MID-TERM ELECTIONS

[HairOfTheDog]

Today, a judge in Georgia ruled in favor of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and ordered that an extension be given  so voters who had their ballots rejected for signature mismatches have an opportunity to contact the state  to verify and be counted.

I'm very glad to read that. It's honest and it's fair, completely unlike Kemp's suckiness.

Yeah, it was the right ruling.

I've seen several people (of both parties) interviewed who were shocked to learn their ballots had been rejected because an election worker deemed there was a 'mismatch'.  

They weren't contacted and didn't even know their votes hadn't been counted until they watched the news and learned how to check.  I bet there are a lot of people who will never know to check and won't be counted.  :(

I would like to see all states operate under a consistent verification process, a mandate to contact voters proactively if there's a mismatch between their registration and ballot data/signature, and a reasonable means by which voters can verify and be counted quickly.  

When votes are verified after being subjectively discounted, it's not a case of  "votes suddenly or suspiciously being found", of course.  It's a case of election workers doing due diligence instead of tossing out legal votes according to a subjective criteria determined by Secretaries of State (some of whom, like Kemp, control the election processes when they're competing in the election themselves, which should not be permitted).

[HairOfTheDog]

New Jersey

Democrats flipped their 37^th House of Representatives seat today, bringing their net gain to 34 with 8 races still pending.


Democrat Andy Kim had prematurely declared victory the day after the election when ballot counting gave him a 2,600-vote edge over Republican 2-term incumbent Tom MacArthur. 

But, MacArthur rightfully refused to concede, hopeful that thousands of uncounted votes could tip the 3^rd District results in his favor.  

However, as the vote counting progressed, Kim's lead continued to grow and the race was called in his favor today.

MacArthur had aligned himself with Trump on immigration and healthcare.  He was also the only congressperson from New Jersey to support Trump's tax cuts (the deduction caps negatively impact a lot of New Jersey residents).

Kim's win gives Democrats in New Jersey 11 out of the 12 seats in the House of Representatives along with both U.S. Senate seats.

Ref:  http://nj1015.com/dems-in-nj-win-11-of-1...ngressman/

[Duchess]

But, MacArthur rightfully refused to concede, hopeful that thousands of uncounted votes could tip the 3^rd District results in his favor. 

Damn straight. Count 'em all.

Sometimes when I think about all the political bullshit I wonder why asking for fairness is asking for too much. I think about gerrymandering a lot and it really fuckin' annoys me. I want fairness & one rule for all damnit.

[Fry Guy]

If there are no votes, they will create them, "find" them and count them. American democracy at work

[Duchess]

Nah, I don't think the republicans are doing that, they find other ways to cheat.

[Maggot]

Yeah they do stuff like making sure all the traffic lights stay red and the buses have no gas and there are no pencils in the ballot booths and dead people stay dead.

[Duchess]

You don't even care about having facts to back that up. Ahahahaha! You know that's typical republican behavior, right?

[HairOfTheDog]

Midterm Congressional Elections - Results Update

HOUSE:
Today, two more House races were called.
--Democrat Katie Porter beat 2-term Republican incumbent Mimi Walters in California.
--Democrat Jared Golden defeated Republican incumbent Bruce Poliquin in Maine.
-----Democrats have flipped 39 seats and lost 3 so far, for a net gain of 36 seats.  There are 6 more races pending.

SENATE:
--The machine recount in the Rick Scott vs. Bill Nelson (incumbent Democrat) contest was completed.
--Since there's less than .25 difference between the two (Scott leads), Florida law mandates a manual recount.
-----Republicans have flipped 3 seats and lost 2 seats, for a net gain of 1 seat.  There are 2 races pending.

[Duchess]

I see some of the right-wing sites are claiming Acosta 'pysically assaulted a staffer'. Hysterical drama-mongers.

The trump appointed judge has ruled in favor of CNN/Jim Acosta. "I will order defendants immediately restore Mr. Acosta's hard pass".

The judge rejected trump's claim that he gets the last word on press passes.

[Maggot]

The judge is wrong about this and I have no doubt it will be proven.

[Duchess]

Part of Sarah Slanders response to the judge's ruling, "there must be decorum in the White House".  

[HairOfTheDog]

Georgia Governor:
Today, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams acknowledged that she does not have the vote count to beat Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp. Abrams said she's not conceding because she believes Kemp engaged in active voter suppression.  In any case, Kemp is the new governor of Georgia.

Utah Senator:
Also today, incumbent Republican senatorial candidate Mia Love pulled ahead of her Democratic challenger Ben McAdams in Utah by 400 votes.  Not all votes have been counted, so no winner has been called yet, but it's the first time Love has been in the lead.

President Trump called Love a loser for not embracing him shortly after election day.  However, with mail-in votes being popular in many states, declaring victories and defeats on election day is premature.

[HairOfTheDog]

I see some of the right-wing sites are claiming Acosta 'pysically assaulted a staffer'. Hysterical drama-mongers.

The trump appointed judge has ruled in favor of CNN/Jim Acosta. "I will order defendants immediately restore Mr. Acosta's hard pass".

The judge rejected trump's claim that he gets the last word on press passes.

Thanks for the update Duchess. That's good to hear.  The judge definitely made the rational (and constitutional) ruling.

[Fry Guy]

The judge is wrong about this and I have no doubt it will be proven.

Yup

Trump should take it to the Supreme Court and whilst this is going through those motions he should have a publicised Jim Acosta hard pass burning on the White House lawn and then immediately after inform the public that he will no longer have White House briefs at the White House and will instead send daily briefs via email to the different media outlets.

It is NOT a right!

[Duchess]

[Fry Guy]

That would fuck Acosta, huh?

[Duchess]

I deleted my original post because it was disinformation...

[Maggot]

I kinda feel bad for people that just had their state taken by the blue meanies. My state lost the legislature but kept the Governor at least he can veto lots of spending and new taxes. Some others not so lucky so all i can say is break out the wallets and bank accounts because they're coming for you. Imagine a state with nothing but blue meanies pulling the strings. It's gotta be cringe-worthy. These things bounce back and forth all the time so good luck.

[HairOfTheDog]

The midterm vote counts are almost all finalized and certified now.  I did not expect the Dems to take the Senate.  The map was against them; elections were largely in Trump country.  

Trump's campaign endorsements and rhetoric were effective in helping the Republicans keep the Senate by a very small margin.  The President deserves credit for that, in my opinion.  And, maintaining control of the Senate is a big deal, primarily when it comes to pushing religious/conservative judges into long-term and lifetime positions.  

But, Trump had the exact opposite effect, on a much broader scale, when it comes to the House.  The Dems wiped the floor with Republicans.  

Democrats picked up large numbers of women, Independents, millenials, and suburban voters as compared to 2016.; they way exceeded my expectations.   

(continued)

[HairOfTheDog]

9,000,000 more citizens voted for Democrats over Republicans in the 2018 midterms. That's historically huge, a record.

By comparison.........Hillary Clinton beat Trump in the 2016 popular vote by only ¹⁄₃ that amount and 35 states in the union have populations less than 9,000,000.

It's a much bigger vote lead than the Republicans enjoyed when the Tea Party protests helped the Republicans take control back in 2010.

I really don't care how biased people choose to label or position the results, "blue wave", "blue puddle", "split verdict".......whatever. Facts are facts and numbers aren't subjective. The Dems needed 23 seats to take control of the House. They will have taken between 38 and 40 when all is said and done, plus they picked up 7 governorships and flipped two senate seats.

Anyway, as an Independent who's currently way more aligned with Democratic priorities and values than with Republicans (it's been the other way around in the past), I think it's a very good thing for the country and I'm looking forward to more balance and significant corrections in 2019 and 2020.

The (Trump) Republicans lost me altogether when they cut government revenue tremendously by offering tax cuts to corporations and certain individuals while simultaneously increasing government spending significantly, thus driving the national deficit through the roof -- short-term and politically/personally self-serving idiocy that only leads to mid and long-term economic pain.