Four things we can all learn from the US Election

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

The 2020 U.S. election will be historic for many reasons — and not the last of which is that it is taking place in the middle of a global pandemic that has left more than 200,000 Americans dead. As I reflect on the 24 hours of coverage I have watched as we all collectively wait for an outcome, I have some non-partisan learnings and reflections to share:

1. Americans are bad at waiting, even though we have done so quite often in the “modern era”. We are an instant gratification based people. While this may not be solely American, we expect — especially with the increase in electronic voting — that election results should be instant. The fact is, they are not. First, like many things in America, not every polling location has the same level of technology to make for more immediate counts. Second, there is an order of operations to the way in which election results are tallied and due to the coronavirus, that order of operations is being enacted in a way we have never experienced.
2. Publishing election results as soon as polls close in the east disenfranchises western voters. While election results are not instant everywhere, when results that are available are reported before all votes are even cast, it disenfranchises voters in the later time zones. Voters in the west may feel as though their votes don’t even matter should we have a less…