[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Why couldn't the mail in and early ballots be counted as they are received and the results kept under wraps until the results are known?

Why are they being received first and counted last?

IMHO, in this age of technology, this whole process is an embarrassment to our country.

First of all, why do we need early voting and mail in voting? For centuries people have gone the polls on election day ad voted. That seems to have worked pretty well for over 200 years.

Secondly, why do we need mail in ballots. I realize that we've always had them, but in the past they were very limited.

My suggestions. Since some people have claimed that they can't get to the pools on election day because they work, hold the election on a weekend. Since the polls may be crowded and people have to wait in line, do it over two or three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Mandate that employers give employees and extra hour break on election days.

Secondly allow mail in ballots only for people who can demonstrate a legitimate need. Those in the military or who otherwise will be out of the country or people who are confined at home or in a hospital should be the only ones that are allowed to vote by mail. There might be other conditions, and those would have to be defined to see who qualifies. But sending out hundreds of millions of ballots and expecting them all to be returned on time and properly filled out is unrealistic. I voted in person and received instructions on what to do if I made a mistake. How does that work with a mail in ballot?

The third thing would be to end all of this counting by hand. When I taught at a college, we had the answer sheets where the students would fill in the oval. I would insert the completed answer sheets into a machine and I would get printout of the grades of a class of thirty within minutes. When I voted, I filled out the ovals and inserted my ballot into a machine. I assume that that machine read the ballot and kept a tally of the results. I realize that every state has the freedom to decide how people will vote, but there must be a way to get this done so that all states are using the same system and don't have volunteers sitting at tables manually counting votes.

Just my ideas. They will never be adopted. I probably just had to vent after watching this absurd system every four years.