony was held in… MARCH!
It weren’t til 1937 that the President an Vice President were dun sworn in on January 20. — https://bit.ly/3oHtFP3
Now that was only cause, due to the communication miracle of the telegraph, that the votes were tallied (that thar’s a fancy way of sayin “counted”), the Electors voted, an the President an Vice President notified, an brought to Washington, DC (the US Capital was moved frum Philadelphia to DC in 1800) fur them to dun be sworn into office.
So fur mosta our great nation’s history, we dun didn’t know who was goin to be President an Vice President fur days, weeks, an sumtimes even months (well into January).
This whole idea that we dun “gotta know” on lection night is jus pure horse puckey. Since the US dun be a “democratic republic”, ah’d thunk honest folk’d want the vote count to be accurate furst, an fast second.
So, the long an short of this is there (1) ain’t no law, or even tradition, that we know the lection results on Nov 3rd an (2) fur most of our great nation’s history folk didn’t know for days, weeks, or months who dun won an our country dun survived that jus fine!
So we’all can do like our furfathers dun did. Wait until the results’re finalized an THEN start celebratin, or cryin, whichever y’all dun want.
Ranty McRantyson signin off!
Be the first to comment on "Knowin the Results of the Lection on Lection Day?"