2018 Midterm Elections - The Aftermath

[Louie_Cypher]

Yeah, I just don't buy this theory that the EC somehow prevents the situation where a small number of states dominate the elections. That is literally the exact situation that we face every single election. All that changes with the EC is that it switches what those states are. So rather than the election being dominated by CA, NY and TX, our elections instead are dominated by OH, PA, and FL. How is that better in anyway whatsoever?

this is a huge problem. it's def time for a congressional congress. although people smirk when i say this. to put simply time to move our democracy into the the 21st century. there our a ton of things to review examine, 2nd amendment, private money gerrymandering 13th amendment, electronic voting machines. not to throw shade the founders did an amazing job. but maybe just me. but the intentions were that it would be a living document.
-louie

[allegro]

Meanwhile, in the MidTerm Voting good stuff category:

Yesterday, while waiting in line for my Mom to vote, I noticed this giant, tall poster thingie that said something like "Selfie I-Voted Here" and I was, like, what is that? I was having a brain fart.

Then, a few minutes later, a teenaged girl and her Dad walked up to it, and the girl was, like, "Daaaaaaaaad" and the Dad said, "yeah, come on, we have to do this!" and she stood in front of the sign and held up her "I Voted" sticker and smiled ...

And the Dad proudly took a photo of his daughter, smiling and holding up her "I Voted" sticker in front of the giant poster full of "I VOTED" stickers, after she'd voted for the first time.

IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!

[theruiner]

^^That makes me so happy!! That's awesome!

I have to say, this was most definitely not my first time voting (as I am of the advanced age of 35) but I felt so much pride after voting last week. And yes, I stopped on my way to the car and snapped a selfie with my I Voted sticker. I hope I never lose that feeling.

[theimage13]

I'm normally cynical as hell about selfies, but I dig that story.

I'm rarely able to vote in person these days; today being an exception. Made a spur of the moment decision to pick my mom up and go vote together instead of just doing our own thing. Made tea and talked politics afterwards. Nice way to spend the morning. Turns out we're starting to have more differences in that arena than I thought, but we still hold the same general values.

[Mantra]

Also, I just want to point out that the EC strongly discourages many people from voting. For example, if you're a Republican in New York, there's pretty much no point in you voting in any presidential election. Your vote is essentially cancelled out by the Dems around you. Same holds true if you're a Democrat voting in Alabama. It literally makes no difference whether or not you vote in the presidential election. It's just not a system that encourages all people to vote, which is why I would argue that the electoral college itself is a kind of voter suppression. A simple majority vote would mean that every single vote counts.

[Andallthatcouldhavebeen]

So, my husband and I went and voted this morning and I guess I can say it was an interesting line waiting experience. We got there and there were supposed to be 3 different lines. Get in line based on what your last name starts with, A-H, I-P, Q-Z. Makes sense. Well, the A-H line was 20 people long when we got there at 8:05 and the other two lines were bare. People kept walking in, and soon the A-H line got to 40 people while anyone who walked in with any other last name got to vote within 5 minutes of walking into the building. It was that awful feeling of being at an amusement park and watching people who paid for fast passes surpass you, as you wait for what feels like an eternity for your turn. We all joked about how inefficient things were there, and I basically had to keep singing songs to my 1 year old so she wouldn't throw a tantrum waiting in line.

We voted though. First time voting in the midterms, and it felt pretty good. One of our options was to allow liquor to be sold in our city and I'm hoping that option finally gets passed, driving 30 minutes for a bottle of anything hard is a bit much. Oh yeah, and I hope Bredesen beats Blackburn. She gets on my nerves.

[sweeterthan]

I voted for Stacey Abrams today! Fingers crossed.

I saw a clip yesterday of Trump saying he regrets his tone during the election season. I really hope that means the gop is about to lose big.

[theimage13]

There's a nonprofit set up just to deliver free pizzas to polling places with excessive lines. God Bless America.

https://polls.pizza/

If this doesn't get lazy people to get out and vote, I just don't know what will.

[Mantra]

Wasn't there some east coast city a few years back --I want to say Philadelphia?-- that wanted to conduct a small lottery among voters? Everybody who voted would automatically be entered, and whoever's name got drawn would win ten grand.

EDIT: yeah this is what I was thinking of: https://www.google.com/amp/s/theweek...ay-people-vote

One city believes it found a way to get more people off their computers and in the voting booth on Election Day. The Philadelphia Citizen, a media company based out of the City of Brotherly Love, gives $10,000 to a random voter — effectively turning the city's local elections into a lottery. While the Citizen's editors recognize that giving out a prize for voting is "sorta icky," the group justifies it by viewing the low voter turnout as "chronic civic participation malaise," arguing that "desperate times call for desperate measures."

lol

[Demogorgon]

Republicans win Kentucky House seat; first blood. Not like anybody expected much different from Kentucky though, to be honest. Pretty solidly conservative down there.

[theimage13]

Wasn't there some east coast city a few years back --I want to say Philadelphia?-- that wanted to conduct a small lottery among voters? Everybody who voted would automatically be entered, and whoever's name got drawn would win ten grand.

EDIT: yeah this is what I was thinking of: https://www.google.com/amp/s/theweek...ay-people-vote



lol

I mean....it's depressing as hell that they even have to think of things like this. But my only major concern with it would be if they were doing it in a heavily gerrymandered area. As in "hey, we can increase turnout from X party if we put a financial incentive on this". If you were doing it in an area that was legitimately diverse as far as voter registration goes, I'd be less concerned with it.

[allegro]

Last-minute lawsuit filed in Georgia to try to extend the polling times past 7, because several polling locations were closed down for more than 2 hours because the voting machines' batteries died and nobody could find the power cords. Totally serious. Wtf. Also, many voters were turned away due to "exact match" even though the recent lawsuit against Kemp was to prevent this.

This is per MSNBC coverage.

That Kemp, what a total piece of shit. Georgia polls are to close at 7 pm Eastern, like MINUTES from now. There are still HUGE lines.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, five polling locations have extended their hours past 7. Also, many voters in Chicago were not given Page 2 of the ballot in several locations. Wtf.

[allegro]

Republicans win Kentucky House seat; first blood. Not like anybody expected much different from Kentucky though, to be honest. Pretty solidly conservative down there.

It's tie right now according to MSNBC .. are you talking about McGrath / Barr? (Or Rogers, probably.)

[Demogorgon]

Why in the hells would they run voting machines on batteries to begin with? That's asinine.

[Demogorgon]

It's tie right now according to MSNBC .. are you talking about McGrath / Barr?

Rogers vs. Stepp. Race is called in favor of Rogers (Republican) according to Associated Press.

Edit: i see the race you're talking about, it's just been updated. Currently leading Blue by a smidge according to AP.

[Mantra]

Alright, just got back from voting straight blue, including Ellison. Man I hope I don't live to regret that. *sigh*

Picked up a bottle of Jameson on the way home and I'm about to crack it open while I heat up some soup and fire up approximately 80 chrome tabs of election coverage on my laptop and pray for the best. Cheers y'all. *Raising glass* Here's to our glorious american democracy.

[allegro]

Alright, just got back from voting straight blue, including Ellison. Man I hope I don't live to regret that. *sigh*

Picked up a bottle of Jameson on the way home and I'm about to crack it open while I heat up some soup and fire up approximately 80 chrome tabs of election coverage on my laptop and pray for the best. Cheers y'all. *Raising glass* Here's to our glorious american democracy.

I'm passing ya some of our shrimp and cocktail sauce, we got a pound of it. Or we have Detroit-style deep dish pizza if you don't like shrimp. Cheers.

I'm glued to MSNBC and Steve Kornacki's Big Board all night plus Twitter.

MSNBC has a feed but it appears to be a bit delayed: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-live

[Demogorgon]

Bernie easily takes Vermont, by the look of things. A lot of the "well, no surprises here" seats might be getting finished up right out the gate.

[allegro]

One thing that some people may not know about Georgia: Either Kemp or Abrams MUST win at least 50% or they have to have a runoff in December.

MSNBC says that Cruz team modeling had TWO MILLION LESS VOTERS than what actually showed up in Texas; and nobody knows anything about those additional 2 million voters ...

Now trending on Twitter, #stayinline, if you are in line in Florida or Georgia, stay in line, they MUST leave the polls open to let you vote. Pizzas are being delivered.

[Mantra]

I'm passing ya some of our shrimp and cocktail sauce, we got a pound of it. Or we have Detroit-style deep dish pizza if you don't like shrimp. Cheers.

I'm glued to MSNBC and Steve Kornacki's Big Board all night plus Twitter.

MSNBC has a feed but it appears to be a bit delayed: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-live

Ooh, awesome, thanks!

[Demogorgon]

The senate race in Florida is intense. Seems like every time i refresh the map, the color changes.

[sweeterthan]

One thing that some people may not know about Georgia: Either Kemp or Abrams MUST win at least 50% or they have to have a runoff in December.

MSNBC says that Cruz team modeling had TWO MILLION LESS VOTERS than what actually showed up in Texas; and nobody knows anything about those additional 2 million voters ...

Now trending on Twitter, #stayinline, if you are in line in Florida or Georgia, stay in line, they MUST leave the polls open to let you vote. Pizzas are being delivered.

I really hope there’s not a run off. The turn out is already so huge. It would be tough to do it all again.

[allegro]

I really hope there’s not a run off. The turn out is already so huge. It would be tough to do it all again.

UNLESS there is evidence of a lot of voter suppression, and the Dems and the NAACP etc. are able to win a suit to REMOVE Kemp from the Secy of State position before the runoff so that he has NOTHING to do with the runoff so he and his staff can't suppress the vote, again?

I mean, can't find power cords? FOR TWO HOURS? In minority areas that would heavily lean toward Abrams? Seriously? THAT really sounds deliberate.

[Mantra]

Oh great, it's fucking snowing. It's our very first snow of the season, tonight of all nights. Great.

This isn't an omen, right? RIGHT?!

[allegro]

A good omen!!!!! (I got new ski boots the end of last season, heh)

Tiny amounts of votes coming in from Georgia in outlying counties that are heavily Republican white areas, still waiting for the populated areas ... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE IF THERE IS A GOD, LET STACEY ABRAMS WIN BY A LANDSLIDE!!!

[sweeterthan]

UNLESS there is evidence of a lot of voter suppression, and the Dems and the NAACP etc. are able to win a suit to REMOVE Kemp from the Secy of State position before the runoff so that he has NOTHING to do with the runoff so he and his staff can't suppress the vote, again?

I mean, can't find power cords? FOR TWO HOURS? In minority areas that would heavily lean toward Abrams? Seriously? THAT really sounds deliberate.

That sounds really optimistic to me. I’m cynical of the politics in my state. I don’t understand how he was able to get this far while keeping his SOS position. Before voting started lots of people were like how can this be? And here we are at Election Day.

[Demogorgon]

Kaine wins senate seat in Virginia.

[Mantra]

Oh this is unfuckingbelievable

[zero]

[Demogorgon]

Oh this is unfuckingbelievable

If i were to place a bet, i'd say that's already setting groundwork to attempt to justify a recount if his election chances go sideways.