By David Futrelle
If you haven’t already, GO VOTE and then come back to enjoy(?) this open thread. Tell us how it went. Talk about any shady sit the GOP tries to pull today. Discuss the results as they come in. Talk about your hobbies. Post pictures of animals. Post videos. Whatever it takes to get through this incredibly nerve-wracking day.
No trolls.
Well, the senate looks depressingly hopeless, but we’re at 19 more seats to go to flip the house. Counting on you, CA.
@Buttercup Q. Skullpants –
And Roosh V is way out. 😛
@Alex –
I just looked that up. What the hell??? People are still pushing the bathroom nonsense? The “no” side video cited here is laughably bad, but there are people who believe that shit, or at least use it as an excuse to discriminate…
Anyway, I really really hope the “no” vote loses. The article I linked to ends on a hopeful note:
Fingers metaphorically crossed for this and all midterm votes.
Florida’s ballot measure to restore voting rights to millions of felons who’ve served their sentences is on pace to pass the 60% necessary threshold \
Restoring voting rights to felons aside (and don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy about that!), Florida, you are now worse than Kansas
So excited that Kobach lost! And Sharice Davids, a queer Native American Democrat flipping a house district!
@weirwoodtreehugger: chief manatee
BTW just saying this ahead sorry if Orange County votes GOP majority instead of Dems. This place is too damn red for its own good.
NBC just called Texas for Cruz, which basically means the GOP keeps the senate. But it looks very good for Dems in the house.
@David Futrelle
Yeah seems to be that way. As long as we win the House I can be happy.
DEMS WIN CONTROL OF THE HOUSE
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2018-election/midterms/
FUCKING FINALLY SOME GOD DAMN NEWS TIME TO TURN DONALD TRUMP TO A NEUTERED LAME DUCK
NBC now calling the house for the Dems and the senate for the GOP.
EDIT: Ninjaed!
Time to get some house investigations going into the Trump crime family!
I expected it to happen, but it’s still sad to see the nazis keep control of the senate.
The ABC coverage is totally nauseating. They just blamed Andrew Gillum and Beto O’Rourke for losing by being too left-wing, when they lost by less than a point and 3 points. Meanwhile, Joe Donnelly, Phil Bredesen, and Heidi Heitkamp lose by double digits and these anchors all talk about how they ran the best possible campaign and it was just hopeless for them.
All the while claiming that racism played no factor in people voting for DeSantis.
Question 3 dashes to victory in what’s looking like a pretty good night (all things considered, obvs) for LGBTQetcs
MA question 3 came through the right way.
I voted. In the corner of the small landing at the top of the stairs above which voting was happening. Facing an elevator that worked a few elections ago. Bearing on a novel (presumably scrounged up from the workers).
The only signage at my polling place was “Vote Here [hours]” and “Vote Downstairs”. I can’t stairs. And there were no workers at the top. It took two strangers to get me what I got. And 5-10 minutes to get any response at all. If I weren’t so stubborn, I mightn’t have voted at all. And I wouldn’t have called my county election board. And I wouldn’t have the direct line to the appropriate person on the state election board. But I am and I did. And I hope I will more.
All polling places should be accessible. But at absolute minimum, all the requirements for curbside voting -the route of last resort- should be faithfully met. You’ve got to show and explain the option, have a way to request it at the time and place, respond promptly (I thought I’d been forgotten or ignored), and provide everything needed (clipboard?). Whether or not you’ve had anyone need, because persons in wheelchairs, for example, tend not to patronize business that require stairs. If I hadn’t been so stubborn… But, fortunately, I am.
Which also means I’m currently too caught up in right to vote to try to get much into election results themselves. And I can be ok with that, I think.
@AnyBeth
My county just flipped blue.
I live in a upper middle-class suburb. MY COUNTY WENT BLUE. I didn’t think that was possible.
Bring on the House Committee supeonas. Also looks like my Republican gov got ousted, huzzah!
Does this mean we can finally stop with the doom-and-gloom nonsense? I mean, healthy cynicism is one thing (hell, it’s my superpower), but the whole “Why even try” tone around here lately’s been driving me up the fucking wall.
I’m so happy that Kansas is performing far better than expected. Sharice Davids in the district next door, and possibly Paul Davis here in Topeka, as well as having a definite rejection of Kobach (the biggest bullet dodged). I’m sad to see the Florida news, but can still hold out hope for Georgia (the two other governor races I was really watching besides my own).
Off topic, but has anyone else recently noticed youtube start pushing a HARD right wing slant?
On youtube, you can set up “brand” accounts. I basically use it to segregate my different video interests and focus each account on an interest (music, animation, human rights, etc).
I only have one “political” account, the others are all entertainment related and relatively tame, other than being very gay. So why the ever-living FUCK is youtube constantly barraging me with suggestions such as gamergate videos (“why rey is bad and female characters are devolving”), transphobic propoganda (transition regret documentary), and even anti-feminist compilations. If anything, there should be bleed-over from my main account, resulting in only partially unwanted recommendations of leftist videos.
What’s worse, I’ve repeatedly smashed the “get this shit out of my face” button, and these shitty videos keep coming back. Sure, the vast majority of my recommends are appropriate to the content of the account’s history, but those right-wing videos pop up every day, sticking out like a sore thumb.
I’ve seen lots of stories about people inadvertently falling prey to gateway fascism through youtube, but it seems from this experience that youtube is deliberately trying to indoctrinate people. Unless the alt-right is just so prolific that when youtube looks for generic money-making clickbait videos to coax people to watch, that’s frequently the kind of video that gets picked. But then, regardless if youtube is just trying to make an “honest” profit, if it results in fascist indoctrination, it’s still fascist indoctrination.
Not sure if it’s just youtube, or the internet, but alt-right being the default of society is pretty revolting.
Also congrats to you americans on a few small victories. Here’s to hoping it’s enough to take society and the world back from the brink of insanity (or at least the beginning of turning in the right direction).
I was voter number 19, and we had almost 50% turnout! (We were about 6 voters away from fully 50%) Every race went Democrat, one race (state Senate) had a one vote difference.
My state has mostly done a good so far. Democratic wins for both senate races and governor. We lost house district 8 but picked up 2 and 3. District 8 is rural northern MN and 2 and 3 are Twin Cities suburbs. So not a huge surprise, but I was far from assured about district 2 and 3, so yay!
It sucks about the Senate and Abrams and Gillum, but this is about where the Dems were always expected to end the night at. Picking up some of those governor races is also super important. So, I’m not popping champagne or anything, but very relieved that the House is blue and Trump will not be able to get any new legislation passed.
Now time to immediately focus on 2020. We can do that with slightly less fear now that R control isn’t total.
It’s a potentially good sign that Iowa flipped some seats blue. They’re one of those states that predicts the winner of presidential elections. So take it as a sign they could vote for the D nominee in 2020.
There’s a positive thing for you.
I’ve been so anxious that it’s been impossible to feel positive for me lately. But I feel a little better now, even if the blue wave wasn’t a blue tsunami. I won’t be trying not to cry in my cubicle tomorrow at any rate.
At the risk of spamming, one big project now needs to be unseating Susan Collins in 2020. Buttercup and any other Mainers we might have here, please let us know how we can help in the coming two years.
@weirwoodtreehugger: chief manatee
I can at least sleep easier. Yeah sure I still have to worry about my own Cali district probably going red but at least the nation generally is getting back on its good feet.