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Added on the 14/11/2020 15:39:45 - Copyright : Wochit
While general elections in the United States may seem highly regulated and bureaucratized, it wasn't always that way. Bustle reports that during the first election in 1789, only white men who owned property could vote. That rule excluded a whopping 94 percent of the population. The Constitution didn't define a specific Election Day, either. In fact, in the early 1800s, people could vote anywhere from April to December. Elections are only held on Tuesdays because people had to travel by buggy to vote. Sunday church couldn't be disrupted, and Wednesday was market day. Until 1804, presidential nominees didn't name a running mate. Instead, the candidate who got the second most number of votes became the vice president. Dozens of states used to have laws restricting buying alcohol on Election Day, to prevent people from buying or selling votes. South Carolina was the last state to do away with their laws, in 2014.
A record-shattering 100 million Americans cast their ballots in the 2020 general election before polls opened Tuesday. CNN reports the millions of mail-in ballots are expected to lead to a delay in the counting of votes once the polls close. Nevertheless, President Donald Trump has continued to falsely claim that the count is supposed to be completed by Election Night. His stance is politically beneficial because more GOP voters are expected to show up on Election Day, while more Democrats are expected to vote through the mail. Even before polls opened on Election Day, both presidential camps were gearing up for legal confrontations. The changes to voting rules due to the pandemic sparked a litany of court cases over rules related to voting and the counting of ballots.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) believes that so far the elections in Liberia have been free, fair and transparent. It briefed media in the capital on its preliminary findings ahead of the national results. SOUNDBITE
Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi calls for free and fair elections in a video message released on her National League for Democracy Facebook page. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).
Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday dismissed opposition criticism of the country's general election as "illegitimate" as she celebrated securing her fifth term in power. "The election was free and fair" she told reporters, in her first comments since the vote on Sunday, insisting that "those who want to criticise can criticise". SOUNDBITE
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