Elections

When should voters expect to hear results from battleground states?

Published

3 years ago

November 4, 2020

With millions of votes still being counted, we are waiting for results from some key states before a 2020 presidential winner can be declared.

It was expected for some states to take much longer to count their ballots than others for reasons such as historic levels of mail-in voting, a possible record turnout of voters, a pandemic and the threat of post-election lawsuits.

It has yet to be announced who will win the crucial electoral votes in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

In three key states, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, election officials were not allowed to begin processing absentee ballots until on or just before Election Day.

Georgia

Fulton County, Georgia, which includes Atlanta and is the state’s largest county, had counted all in-person votes and stopped counting mail-in ballots for the evening by 10:30 p.m. ET Tuesday.

“Officials plan to resume counting the absentee ballots Wednesday at 8 a.m.,” Fulton County spokeswoman Jessica Corbitt said.

Michigan

Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s Secretary of State, is confident they will be able to declare a winner within the state Wednesday afternoon.

In a tweet earlier Wednesday morning, Benson said, “hundreds of thousands of ballots in our largest jurisdictions are still being counted including Detroit, Grand Rapids, Flint, Warren & Sterling Heights.”

Nevada

In Nevada, which Democrat Hillary Clinton won by a slight margin in 2016, the counting of mail-in votes in populous Clark County stopped overnight and was to resume at 11 a.m. ET Wednesday, according to the county’s registrar of voters. Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, is the home of 70% of all voters in Nevada and is heavily Democratic.

North Carolina

President Trump is fighting to keep North Carolina red after winning it in 2016, and the state is critical to his re-election chances. But polls have shown a tight race between him and Democrat nominee Joe Biden. North Carolina counts absentee ballots that arrive as late as Nov. 12, so they may be counting ballots for at least nine days after Election Day. The question is whether there will be enough late-arriving ballots to keep any races uncalled.

Pennsylvania

Some counties in Pennsylvania were not able to start tallying their votes until early Wednesday morning when there were still more than 1 million ballots left to be counted. Pennsylvania allows mail-in votes to be received and counted until Friday, Nov. 6. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to overturn a state court ruling allowing ballots to be counted if they were postmarked by Election Day but received up to three days later.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is not able to process absentee ballots until Election Day. Tony Evers, Governor of Wisconsin, has predicted that we will know the outcome of the election “hopefully that night and maybe at the latest the very next day.”

Incumbent President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden both addressed their supporters overnight as votes continued to come in.

“We want all voting to stop,” said President Trump. “We don’t want them to find ballots at 4:00 in the morning and add them to the list.”

Trump remains confident that he will reach the 270 electoral votes needed to win the election.

“To me this is a very sad moment and we will win this,” Trump said last night.

The Electoral College meets Dec. 14 so states must certify their elections by then.

Congress meets in a joint session on Jan. 6, 2021 to accept the electoral votes and ratify the results of the election. The president is inaugurated on Jan. 20.

Nation

Elizabeth Warren Acknowledges Unintended Consequences of Obamacare

Published

4 days ago

November 27, 2023

Alexander Carter

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a longtime supporter of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, is now acknowledging the unintended consequences of the healthcare legislation, particularly its impact on industry consolidation and rising healthcare prices.

Warren, who has been a vocal proponent of Obamacare, has recently had what the Wall Street Journal reported as an “epiphany” regarding the consequences of the healthcare law. In a letter addressed to the Health and Human Services Department inspector general, Warren, along with Senator Mike Braun of Indiana, expressed concerns about vertically-integrated healthcare companies potentially increasing prescription drug costs and evading federal regulations.

According to reports from Fox News, the bipartisan letter highlighted issues with the nation’s largest health insurers allegedly bypassing Obamacare’s medical loss ratio (MLR). According to Warren, these insurers, through vertical integration, have manipulated the system, leading to “sky-high prescription drug costs and excessive corporate profits.”

The senators detailed how conglomerates, like UnitedHealth Group, with ownership across various healthcare sectors, could inflate medical payments to pharmacies and, by realizing those payments on the pharmacy side, appear to comply with MLR requirements while retaining more profits.

Moreover, despite the Democrats’ argument that the MLR would benefit patients, it has incentivized insurers to merge with or acquire pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), retail and specialty pharmacies, and healthcare providers. This, in turn, has made healthcare spending less transparent, as insurers can allegedly shift profits to their affiliates by increasing reimbursements.

Warren, who has consistently voted against Obamacare repeal efforts, notably advocated for a “Medicare for All” proposal during her 2020 presidential campaign. Despite her prior support for the healthcare law, Warren’s recent concerns about its unintended consequences have raised questions about the long-term effects of Obamacare and its impact on the healthcare industry.