One Man's Opinion: And now for the counting

It was just before 9 p.m. on that first Tuesday in November of 1980 on the east coast. President Jimmy Carter of Georgia was seeking a second term, against his opponent, Gov. Ronald Reagan of California. Based on exit polling data, and a poor showing by Carter in several Southern states, all the Big Three news networks projected Reagan as the winner. Polls would not close in California and the west coast for several more hours, but based on the news that Reagan had won, millions of voters never trekked to the polls. The down-ticket damage for Democrats in other contested races was devastating.

Exit polling will still take place on Election Day 2020, but much of the rest of the logistics and landscape of holding the election is significantly altered. Nearly 220 million Americans voted on Election Day in 2016. As of Oct. 29, more than 80 million ballots have already been cast, via early voting, mail-in voting/absentee ballots. In Georgia, more than 3.8 million have already cast ballots, and as of Oct. 22nd, by emergency order of the State Board of Elections, local election superintendents and their staffs have been opening, logging and scanning in those absentee ballots already received. On Election Day, as soon as the polls open, they may also begin the tabulation of those several million ballots, while the polls are open.