US Midterm Elections

[Don Enrico]

This thread is to discuss the US midterm elections.

Dear US snopsters, the world is waiting for your (and your countryfolk's) decision!

Did you vote? Where did you vote? How was the mood? What are the exit polls, what are the results? Who will represent you in the Congress? And are you happy with that representation?

Dear world snopsters, did you hear or read about special results? What are you expecting? Are your expectations fulfilled? What does that mean for the next 2 (or 6) years for us outside of the US?

Dear US snopsters,

please vote!

[Lainie]

I'll be voting this afternoon. I hope it won't take too long.

[iskinner]

Dropped the ballots for the four eligible voters in my CA household at the local library collection point on Halloween. Not a lot of drama for the federal and statewide political positions for my district.

Local school board, that is an entirely different question!

[thorny locust]

Yes, everybody eligible, PLEASE VOTE!

(And, I hope, not for Republicans; unless possibly for very local office.)

What with health care, civil rights, and refugee issues: lives are quite literally riding on the results.

(I'm heading into town in about an hour to vote, myself. I'm not expecting significant lines at the polls or any other complications in my rural area; but don't want to take any chances by leaving it too late in the day.)

[RichardM]

I voted last week as did my wife. I spent time at the local office making calls for support of my (and I hope many others) candidates. I'm and old white guy who is in the upper 10% of the wealth bracket. So guess what party I voted for and worked for.

PS: Thorny Locust, thanks for voting.

[crocoduck_hunter]

Voted two weeks ago, thanks to Oregon's exclusively vote-by-mail system.

[WildaBeast]

Originally Posted by Don Enrico

What are the exit polls, what are the results?

Speaking of which:

As results roll in on election night, pundits and political junkies will carefully be watching the exit polls for a glimpse into who voted for which candidate and why.
But exit polls are complicated, and sometimes misleading, as they were in 2016.

https://www.npr.org/2018/11/05/66294...election-night

And since Sacramento is entirely vote by mail now, I mailed back my ballot over a week ago.

[Morning]

I voted this morning. I was surprised that there was actually a short line (3 people), which is quite unusual in my experience in this town.

Morning

[chillas]

I voted first thing this morning. I was at my polling place five minutes after they opened and there was a line out the door. It had mostly been whittled down by the time I left, but there were still quite a few in line and more showing up.

[Psihala]

I dropped my ballot off at the DMV about two weeks ago, since I had to renew my tags anyway and there is a ballot drop box at the same location.

~Psihala

[erwins]

I voted about 2 weeks ago. Keeping a close eye on our governors race, which is closer than usual. We are on pace for a high turnout -- maybe the highest for a midterm in 24* years. We may also be setting some records in turnout of the eligible population, not just registered voters. Half a million new voters were registered through the DMV under a new process here.

We are 100% vote by mail, so no lines. (There might be lines close to 8 at some drop-off locations).

Keeping my eyes glued to fivethirtyeight.com and news sites. Expecting mixed results, but hoping for the best.

* The article I read said a quarter century, but midterms happen every 4 years. I had written 25, but it just looks wrong.

[Beachlife!]

I just walked over to the neighborhood Catholic church where I vote. The whole trip didn't take me 15 minutes including voting.

Something I noticed this morning when dropping my god-children off at school. The voting location for one of the white-bread suburbs was well marked. The parking lot entrance was also flanked by two police cars. It looked both unnecessary and designed to intimidate anyone who was wary of the police.

[Dr. Winston O'Boogie]

As they say here in Illinois: Vote early, vote often!

Voted before going in to work. Voting for Governor was a "hold your nose and choose" experience. Two ultra-rich white guys buying their way into the office. The incumbent Republican doesn't understand the meaning of the word "compromise", and since the Democrats have a HAMERLOCK on the state legislature, he got absolutely nothing done in 4 years. The Democrat running will win the office, but the concern is that he will be a sock puppet for the head of the Illinois Democratic party, who has royally #!(^ed over the state. Thought of writing in "Cthulu" - why vote for the lesser evil?

Over and over again, I see good candidates in the primaries that get trounced by extreme party wonks. I don't think I've truly "liked" a candidate for Governor in the general election in 20 years.

One of the more interesting races is for Attorney General. Incumbent (daughter of above said Democratic Party leader) is not running. While in office, she's done a good job, but has done (almost) nothing with political corruption in Illinois, letting the Feds worry about that. The Republican candidate is campaigning almost exclusively as "I'm going to go after corrupt politicians", and the Democrat is campaigning as "She's extremely conservative, and I'm just like the incumbent".

[TallGeekyGirl]

Voted early this morning before work, a little after 6 am.

[E. Q. Taft]

I was the first voter at my polling place. This meant I was asked to verify that the counter on the single touch-screen voting machine showed 0 votes so far cast, and to check to see that the box for the hand-marked ballots used by most people was empty before they sealed it. (I don't know who uses the touch-screen machine; possibly people with some kind of disability that makes marking the other ballots difficult. Or perhaps it's set up as multi-lingual, so they don't have to ship ballots in every available language to every polling place.)

For those following events closely, here's an hour-by-hour guide as to when polls will close in different areas where the key races are being held:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...206_GAbbGg5Vjw

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

I Voted about 2 weeks ago.

My BFF is meeting a friend who can't be bothered to vote ("because it won't make any difference") with ballot & voter's pamphlet in hand, and has volunteered to drop off the completed ballot, all to make it as painless as possible.

As if dropping a postage-paid envelope into the mail or drop box isn't painless enough.

Seaboe

[Brad from Georgia]

My wife and I voted two weeks ago, choosing a less-crowded time. We'd studied the sample ballot ahead of time, and it took only fifteen minutes.

[E. Q. Taft]

Originally Posted by Seaboe Muffinchucker

As if dropping a postage-paid envelope into the mail or drop box isn't painless enough.

Yours are postage paid? Ours require stamps, if you vote by mail.

(I've seen stories circulating around that one reason Millennials aren't voting absentee is because they don't know where to buy stamps...)

[WildaBeast]

It probably depends on which district you're in and exactly how long your ballot is, but ours actually require two stamps. Although most election boards say that if ballots arrive with postage due they will pay it; they won't reject vote by mail ballots just for insufficient postage.

[erwins]

Here they require postage if you mail them, but there are also lots of drop boxes around if you don't want to pay for postage.

Also ours have to be received by 8 pm on election day -- not postmarked by then. So it's too late to mail a ballot in. A few days before election day, people are advised to only use drop boxes to assure that the ballot will be counted.