The 2006 American Midterm Election Day Thread

But I'm in New York, and I'm really rallying for John Spencer by default.

Orange was a pretty good album, after all.

This is the last chance, really, by getting some new chairpersons to head committees in the House ... to have a clean sweep, which, in normal times, if we’d ever enjoyed them, would have happened by now. Now it has got to happen, or welcome to the Third Reich.

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/20061105_gore_vidal_the_most_important_election_in_my_lifetime/

(video interview in full)

you know, I think Harold Ford just might pull this off

I think today might be the first day in history in which Bernie Sanders has been described as a "bloke." Perhaps it will not be the last.

Some talk radio shows in San Diego are getting lots of callers from San Diego reporting major problems in voting: long lines, electronic voting machines that don't work, people leaving because they have to go to work.

Some voters have reportedly asked for paper ballots and are filling them out. A judge reportedly has said paper ballots don't have to be counted until Thursday.

Apparently the complaints are coming from voters on the right and on the left. Several callers on one station said they have voted at the same precincts for years and have never seen it so chaotic.

The question that will be debated if reports like this come from throughout the country today will be whether this is due to incompetence or political design. That'll depend on the number of reports such as this and if there is a pattern.

If the Democrats fail to capture the House and the Senate, it would provide a psychic boost for the White House and some political vindication for Karl Rove, the president’s chief political adviser. But given the intramural Republican squabbling of the past two years, it seems fair to say that nothing much could be expected out of Congress for the next two.

here in st louis there are some reports of polls opening late, long lines, but I don't think anything's truly dire. The ballot is kind of long, I hope people don't get tired of waiting. local news said that mccaskill had to wait a half hour to vote and talent had to wait an hour--they both live in republican areas.

e.g. www.intrade.com (everything quoted as percentage probabilities)

http://specials.slate.com/futures

The shocking thing was, I went right before work, at 7:15am... just 15 minutes after polls started.

I live in a relatively quiet part of Seattle city proper. For this year's primary, I came in at 7:45am and i was the first person to appear at my stationed voting venue.

This morning? I barely got a booth! The people behind me either had to wait, or they had to set up *cardboard on the floor* to respect their privacy and had them vote on the floor! The poll workers only did this because the voter asked for this, because she had to go to work, but the voter did NOT complain!

This is 10 times more active than what I saw at the same place *later* that morning in 2004.

This may just be an isolated incident, but if I'm wrong, this at least could disprove that voter apathy has caused attrition in this country. Just maybe.

That's the only flicker of hope I'm going to offer. I'm going to just try and ignore the news the rest of the day if possible.

But please, my American friends who can vote, please do so if you haven't already.

This makes me think of how I've just been waiting for the day after voting two weeks back -- I'm all, "Gah, can it just HAPPEN, please?"

This morning it was broken, so they just had people slide the ballots into the manual slot, which was designed in case the machine broke down. For some reason, I feel more relieved that I inserted my ballot manually. Wonder why.

that, and his early voting edge, and Clinton's masterful appearance last week, and two polls in the last two days showing Ford within the margin. I still think Corker's probably got it by about 4, though.

and if they're going to insist on an election day and not an election week, why does it always have to be on a tuesday? why not a saturday when people AREN'T working?

and when are people going to start demanding Instant Runoff Voting so voters don't have to worry about sacrificing their vote for the sake of strategy?

when are people going to start demanding that their votes - absentee, paper, digital, whatever - all be counted, fairly and accurately?

By law, at least in NY, you have two hours off work to vote.

Am currently printing out map & phone number of local county elections office for coworker who lost his ballot.

xp:

michigan had(has?) the broken line/optical scanner thing, which I always liked, and wondered why anybody would choose any other system.

This is bar none the dumbest shit you've ever said, which is a bold clam, I know.

IRV makes hella more sense than bullshit party primaries, for one thing. Also, how are we not emulating Italy right now, except maybe for enforcing accountability even less? Buhh??? Duhhh??!?

I wonder how much of this record turnout consists of gen xyz'ers and such.

anyway i went and voted this morning, not that anything is really a mystery in california.

"MR. PRESIDENT, YOU JUST VOTED ON A COKE MACHINE."

Arkansas looks likely to go straight Democrat in our constitutional offices (Gov., Lt. Gov., Sec. of State, etc.) Add that to our Democrat controlled legislature, two Democrat U.S. Senators, and three out of four Democrat congressmen... and you get a state that would probably vote for Bush over Kerry again.

And personally, knowing the political tendencies of America, I don't really want to see fringe groups getting more influence--or for the country to become even more segmented than it currently is--but you may disagree.

Anyway, god bless, but if the events of this decade hasn't spurred electoral reform, it seems like energies might better be directed elsewhere.

It's not statewide. I used the Inkavote optical scanner system this morning (woohoo, owned by a Malaysian gambling syndicate!)

I showed up at the 7am opening and there were already a couple people in line. As I was leaving, I noticed that someone was getting a provisional ballot, but I couldn't hear well enough to suss out what the circumstances were.

I voted Green for senator. I just can't bring myself to ever vote for Feinstein.

sounds like any dem editorial until you get to the immigration stuff - things is getting weird.

In New York, every office is almost always a Dem lock in the general election. Tho if I had to vote for Hillary to give the Dems a majority, it still wouldn't happen. And the Green Senate candidate was antiwar. And fuuuuuck the spineless Dems.

Wondering this same thing myself. All I saw were ancients, but, as I said, my voting machine was in a rest/nursing home.

I ended up voting for at least one Republican candidate in a local election precisely because she was the only candidate who ran a non-slanderous campaign. Thinking I maybe should've thought that through more, but whatev, local KY politics will never be anything short of hilarious.

"Since my kids are gone, I can say it: They can go ---- themselves!"

dude, where have the santorum.jpg pictures gone?