In my part of the world, we had 33% turnout and Republicans won most of the county-wide races. In national races, we have higher turnout and the Democrats win. This, in a nutshell, with local variation, is the story of being a Democrat.
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MikeJ
Hard to say what the turnout is in Washington. We’re all vote by mail, so ballots could continue to arrive until Friday or so. As it stands now, King County has a return rate of 22.35% and statewide it’s 25%.
C.V. Danes
And thus why the Republicans continue to thrive, despite only serving the needs of the wealthy. They control the grass roots discussion, which is where the vast majority of “low information” voters get their opinions.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
Turnout in MSP was, I’m sure, great. Good progressive democrats got elected across the board. As usual, most school levies passed in Minnesota.
Aimai
@C.V. Danes: well , i think that is backwards. I mean , their voters may be low information but at least they vote. Our voters seem to have little informarion and little inclination.
Persia
Our whole existence boils down to ‘the lurkers support us in email.’
danielx
Beginning to think that we should do like the Australians – people who don’t vote get fined. Oh yes, and move elections to Saturdays for god’s sake.
MomSense
Maine had the second lowest turnout in our recent voting history except for Portland and So. Portland where marijuana was on the ballot.
So the olds showed up and turns out they are all soshulists now. Voted to spend lots of money for roads, bridges, schools, investments in higher ed, etc.
Happy to report that all voting age people in my household voted – including one for the first time. He registered and cast his ballot in about 5 minutes.
MikeJ
@GHayduke (formerly lojasmo):
I wouldn’t bet on that. Hennepin County has 640,612 registered voters and 20,993 votes cast.
http://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/Results/CountyStatistics/6
c u n d gulag
I had quite an odyssey voting yesterday!
I went to our Town Hall, where I’ve been voting since I returned to NY State almost 5 years ago. I voted there in every election.
So, on my way to my physical therapy session for my back, I stop off to vote. But the building is closed for Election Day, and there’s a sign that directs me towards a Firehouse across town.
I go there after my PT, and once there, I find out that there’s no polling place there, and I’m directed to a different Firehouse – back across town, again!
I get there, park about 1/4 of a mile away, and walk with my cane to go and vote. But once there, I’m told I have to vote at the High School, which is about 200 yards from my house.
Everyone kept telling me that the Country Board of Elections had changed polling places – and went from 12 locations, to 8 – and that I should have gotten a yellow card with that information, and where I should vote.
But I never got that card!!!
So, after being directed to 3 polling places before finding the right one, and driving about 15 miles, to my eyes, it looks like voter suppression ain’t just for Southern breakfast anymore!
I will be contacting my local BoE today, to give them a piece of my mind!
And believe me, I know that I have precious little to spare.
raven
@MomSense: Friend of mine works Mercy Hospital.
SiubhanDuinne
@danielx:
Do that (if you mean Saturday only) and disenfranchise observant Jews and SDAs. I would support a round-the-clock 48-hour voting period, to include one weekend day. And of course, lots more early voting and vote-by-mail options.
danielx
@Aimai:
Aimai, unfortunately all too true. There is proof absolute in the person of Louie Gohmert that a substantial number of Republican voters don’t have much info but get out to vote anyway, no matter how much of a buffoon their candidate is.
I know, I know….his voters have lots of company.
MomSense
@raven:
They built a beautiful new hospital about 5 or so years ago. I’ve heard good things about them. We are lucky to have lots of great hospitals here.
danielx
@SiubhanDuinne:
Could work…or, while I’m fantasizing about it, Election Day as a national holiday. Anything that offers a viable option to this Tueday-in-November BS.
Redshift
@danielx: For that, you’d need a substantial majority of legislators who actually want people to vote. Chicken-and-egg problem.
Va Highlander
The frothiest elements on the right seem to also be the most motivated to vote. On the left, the most frothy seem committed to staying as far away from the system as possible and heaping scorn upon anyone that participates in this deeply flawed and corrupt system under which the rest of us labor. Or am I over-generalizing?
Whether deliberate or not, I cannot help but see DRONZE and Snowald and some other bugaboos of the left as just so many highly effective wedge issues, ones that our own putative allies never tire of hammering. It’s as if certain elements wish to keep teh kidz as disenchanted with the political process as possible.
MomSense
@c u n d gulag:
That is outrageous. I hope you shook your cane at them!
Chyron HR
I’m liking this Obama guy more every day!
Steeplejack (tablet)
@danielx:
I will repeat my mantra: voting day moved to Monday, make it a holiday (three-day weekend!) and make voting mandatory, with a small fine ($25).
Redshift
As long as we’re fantasizing, I’d like news anchors and pundits who understand that the only reason Democrats in VA frequently have “come from behind” wins on election night is because high-population counties take longer to report results than small ones. The only thing stupider than election horse-race coverage is election *night* horse race coverage.
aimai
@c u n d gulag: CUND–that is outrageous! Also, speaking as an election person (occasionally) the first person you contacted should have gotten on the phone and figured out exactly where you needed to be for you. Especially as it was a change up and they must have been fielding confused voters all the time.
Belafon
@Steeplejack (tablet): And require all mattress stores to be closed that day.
PaulW
Our voter turnout numbers across the nation is miserable and sickening. They need to make the election day a national holiday so people can get out of work to vote. And they need to set a rule that at least 55 percent of registered voters within a local/state/national election have to show up to vote otherwise the election won’t count and they’ll have to do it over… and have the political parties with candidates in said election foot the bills. If you’ve got members, it’s up to your party to get the damn vote out! (more voters = more likelihood of getting moderate-leaning voters to have a say)
aimai
@SiubhanDuinne: The whole thing is ridiculous. . I drove my mother to the polls yesterday because she is in pain when she walks although she used to walk there. We walked to the polls in the evening. But its just ridiculous to hold this on a tuesday. Absurd.
But I’m most concerned with the fact that we just have super low turnout for all interim elections. I wish the Dems would begin a massive, multi year campaign to turn voting into a regular thing for their own voters. They should be working at the highschool and college level with a “Make Your Mark–Vote Your Interests” campaign that educates and pulls voters to the polls specifically for local elections and mid term elections. Years ago I suggested locally that we think about creating “Democratic Clubs” and drop in centers so that when a young person moves away to college, or after college, there is one social center/drop in center where they can find a community and people to help them get settled. You have to get people voting early and encourage them to always vote.
Of course those are the very elections that both sides (dem and Republican) prefer to keep manageable by limiting the franchise and discouraging young voters from joining. One of the main reason so many professional politicians are anti the college age vote is not just because it skews democratic–Democratic local elites and players are also afraid that it skews weird and would upset local power hierarchies by pushing policies that are not to the benefit of local property owners and businesses.
PaulW
@Steeplejack (tablet):
I wouldn’t fine the voter, since that’s more of a punishment than an incentive. I’d fine the party(ies) that fail to get adequate GOTV efforts by forcing the election into a do-over if there’s not more than 55 percent turnout, and have the parties with candidates in that election pay the full costs of hosting the do-overs.
BGK
We had low turnout but we voted out the crazies on our city council and voted in vaguely-disappointing-but-way-less-crazy. Also too we have the first female mayor in our city’s history.
low-tech cyclist
@SiubhanDuinne:
Or just keep the polls open until 8pm. That should give both groups plenty of time to vote after sundown in November.
Mr Stagger Lee
@Aimai: Why not? When the strategy is hoping the Republican opponent is a wingnut, may do good in the short run, but sooner or later, the Democratic opponent is still going have to show the voter why he/she should be elected. The Republicans in some places understand that the wingnut brand is toxic and running smarter candidates, who are under the radar, good case is here in WA, with the battle over the State senate with a Republican who is not a nutcase(she has sucessfully fought the accusation of being a Bachmann wannabe), and at this moment has a slight lead over the Democratic candidate. One more thing, most people don’t give a dilly ding dong about party, it is like selling soap, got to go out and get them. Most people don’t read political blogs, so they may think Louie Grohmert is the guy on FX with a comedy show. Democrats need to do better messaging.
PsiFighter37
Herring now down by 53 votes. Dammit!
low-tech cyclist
Over at Benen’s place (where I apparently can no longer comment; seems you need Facebook or Google+ or Twitter to do so now), the headline is “Far right suffers another setback in Virginia.”
Sure, they didn’t do so well in the statewide races, but the GOP won ~68 of the 100 seats in the House of Delegates. Virginia is a purple state wrt the Presidency and statewide races, but the Dems are still getting their asses handed to them in the state legislature. WTF are they doing wrong? Are they even paying attention to things at this level?
MikeJ
@PsiFighter37: The election board site is still showing him up by ~500.
cleek
@Va Highlander:
ding ding ding. we have a winner.
handsmile
@MomSense:
How much I love (most) Mainers! Dirigo!
After we stuff ourselves full of your friend’s lobster catch, now we can light up a fat one! :)
And major kudos to Mike Michaud! His public revelation might stimulate campaign support in the state’s more populous and prosperous southern third (I have friends who were very active in Maine’s same-sex ballot initiatives). The sex bigots were always going to vote for LePig anyways.
Betty Cracker
@aimai: I like those ideas — the massive campaign to mainstream regular voting for Democrats AND the Democratic club idea. Maybe a physical location and/or at least a website for every district, staffed by volunteers and serving as a hub of official info at ZIP code level all in one place, including where to vote, ID requirements, links to candidate and issue sites, guides on issues and candidates from independent outfits, where to volunteer, etc. Much or all of this exists in disparate clumps, but there needs to be a nationally branded hub.
themann1086
We clocked 40% turnout in my ward, including 30% Democratic turnout (sadly, that’s good for off-year elections). While county elections were disappointing, we took 3 out of 4 school board seats (total previous number through all history: 1) and 3 out of 6 town council seats, despite our baffling failure to draft a candidate for one of the races (total previous number: 1). Very pleased with our campaigning efforts.
sparrow
The cheating doesn’t help. My friend was an election worker in Texas and an emeritus professor of a local University couldn’t vote – he had his registration, an expired license, and an old school ID card. Not good enough for a guy who apparently regaled my friend with stories from the Hoover administration. :(
Belafon
@PaulW: Sometimes I have to put my kids in a corner, or take away their cell phone privileges to get them to do the right thing. We were talking about it last night, and sometimes, you just can’t get people to the polls even with “The other guy is going to make your life harder.” The fine in Australia is small, but it gets nearly everyone to vote.
Tripod
These odd year elections are designed to keep the local power structures in place, whether it’s D or R leaning. It’s very much a voter suppression technique. Sometimes I sort of get it at the municipal level, especially when the local yahoos get clubbed.
Tripod
@low-tech cyclist:
Gerrymandering software is the boss these days. According to GOS the GOP was winning a bunch of VA lege seats with 50-51% of the vote. Options are a demographic long march or state electoral reform.
Ash Can
@sparrow: I wonder how many times that situation was repeated in TX yesterday. Since it’s happening at all, I don’t feel too guilty hoping it was enough to get the DoJ’s attention.
C.V. Danes
@Aimai:
Because nobody is motivating them to vote. When all the “low information” Democrats hear every day is some some talk radio loudmouth bashing Democrats with no rebuttal, of course they’re going to be motivated to stay home.
kc
@low-tech cyclist:
I dunno about Virginia, but in SC, many if not most of the local elections don’t even have Democratic candidates.
OzarkHillbilly
@low-tech cyclist:
It’s called “gerrymander”. Here in MO, Repubs can’t hardly win a statewide election, but they have veto proof majorities in both the state House and Senate.
My solution to low voter turn out? Free beer.
liberal
@Tripod: iirc the fact that dems are packed into urban districts has a bigger effect than gerrymandering.
handsmile
@Va Highlander:
Well, from where I sit (in a city that just landslide-elected an active and committed progressive to be its next Mayor) and on the issues on which I work, and the people I work with, yeah, you’re “over-generalizing” quite a lot. But I realize your assertion is axiomatic for many who comment on this blog.
I recognize that my anecdote isn’t data, but I suspect you have limited first-hand information on what “the left” is doing.
NonyNony
@SiubhanDuinne:
We should eliminate the entire concept of “Election Day” and make October “Election Month”. Or at lease “Election Week”. Why do we have this single day for doing this anyway? It would make more sense to have a smaller number of polling places open a number of hours for an entire month and let people vote whenever they can drop by and do it.
We’d lose the media circus around Election Day, which to my eyes would be another bonus.
C.V. Danes
@Va Highlander:
No, I think you pretty much nailed it :-)
c u n d gulag
@aimai:
Nope, no one seemed overly concerned.
Every official apologized, but didn’t do much beyond shrugging their shoulders.
Oh, but after I mentioned the sign at the Town Hall directing me to the wrong Firehouse, someone DID leave to take it down – this was at about 3 pm – and the polls in NY opened early in the morning!
I couldn’t have been the first one to complain! Maybe they finally did something, because I’m bald, over 6 feet tall, weigh about 260, and was carrying a metal cane.
Cacti
Well, think of the glass as being half full. In the case of Arizona, Republicans win in off year elections, but in Presidential years…Republicans also win.
OzarkHillbilly
@liberal: On a Federal govt level? Yes, it has an effect. On a state gov’t level? No.
TS
@danielx:
Administration of compulsory voting in the US would surely be a nightmare. Australia has a population of 23 million & about 15 million registered voters. Every state has postal voting for anyone who can’t vote on election day – which is always a Saturday. Major population centers also have early voting for up to 2 weeks before an election. Electoral workers and polling day workers are paid – the only volunteers are those working for political parties/candidates.
They other major difference with the US is that voting is only for parliamentary positions – reps and senate. On rare occasions there is also a referendum (Y/N questions) – but there are no elections for things such as Judges, school boards, attorney general etc. Also no President or Governor elections.
The fines for not voting – can usually be avoided with an accepted excuse – and some folks never enroll – so never get fined. About 90% of the electorate vote.
shelly
From a previous thread:
That’s only part of the trilogy. The other two is: 1. Voter Fraud 2. Blame the Media.
C.V. Danes
@OzarkHillbilly:
I think a crisp, new $20 bill would be better. It would juice the local economy, and people could spend it on beer or anything else they wanted :-)
kc
Why do ppl send texts saying “call me?” instead of just, you know, calling me?
rikyrah
Michael McDonald @ElectProject
Herring takes small lead overnight in VA AG. There’s still outstanding vote so we’re now waiting for certification then possible recount
6:36 AM – 6 Nov 2013
rikyrah
Sister Outsider @FeministGriote
The VA women voter stats exemplifies a bigger problem among white women, their inability to divest from white supremacy & see WOC as peers.
10:29 PM – 5 Nov 2013
rikyrah
GottaLaff @GottaLaff
It would have been 40,000 votes LESS close in Va. had they not purged voters.
8:18 PM – 5 Nov 2013
OzarkHillbilly
@kc: HA!
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah:
No matter who comes out on top, rest assured: There will be a recount.
Gin & Tonic
@low-tech cyclist: Why should some people get four hours to vote while others get 12 or 13?
Cassidy
Low turnout from Dems is a real problem in non-national elections. Oh well. I’m sure we’ll get a “just like Bush” or “dems are bad” post here in just a little bit to maintain the cool kid cred.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah:
I am a white woman who worked my ass off to see the Democrats elected in Virginia. There were a lot of us white women, working energetically for months. With nonwhite women and all sorts of people.
Would you stop throwing paint with such a broad brush?
It’s becoming offensive.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Remember when the Harvard alums who write the Simpsons sent old Yalie Mr Burns to the Harvard-Yale game, and Monty gloated that “Harvard barely won! I don’t know why they bothered to show up!”?
Politico? Anti-Dem concern trolling? I’m shocked!
Ed Kilgore:
The good news is, as many here and elsewhere predicted, the usual suspects are doubling down on “Conservatism can’t fail, it can only be betrayed.”
handsmile
@c u n d gulag:
I’m sorry not to have focused attention on your comment when I first read through this thread. However infuriating to read about or, far more, for you to experience, your determination to vote throughout your “odyssey” is really inspirational.
I hope you will obtain some measure of satisfaction in your complaint to the local BOE. I can’t speak to your “mind,” but you’ve got plenty of gumption to spare! As a fellow NY Democrat, thanks!
Ash Can
@kc: Ignore the text. Then, when the person gets tired of waiting for your call, and calls you instead and asks why you didn’t call, you can act all innocent and say, “I thought you were joking when you sent me a text instead of just calling me yourself. I thought you were being ironic.”
sparrow
@rikyrah: I’m also upset and kind of shocked about the VA women vote. But don’t forget that white girls aren’t some monolithic entity any more than “minorities” are. Single and young white chicks did break for McAuliffe.
shortstop
Good morning. I woke up happy that yesterday’s adventures in the Illinois House weren’t a dream; all our blood, sweat, tears and phone calls for marriage equality weren’t in vain. Yesterday morning, no one knew there’d even be a vote. Today, all we’re waiting for is Gov. Quinn’s certain siggy.
CaseyL
Voter turn-out, esp. in off-year elections, has been a fact and an issue for a very long time.
Washington state’s move to all-mail elections was supposed to be a solution – make voting easier, no need to figure out where to vote, no problem with not enough machines – and turnout still averaged under 30%, particularly in King County, the deepest blue part of the state.
People just aren’t motivated. I don’t think there are really that many purity trolls. I think it’s apathy and laziness, plain and simple.
Forcing people to vote is a bad idea, because if they don’t care enough to vote, they sure as hell won’t care enough to make intelligent voting decisions.
Scheduling elections for weekends is an idea that looks good at first. But I can just hear the new excuses for not participating in weekend voting:
“Weekends are for relaxing and having fun.”
“Weekends are the only time I have for real socializing.”
“Weekends are the only time I have for getting stuff done around the house.”
“Weekends are for family.”
“I’m in the real world all week. Weekends are my time, and I don’t want to have to deal with world problems and issues on those days.”
Etc.
ETA: BTW, in Washington state we have ballot drop-off boxes that don’t require postage, in addition to all the post-offices where you can mail in the ballot with postage. We really do make it as easy as humanly possible to vote. And voters still… don’t.
sparrow
@kc: I do it after I call first and no one answers for friends of mine that never check voicemail (I’m sympathetic because I’m terrible about checking voicemail). I might also do that if I know the person is busy and I don’t need to talk to them RIGHT THEN, so they can call me at their leisure – though in that case I would usually write “Call me when you get a chance” or something.
Ash Can
@Elizabelle: I’m a white woman who campaigns for Democrats too, but let’s face facts — white women in VA voting for Cuccinelli by a fucking 16-point margin makes us all look bad.
Bill in Section 147
@kc: I send those to my wife when she is at work and to my kids when they are in school. I send those to friends with small children and people who I know are in meetings or at jobs where socializing on the company dime is against the rules. I send those to people I will be meeting very early (may be asleep) or to my nephew who works the night shift on a rotating schedule with unexpected overtime (he is sleeping in the daytime and I never know when he will be awake).
pseudonymous in nc
@Redshift:
The fastest counties to report have their votes count double, dontcha know?
sparrow
@Ash Can: I agree that it looks bad, and I’m struggling to understand it, but I disagree that it means white chicks generally suck at identifying with women of color, which is basically what rykrah seems to be saying — I’m not sure that follows even if all of them voted for Cooch.
StringOnAStick
Colorado defeated the school funding tax increase and funding distribution reform, so I’m sad about that. Of the 11 winger counties that voted on succession, 6 approved of the idea, but good luck getting any further along that road, idiots. I guess the other 5 counties took note that FEMA, etc., was and is there to help with the post-flooding repairs to infrastructure, something I doubt they could afford on their own. The most TV-dramatic photos of the fall flooding were in the mountains, but the most damage as far as numbers of bridges damaged/destroyed was out in the plains, specifically many of these winger counties.
Hey, but at least we passed the law on how to take legal pot, and the money is supposed to go to schools and paying for the regulatory structure around pot, so that’s something.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
mai naem
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Listening to Mornin’ Ho, Ho was going on about the special election race in Ala with the corporate whore who won against the whackjob and how great that was because it was low turnout because it was a special election, at the same time talking about Mac just eking it out. So so glad that Al Hunt pointed out to him that the corporate whore won only 52/48. I wish Al Hunt was on more and bigger shows. He is so not a media whore.
Omnes Omnibus
@c u n d gulag: Don’t just contact the local folks. Let the state board of elections know as well. If it was suppression related, they need to know. If it was merely incompetence, they need to know.
Bill in Section 147
@Ash Can: I think the comment she was responding to was not that specific and it was the ‘you people’ tone.
ET
Was reading something about the the Virginia governors race about how some Republicans party hack was like Cooch almost won by sticking to his principles. Obviously he was pulling out the happy spin but came to the wrong conclusion. Yes the Cooch did well for a low turnout election that favors Republicans in red/purple states with a Democratic candidate who wasn’t all that fabulous.
But what he should be worried about is how in a low turnout election in an red/purple state, this republican candidate still couldn’t win. That should tell him something about would would have have happened/what could happen in a higher turnout election with a similar candidate.
Aimai
@Ash Can: but what was the white male vote margin? Why are white women republican voters somehow seen as more evil and attached to privilege than their republican husbands? That 16 points probably represents habitual republican voters who are showing brand loyalty and assuming convergence between cuchinellis positions and theirs. How does this have anything to do with white privilege when their concerns are probably largely an incoherent mashup of theocratic lunacy and anti aca freedumb?
StringOnAStick
@StringOnAStick: TAX legal pot, not TAKE legal pot.* ‘
* Though maybe requiring ingestion would take care of the winger issue here….
shortstop
@Ash Can: Each election, I’m more consumed with rage and bewilderment at people’s complete lack of ability to put themselves in others’ shoes. White women going for Cuccinelli. Married women, who apparently think their plumbing is safe from alien (Republican) invasion, going for Cuccinelli. Texas women who didn’t give a shit about the black and Latino vote being suppressed via voter ID, but are suddenly up in arms that they might not get to vote due to getting married and changing their names. In our own state, Republican Senator Mark Kirk finding it it in his heart to go against his party on two issues that personally affect him: same-sex marriage and care for stroke victims.
I get that even people who work at it are not always going to get what it’s like to be someone else. But I’ve really had it up to here with voters who don’t even try.
handsmile
@mai naem:
Apparently you were a far braver or more masochistic person than I could be this morning (sleeping in late from a de Blasio victory party), so I must ask: who was Christie’s most ardent fluffer among Joe’s frat buddies this morning?
Ash Can
@sparrow:
Unfortunately, a margin that large says exactly that. The only qualifier indicated by the vote breakdown is that it would be more accurate to say that older white women are the ones who appear to suck at identifying with women of color; the kids are all right. And I hope that trend continues.
@Bill in Section 147: Given the size of the difference (let alone the historical baggage in the women’s movement), I can understand the exasperation.
ruemara
@Va Highlander:
No, you’re not. They’re far too cool and aware to vote-on the left- and refuse to understand that the not showing up thing is why they can’t get as progressive a government as they’d like.
MikeJ
Virginia election board result page now saying all precincts counted, 100% of the vote in. Bad news:
Mark D. Obenshain 1,099,302 49.90%
DEM Party Mark R. Herring 1,099,083 49.89%
mai naem
@handsmile: Difficult question. They were all huge fluffers. Everyone from Willie Geist, ofcourse Ho, Mika, Mike Allen, Chuckie Cheese, Amy Walter, Cokehead Roberts, Michael Steele…Ugh.
@MikeJ: Is this including absentee ballots?
Kay
@Cassidy:
I don’t think it’s a “lack of enthusiasm” though, or a problem confined to what I think of as national “atmospherics”. Democrats have high turnout when we devote huge amounts of time and energy and thought to nearly-personal contact with our voters. That kind of commitment doesn’t happen in off-year elections. There wasn’t a whole lot of “enthusiasm” in 2012, honestly. It was just starting really early, laboriously identifying voters, and then making sure they could and did vote.
This is just how it is.
I suspect Cuchinelli probably matched McAuliffe on voter turnout because Cuchinelli probably benefitted from religious conservatives. They are willing to do the low-level voter contact work and they have an existing “network”.
Mark B.
@MikeJ: Sounds like there will be a recount. With that small of a margin, it could go either way.
Ash Can
@Aimai:
In this specific case, it’s the context. The progression of events was: 1) pre-election polls show McAuliffe with a double-digit lead among women (no breakdown of that female vote); 2) as election night progresses and it appears that McAuliffe is in fact the victor, comments start appearing in social media about women being one of the several groups deserving thanks for defeating Cuccinelli; 3) others counter with, “Not so fast, guys; take a closer look at the numbers for women;” 4) sympathetic white women such as me are gobsmacked at the racial breakdown while many black commenters react more along the lines of “same shit, different day.” I can’t blame them for their reaction of “SSDD,” and maybe I (and others) need to look at the difference between their reaction and mine for a little insight into the racial dynamics of the situation.
MikeJ
@mai naem: Beats me. The web page doesn’t say.
ruemara
@MikeJ: Ugh. And that tea party nutcase as AG spells bad things for the vote and for rule of law. Dammit, how did people not know to vote straight ticket? Or did they skip?
Felonius Monk
Also too, for the Morning After Walk of Shame, it is good to know that you are still alive after that horrible plasticized, frozen dinner you posted last evening.
I am happy that you are still “dread pirate mistermix” and not “dead pirate mistermix”.
Looks like New York is gonna have casino gambling big-time now.
beltane
I keep checking the news but I can’t find any reports of Wall St. bankers being carted off to their place of execution in the wake of Comrade de Blasio’s 50 pt victory. Only a few hours into the Glorious Revolution and he has already been corrupted by the capitalist scourge.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@MikeJ:
We suck.
Mark B.
@beltane: Be patient, comrade. It takes time to construct the guillotines. And there is a shortage of tumbrels.
MikeJ
@ruemara: More people voted for either Obenshain or Herring than voted for Cooch or TMac.
Both candidates for AG had 1,099,000ish. The gov race was 1,064,701 to 1,009,878.
The Thin Black Duke
@Ash Can: Exactly. The first step in solving a problem is acknowledging that a problem exists, and when too many rich white privileged Stepford Wives vote for a nutjob like Cuccinelli, that is a problem, and it’s unfair to be criticized for pointing that out.
OzarkHillbilly
@MikeJ:
There will be a long, costly and litigious recount. The good news is that nobody outside of VA will have to pay for it.
shortstop
@ruemara: Virginia doesn’t allow straight-ticket voting.
@beltane: I’d settle (for now) for a few of them being stopped and vigorously frisked at the corner of Wall and Broadway.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@ruemara: Like being an “independent” voter, I think “ticket splitting” is something that gives low-info voters the idea that they’re sophisticated. Got no data, just a hunch that a lot of suburban tote-bagger types told themselves they were putting a check on McAuliffe by voting R for AG. And when they hear NPR say on the car radio that Obenshain is doing something to shut down voting or make life harder for poors and women, they’ll think, “somebody oughta do something about that” before deciding whether they have time to run in to Whole Foods before picking Madison and….. I’m gonna say… Jethro (’cause we’re running out of willfully original old testament names) at viola lessons.
Xantar
@Aimai:
I think the idea is that it’s bewildering for women to vote in favor of trans-vaginal ultrasounds since they (presumably) are going to actually be affected. Kind of like gay people voting for Republicans.
Mark B.
@MikeJ: The Libertarian had 7% in the governor’s race, and there was no 3rd party candidate in the AG race, which accounts for the discrepancy.
handsmile
@mai naem:
With that revolting orgy, I can only hope children were ushered from the room. But what would one expect from the “liberal” MNSBC?
Thanks for the reply, but I’m sorry you had to witness it.
shortstop
@Xantar: Well, but the white, sometimes relatively and often indisputably well-off women who did so apparently think their plumbing will not be subject to alien (Republican) invasion. (Note that single women went for McAuliffe by large margins; married women went for Cooch — not sure if we have racial breakdown info on this.) So it’s not so much that they don’t understand they’ll be affected as that they don’t give a shit about the women who will.
Mark B.
@Xantar:Most of the Tea Party Republican women are well past any threat of child bearing. It’s an old white people’s movement.
Cassidy
@Kay: I think it a lack of enthusiasm: people don’t like voting. Everyone says they do, and they will when the market is saturated in an election year, and they even love marking the ballots, but I don’t believe people like doing the stuff needed to go vote, be it take time off work or skip lunch or wait in line or go to the DMV, etc. People hate doing that stuff. Of course, that doesn’t even take into account, completely, the voter suppression efforts in red states….
IMO, the problem isn’t ground games or motivation, it’s access to the ballot in the most convenient way possible.
Another Holocene Human
@MomSense: I wonder if there’s something to the notion that where multiple generations live together in a community, like Maine, or Minnesota, the olds vote for schools and infrastructure, but in a transplant asshole’s paradise like Scottsdale, they don’t. (School age parents would, of course, but not olds.)
Scottsdale voted down ALL of its measures. Also the total number of votes surprised me… I had always thought it was … bigger.
OzarkHillbilly
@Xantar:
Unintended pregnancies only happen to those women.
Marc
@MikeJ: Third party candidate in the governor’s race. (Probably leaching more votes from Cuccinellli, so thanks, libertarians!)
feebog
@MikeJ:
There still may be absentee ballots out there. Also provisional ballots. Let’s see what the final canvassing numbers are, this is incredibly close.
Elizabelle
If Obenshain were to prevail, could McAuliffe and Northam keep him on a real short leash?
As Virginians, we were treated to Cuccinelli suing to stop Obamacare, and suing UVa over climate research. Using our tax dollars and state resources to do so.
This, of course, under the administration of Republican Governor Robert “Transvaginal Bob” McDonnell (R- JD from Pat Robertston’s law school, Regent University – formerly named Christian Broadcasting Network University).
BUT: could a GOP attorney general pull those kinds of stunts with Democratic governor in charge?
Remember: Bob McDonnell was attorney general in Governor Tim Kaine’s administration.
And he was elected because a lot of voters mistook him for a “moderate.”
So I think having Kaine at the top kept the AG in check.
Another Holocene Human
@Chyron HR:
lord almighty, let that be true… Southern pride smacked down by midwestern understatement, bless his heart
Mark B.
Now that Obenshain has a tiny lead even though the votes are not all counted, is it time for the Supreme Court to jump in and stop the vote counting and declare him a winner, or do they only do that for presidential elections?
OzarkHillbilly
Probably, but a whole lot less likely having one by less than 0.01% in an off year election. At least if he wants to have a political future.
Elizabelle
@feebog:
Yeah, thinking on the provisional ballots.
Which is what people without ID, or turning up at the wrong precinct, and even those purged (part of the 40,000) would resort to.
Am sure the Democrats are working hard to see those voters show up, ID in hand, so their votes count.
mai naem
@beltane: Yeah but DeBlasio’s son with the massive Afro was passing out those Save Mumia tee-shirts.
shortstop
@Cassidy: Kay’s point was that enthusiasm for the candidate is, except in rare cases like 2008, not the primary driver of who votes. What matters is getting people to cast the vote. “Convenient access to the ballot” is exactly what GOTV portion of the ground game is — getting people to the polls or absentee ballots, removing obstacles one by one.
It’s not primarily about motivation, though many people misunderstand it this way. It’s about calling, emailing, texting and (irreplaceably) showing up at doors to make sure voters on our side know when and where to go, how to avoid long lines, where to get a ride if one is needed, how to get an absentee ballot, when it needs to be returned, etc. etc. Having done a lot of this work, I can attest that we don’t spend a lot of time getting people fired up; we spend it making it as easy as possible for people to vote and we don’t stop coming back until they do.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: Time for me to go when I start writing “one” when I mean “won”.
Another Holocene Human
@Redshift:
If VA is so smart why don’t they rearrange their precincts so it’s easier for the urban areas to canvass after the election?
VA pols always used to lecture everyone (about 20 years ago) about how they were about people not politics, the state, not the party, yadda yadda.
(MD of course was a third way paradise, where government services were done better as long as that meant keeping the asphalt, concrete, and petroleum lobbies in plenty of dosh. And parts of DC were abandoned. Jayzus, I am still scarred by that era. Oh, and Cthulhu’s fangs, the segregation! Freaky!)
Mark B.
@Elizabelle: I read last night that Virginia does not have provisional ballots. Shocking, if true.
Anya
@shelly:According to Limbaugh: 1. Blame the GOP Establishment; 2. Blame the Media.
Hal
On Jansing and co (terrible name BTW) Chris Jansing actually said the cooch did win among voters who thought the economy mattered most. Oh and McAuliffe was expected to win by a larger margin. First, I’m not sure jansing understands how elections work and second, who the hell thought this race wasn’t going to be close?
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
No broad brush in the least.
It’s a FACT – the majority of White women voted for Cooch.
McAuliffe’s gender gap was because of non-White women.
Same as with the 2012 Presidential race.
The MAJORITY of White women voted for Willard.
President Obama’s ‘gender gap’ was because of Non-White women.
I don’t see how stating the FACTS is a ‘ broad brush’.
Just as it’s a FACT that it was non-White folks that helped to save this country and keep the social safety net, because Willard won 60% of the White Vote.
60% of White folks voted for two sociopaths that vowed to shred the social safety net.
When I talk about folks ‘clinging to the Whiteness’ – it’s those 60%, who would vote for two sociopaths determined to shred the social safety net, instead of voting for the Black man who actually gives a shyt about them.
If you’re not part of that 60%, then I’m not talking about you.
Just like I’m not talking about you being a part of the MAJORITY of White women that pulled the lever for Cooch yesterday.
Another Holocene Human
@aimai:
What if your local democratic party is a school for assholes?
Meh, I’d rather look up the local Drinking Liberally when I move.
Botsplainer
Let me help on the nearly monolithic conservatism of white women of privilege (hereinafter denoted as “Stepfords”).
For every smart, sharp, sassy independent woman of means, you have about 10 Stepfords. A Stepford can be educated, but she has long foregone identifying herself through her own accomplishments and abilities – she is an authoritarian, tied to groupthink by marriage, by clan and by social status. She’s been convinced by the circular and insular information flow that she must vote Republican even against her expressed or avowed interests in order for her to maintain her status within her chosen peer group. As she has no real independent nature, she fears disruption of her economic life and the lives of those within her groups, and even though things have improved broadly under Obama, she is so thoroughly propagandized that she doesn’t see it.
These are the women who you see in tears on the White People Mourning Romney tumblr.
Petorado
@StringOnAStick: On the secession vote, it looks like six counties said no to that issue. The Denver Post seems confused about Sedgewick County’s results, and they now look to have said no. In Yuma County, the vote for seceding was 57 to 13 in favor of breaking away – that’s not percentages, that’s actual votes. The counties that want to break away are all sparsely-populated ag counties that are hemorrhaging residents, especially their youth, and for the whom the force for getting off their lawn is strong.
Three of the four fracking bans passed by large margins, and the one that’s going down has a margin of just 13 votes out of over 20,000 cast.
handsmile
@beltane:
Just wait until it gets dark, when the crime surge/scourge predicted by Emperor Bloomberg and Security Minister Kelly is unleashed.
I expect “wilding” by the weekend. And banksters being ferried to safety across the river to the gleaming towers of Jersey City and Weehawken.
Cassidy
@shortstop: I get that. What I’m trying to say is that voting is a throwaway action for most people. Unless they’re passionate about an issue, passionate about a candidate, and/or can vote with as little obstacles as possible, it seems to me that people tend to shrug and say “oh well” if voting is too hard. In other words, people aren’t passionate about voting as an action or function of civic duty.
Another Holocene Human
@aimai:
The sneakier ones just roll the students. I’ve watched it happen.
Kay
@Cassidy:
But that doesn’t explain the disparity between prez election years and midterms. I think the whole “Democrats don’t vote in midterm elections” thing is over-analyzed. It’s a huge pain in the ass to get Democrats to vote in any election. Campaigns just put more effort into it on prez years.
To me, the more interesting question is how do Republicans get Republicans out without religious fundamentalists? They’ve been shunted to the background since the Tea Party but I bet they’re mostly responsible for any under-the-radar Cucchinelli ground effort. They were absolutely crucial for George W Bush. Which group replaces that for a candidate like McCain, or Romney, or Christie?
FlipYrWhig
@ruemara:
This time, I guarantee the thought process for more than a few people was like this: “Damn, both Cuccinelli and Jackson are freaks, but I don’t want the Democrats to run everything, so I’ll vote for Obenshain because he hasn’t shown himself to be entirely insane yet.”
TyrenM
@sparrow: I would suggest this means over 50% of VA white women voted against THEIR own interests. Cucinelli = McDonald on steroids.
Another Holocene Human
@low-tech cyclist: Is voting disallowed on the Sabbath? I’m not aware you have to set fires to vote. What day of the week are Israeli elections, anyway? I hear it’s such a mitzvah some Haredi boys have been caught trying to vote more than once!
negative 1
@Ash Can: I haven’t lived in the southern mid-atlantic for 15 years but at the time the so-called soccer mom set was pretty racist, largely because of perceived ‘neighborhood decline’ if ‘those people’ moved next door or into their school district. Their politics tracked accordingly.
*Gets on soapbox* When it comes to elections, we’ve not really changed the predominant racial mindsets in the south (arguably anywhere). All we’re doing is hoping that enough non-whites will tip the scales, not actually attacking the idea that diversity doesn’t mean the whole world is ending. IMHO the VA women’s vote breakdown is a reminder of that — after all we’ve been hearing the message that women are a voting bloc, they may identify primarily in other ways (*cough* white *cough*).
Another Holocene Human
@Mr Stagger Lee:
No, they need to do more ground game. Duh. Ads help, but it’s all that in person heavy lifting that does D GOTV.
That’s why local grandees want elections on weird days all over the place. The masses will never be able to vote. In my town you can buy an election with $3000. It’s easy to miss when the election happens… in March… and the runoff… even easier to miss. Oops.
TyrenM
@CaseyL: Here’s hoping Spokane (the Idaton section of the state) doesn’t take over in Olympia anytime soon.
Mark B.
@FlipYrWhig: I suspect that Obenshain got a lot of the people who voted for the Libertarian for governor, and almost none of the Democrats. The Libertarian got about 7% in the governor’s race, and there wasn’t a Libertarian in the AG race. If you factor in that most of the Libertarians are in the party because they don’t think the Republicans are extreme enough, Herring did pretty well, and may yet win this thing, if they count all of the votes.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah:
This is what you put up:
No qualifiers whatsoever.
RosiesDad
In my township, Democrats won 4 of 5 seats that were up on the Board of Supervisors and School Board, both of which were previously occupied exclusively by Republicans. So it was a good night for the local party which has been trying hard to make inroads for the nearly 20 years we have lived here with limited or no success.
Cassidy
@Kay: Because we’re a country of popularity contests. The most popular shows on TV are about texting in to pick your favorite. We have websites, very profitable and popular websites, dedicated to ranking restaurants and businesses. There is a threshold of “uncool” that is passed if you don’t participate in major elections. If you don’t vote in a midterm or local, most people don’t give a shit, because odds are they didn’t either. In a national election, you’re the asshole in the office who didn’t vote.
Obviously, this is just my opinion on what I see and I’m not as heavily involved inside as you. We’re a country that hasn’t evolved past high school. Regular people, not junkies like us, hate campaigning, commercials, anything that requires the little bit of time to examine things. Sometimes, I’m convinced that if a ballot only had names on it, no party affiliation, no campaigns, no nothing, most people would happily stop in, pick the whitest male sounding name and be on their way and feel no different that they normally do.
Chyron HR
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Pithier: “Terry McAuliffe cannot fail, he can only be failed (by Obama).”
Another Holocene Human
@Belafon:
That’s the problem: they always say that, and nothing every changes. Working class people get dumped on by both parties. The biggest difference is women’s issues which is why you see the strong D single woman/mother vote.
The GOP is terrified of the Dems pulling a new New Deal, because that will motivate the working poor to crawl over broken glass to vote D again. If you dig into Medicare D and the PPACA fight you’ll see that it’s there.
Why “serious” Democrats fail to see that they are just useful idiots for the GOP is beyond me.
Elizabelle
I just wish people could pay as much attention to politics as they do to sports.
Because what happens to RGIII or the Steelers or whatever does not affect me much, personally.
I think a lot of people would riot over losing sports on TV before they rioted on not being allowed to vote.
Anoniminous
@aimai:
That’s what precinct organizations are for. From my experience the problem is they are moribund. If there had been an active precinct, keeping people informed, c u n d gulag would have known where to vote. Precincts talking to precincts means a student moving from his or her parent’s precinct would be contacted by the local precinct. Precinct workers can make damn sure people get out and vote by giving them rides to the voting booth, giving them absentee ballots and following up to check they filled it out and mailed it in, pounding the pavements, thanking people for voting (in my precinct we called a guy who had been a solid Democrat voter for 60 years (!) and it was the first time he’d been contacted by the party,) being a link between people in the precinct and their county, state, and national elected officials, and so on.
itgurl_29
@rikyrah: Now, girl. Don’t you know white women’s feelings are FAR more important than black women getting credit for the stuff that we actually do. Don’t you know that white women must be comfortable at ALL times, even if it means black women remain in the shadows and allow white women to take credit and benefit from our political prowess?
WOC, particularly black women, have saved this country from itself. Meanwhile, white women vote for forced vaginal probes, to defund Planned Parenthood, and to take food stamps away to allow low income families to starve. But we’re not supposed to state those facts. And we’re supposed to let them take the political spoils that we women of color actually earned. But again, who cares about that. White women and their feelings are what really matter.
shortstop
@Kay:
Exactly. Fundamentalist foot soldiers have been responsible for GOP GOTV for decades now. How is an establishment candidate going to replace that? McCain didn’t, even with Palin. Romney couldn’t. Christie lived without them precisely because he appealed to independents. What about if/when he’s a national candidate? Going to be really interesting to watch.
Another Holocene Human
@handsmile: I’m guessing he’s talking about the rural left, and as a mid-sized city dweller surrounded by, er, rednecks (imprecisely speaking here), he isn’t far wrong.
Although it’s complicated, and I’ll stop there before tl;dr.
handsmile
@Elizabelle:
You know who else thinks like you do? Noam fuckin’ Chomsky.
“Take, say, sports — that’s another crucial example of the indoctrination system, in my view. For one thing because it — you know, it offers people something to pay attention to that’s of no importance. [audience laughs] That keeps them from worrying about — [applause] keeps them from worrying about things that matter to their lives that they might have some idea of doing something about. And in fact it’s striking to see the intelligence that’s used by ordinary people in [discussions of] sports [as opposed to political and social issues]. I mean, you listen to radio stations where people call in — they have the most exotic information [more laughter] and understanding about all kind of arcane issues.”
http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/1992—-02.htm
You stinkin’ commie symp.
:)
Elizabelle
@handsmile:
I have wondered if the fact that us fed up politics-watching folk have blogs to comment on is why people didn’t take to the streets to protest the Bush-Cheney crap and banksters?
If you could divert the energies of sports watchers and chairborne commandos ….
itgurl_29
@Elizabelle: And why should there be qualifiers Do you not understand that that statement does not mean every single white woman in the state of Virginia? You’re derailing and trying to invalidate a very real concern that black women have because you think your feelings are more important than WOC getting proper credit for once. Quit derailing and address the issue.
Ash Can
@rikyrah: It’s statistics like these that really hammers home the point that the strength of America lies in its demographic shift. As these numbers clearly show, non-whites really are the ones preserving the greatness of America at this point, and there’s no reason to think they won’t ultimately restore it to a place of leadership in the world — and be smart enough to recognize, at the same time, that the US stopped being the leader some time ago, and be comfortable with its position as one of the world leaders. It can’t come soon enough, and I don’t expect to see it happen in my lifetime, but it heartens me to see it as a long-term possibility (provided the right wing can be kept from blowing everything up in the meantime).
MomSense
@handsmile:
I was so proud of Mike Michaud. I got to chat with him a couple weeks ago and he is the real deal. Genuine, cares about people, understands how policies affect our lives, listens well–a public servant in the best sense.
rikyrah
AND?
Get tired of folks talking about McAuliffe’s ‘gender gap’, as if White Women had something to do with it, when they didn’t.
What you should be asking is how a majority of White women could vote for a candidate who:
wants to stick transvaginal probes up in women
wants to ban birth control
wants to ban abortion
worked to deny poor and working class women access to decent healthcare through Planned Parenthood
How the banner of ‘ sisterhood’ never seems to extend to a certain group of White women in empathy for those not in their position.
handsmile
@Another Holocene Human:
Yes, thus the anecdote/data caveat in my comment.
But on thread in which the use-value of the “broad brush” is being debated, this is one swipe I’d like to have applied less readily.
feebog
Here’s a bit of interesting news from New Jersey:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/report-runyan-won-t-seek-re-election-in-2014
This is the second Republican Congressman to quit for no apparent reason other than Meh. A few more rats jumping ship and we will see a pattern emerge for the 2014 mid-terms. Anyone from NJ know what kind of district Runyan represents?
shortstop
@Elizabelle: I don’t understand why you’re going to the mat over this. In the larger scheme of things, your feelings as a Democratic-voting white woman are far less important than the documented problem of the majority of white women voting for the batshit candidate. Most people could pretty easily twig that the person rikyrah was quoting was speaking about prevailing numbers, not every white woman in existence. That you choose to belabor her lack of acceptable qualifiers while declining to engage with the real problem is weird. This really, really isn’t about you.
Another Holocene Human
@Ash Can: Exactly. Being a white person doing footwork for Dems in some parts of the country makes you a weirdo these days.
And why might that be? Who knows! But I’m guessing a lot of it is because even with an existential threat a lot of white women don’t think it will apply to them still.
How many idjits have you heard say “there are too many abortions” or other ban-lite kind of sentiments. They would never think THEIR abortion is unnecessary, just all those poor and young peoples’. That’s because they can vote for government intrusion all day long and it funnily–drug war–seems to only apply to one, hmmm, particular portion of the population.
White boys and Black boys smoke weed at similar rates, but whose mama is down at the courthouse posting bail?
It IS white supremacy. It’s the privilege of knowing that policing other’s lives will be interpreted to mean a police state for those people and not for ones self.
Is it any wonder communities of color hear the same rhetoric and respond differently?
ruemara
@Elizabelle: You and other white women are not hegemonic. While I respect and thank you for your efforts, it’s been fairly clear that a majority of white women do vote in lockstep with anti-women, anti-choice, anti-minority conservatives. If your initial response is to defend yourself, it’s understandable, but you have to concede that on the whole, you’re not the majority in how you vote.
Ash Can
@negative 1:
That’s for damn sure. I can tell you that you’ll find attitudes in the white neighborhoods and suburbs of Chicago that would make your hair stand on end.
Another Holocene Human
@Bill in Section 147:
When you throw a rock into a pig sty….
Anoniminous
The white women who voted went for Cooch. Blaming white women as a group doesn’t get us anywhere. According to the pre-election polling the support was there. Have to figure out why most white women didn’t vote and how to get them to the voting booth.
MikeJ
@FlipYrWhig:
Which is a nice theory, but Herring got more votes than TMac did.
Cassidy
@shortstop: It’s not that different than when a group of women have reached the “men are assholes” part of the conversation and, inevitably, there are one or two dudes present thinking “I’m not an asshole”.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah:
This reminds me a lot of the PUMA wars, Obama vs. Hillary, and I am just not in the mood for it today, rikyrah.
I am exhausted, and dismayed the election was that close.
Although I am happy that we have Barack Obama as president, and come January, purple Virginia will have a Democratic governor, Democratic lt. governor, two Democratic U.S. Senators, and — please, please — maybe even a Democratic Attorney General who won in a squeaker.
Virginia won’t be pulling any voter registration shenanigans or far right culture warrior crap, like North Carolina.
Plus I will have health insurance next year. That’s huge.
I am going to be happy about all of that.
Another Holocene Human
@Aimai: Well, good point, but let’s be realistic–it’s not much of an existential threat, the social conservative extremist agenda, now is it, for men? Unless they’re gay men. Even the sodomy thing is a laugh because it’s completely unconstitutional. Unlike some of these abortion restrictions because–who knows!
Sure, some straight guys are like, “I have a wife/girlfriend/family. This bullshit is bad for me too,” but most never think about it.
It is shocking that such a direct attack on women would not shake the white female (married) vote. I’ve tried to explain why this is in other posts.
MomSense
@Another Holocene Human:
You may be onto something–hadn’t considered it before.
shortstop
@Cassidy: No, actually, it’s like a conversation in which people who deal in facts and data are talking about how men, Southerners or superannuated people tend to vote Republican, and some self-centered man, Southerner or old person immediately starts bristling with outrage that no one explicitly acknowledged that not every single man, Southerner or old person is like that. It’s tiresome and self-absorbed beyond belief.
Another Holocene Human
@ruemara:
I’m gonna quibble with that because it’s all contextual. You have some pretty radical people in places like South Chicago, the Bronx, and they are involved in politics.
However, in some areas there is such a built-in GOP hegemony that the Ds are all depressed. I think being a “fuck the system” lefty is appealing because if you can’t win, then change the “game”. Of course, at that point it becomes a game. If scratched, a number of these pure souls actually do vote for Ds in national elections.
I don’t think the really frothy lefties have the numbers to make that much of a difference except in a really close election … so their presence in Southern states is really annoying. It just comes off as selfish to me.
Another Holocene Human
@ruemara:
Ooo ooo pick me! I was following the results all night. It was REPUBLICANS not voting straight ticket!
Btw, keep it up socons, conservatism can never be failed. Laughing so hard at your own footsoldiers leaving the top of their ticket blank or voting third party.
Elizabelle
@Mark B.:
Virginia still has provisional ballots.
Provisional Ballot Process for Voters Who Arrive Without Identification
I think the voter without ID still had to show up at the correct precinct, though. Researching that now …
MomSense
@Kay:
When I got home from work last night I announced to my boys that we were going to all go vote together–and even though we have been talking about local elections for over a month they had completely forgotten. Everyone complains about the volume of calls they make/receive in a presidential election year but it really does take all that voter contact to get the turnout numbers up. There is probably no way to do better unless we pull out all the stops for 5 or 6 off year and midterm election cycles to establish reliable voting. And not to go Gladwell, but there is also a need for some cultural mavens to make voting cooler. Let’s face it, Barack Obama made voting and caucusing and organizing cool. When I asked my son who registered and voted for the first time last night how it went, he said it was cool but he also made a point of telling me that he registered Democrat and that he wished he could have voted for Barack.
Another Holocene Human
@Xantar: Kind of like gay people voting for Republicans.
Yeah, but at least our reaction to that was “name and shame” or some version of the Lysistrata gambit rather than cry on blogs that someone was being a meanie for pointing out that some (usually wealthy, privileged white gay MEN) vote like dumbasses.
Whoever said you have to acknowledge a problem to solve it was right. Just ask Michelangelo Signorelli. Most of the guff he got from gays was not about his analysis of the problem, it was how he personally chose to address it, which was and is controversial.
ericblair
@shortstop:
That’s true, but it can also mean that the race/gender breakout is statistically useless, like it may be in the VA case. Are the pollsters lumping together two or more voting groups that act completely differently, and is there a better way to characterize the populations? Are you actually trying to do something with this data; if so, bad groupings will seriously interfere with that. It’s like saying that the weather of the United States today is 45 degrees and partially cloudy.
Another Holocene Human
@rikyrah:
I was going to get off this thread but… hold up here. You can’t make a statement like that and ignore white men’s voting numbers. There was a big discrepancy. Just as there are a number of men of color (by no means a majority) who vote with the GOP or with social conservatives when given the chance.
Tone in DC
@Elizabelle:
The NFL would never allow their games not to be televised. The league now has its own channel. And ESPN might as well be the unofficial NFL channel from August to February.
Not that non-football fans give a damn, but the NFL is a multi-billion dollar business. Roger Goodell could phone Congress and get through to Steve King, Hoekstra, DiFi, whoever, VERY quickly.
Back on point… it’s shame that more liberals/progressives/non-wingnuts don’t vote. I was only truly motivated to vote after that incredible fiasco 13 years ago, when the Supremes handed the keys to Dumbya, calling it an equal protection thing.
handsmile
@Elizabelle:
But as you know, some “fed-up politics-watching folk [who} have blogs” (or comment thereon) did “take to the streets” to protest those malefactors and more. Not enough of course. And I must add those who did were often derided for their political naivete.
Such a dynamic points in part to the enormously influential role of the corporate media that Chomsky dissests in Manufacturing Consent, for example.
Political activism is multivalent, as you well know from the hours you’ve recently spent canvassing for Democratic candidates in Virginia (while not neglecting your duties here).
But all this get way too tl;dr (as the kidz say) too fast (and I gotta get ready to meet a friend for lunch).
@MomSense:
How very cool for you! I like what you’ve been writing about Michaud; helps to put any “blue dog” misgivings of mine into context (though not entirely unaware or unsympathetic to what his congressional district would demand).
Another Holocene Human
@Botsplainer: the only important word in your botsplaination was “fear”
I have an inlaw who is that way. She is afraid of everything almost up to her own shadow. In her world the peasants are on the edge of the revolt at all times. Is it some sort of weird guilt complex? (She wasn’t born wealthy.) Idk, but she’s a fraidy cat and big time GOPer.
Maybe they know how precarious their position is, having given up a career to be a wife, and they know how easily wives are tossed away. Hm.
Mark B.
@Elizabelle: Thanks for the correction. I suspected that that couldn’t have been correct when I read it.
shortstop
@ericblair: Sure. I wasn’t implying that we combine men, Southerners and old people; thus the word “or.” Similarly, I said higher in the thread that I wonder if we have racial breakdowns for married/unmarried women voters — that would shed some light on the married women who voted for Cooch as well as further illuminate the black/white voting divide among women.
The point is that when people talk about majority voting patterns, it’s beyond useless to make it about one’s own feelings as a person who votes against the tide of one’s own demographics. That’s not the story.
schrodinger's cat
You know what will get the voter turnout to be high?
Declare election day a holiday and institute a fine of $50 for not voting.
MomSense
@handsmile:
He is to the left of Elliot Cutler on many things. Elliot, after much pressure, finally said he would not veto an increase in minimum wage. He is against teacher’s unions and supported Bowen as head of Education. Michaud was a union rep, supports unions generally, teachers, public employees. He also has a great record on the environment, veterans, health care, and has a 100% rating from NARAL.
Another Holocene Human
@rikyrah:
ding ding ding
seen this so hard outside of my politics junkie life
i fuck’n hate it
any white person who’s had serious interaction with this clack of biddy hens knows it… and I do know people who arrange their lives just to avoid large concentrations of white women
that’s just the truth. sorry if it hurts.
Mark B.
@schrodinger’s cat: That’s antipodal thinking there.
schrodinger's cat
@MomSense: When is LePage up for reelection?
schrodinger's cat
@Mark B.: Yeah I know that Australians have a fine for not voting,
many countries have a holiday on the election day so people can go vote. What is wrong with adopting good ideas where you can find them?
LanceThruster
What Turdblossom-type wedge issues for Dems be initiated to boost turnout?
schrodinger's cat
What I would like to know is how many women of childbearing age voted for Cuccinelli, broken down by both race and income. You know who is more judgmental of younger women, more than any man, older women.
ETA: Especially the moral scold religious types. You know them, most have a couple in their own families.
schrodinger's cat
@LanceThruster: Immigration.
Mark B.
@schrodinger’s cat: I agree with you. I know my reply didn’t make that clear. I kind of doubt we could ever pass a law requiring Americans to vote, but it would be a very good idea, especially if you combine that with increased access to polls with things like time off and free transportation. My workplace offered a few paid hours to vote, while I worked there.
MomSense
@schrodinger’s cat:
We have a three way election in November of 2014 between LePage, Michaud, and Cutler.
Pink Snapdragon
@ruemara: Virginia doesn’t have a straight ticket option. People have to vote for each individual candidate. As a longtime election officer, am still amazed at the number of people who undervote on their ballots. That is, they only vote for some offices or referenda and leave the others blank.
Suffern ACE
@Xantar: Personally, I think the bigger issue should have been the reporting of miscarriages. Miscarriages are quite common and I am not aware of any adults who have not had experiences with friends and relatives who have had them. The public reporting of the miscarriages with the smug “well what did you do to cause that” message is appalling. Yet it it would appear that there’s quite a few women out there who’d rather put up with that than see their tax dollars go for WIC.
schrodinger's cat
@Suffern ACE: Women done with all the birthing stuff themselves and who would like nothing better than to shame the hussies.
FlipYrWhig
@MikeJ:
Good point, actually. But Sarvis got some of the disaffected anti-Cooch votes too. IMHO there are probably a fairly large number of Sarvis (L)-Northam (D)-Obenshain (R) ballots marked by mushy Republicans repelled by Cooch and Jackson.
Matt McIrvin
@Pink Snapdragon: In many local elections, party affiliations aren’t even listed on the ballot. Apparently this is the case in Virginia (it’s certainly the case in Haverhill, Massachusetts).
The rationale is that local elections shouldn’t be partisan, but the effect is that you often don’t know even one bit of information about the candidates without doing research on all of them individually. Here, the campaign materials distributed for City Council and School Committee candidates has been remarkably uninformative: the incumbents tout their accomplishments but everyone else states meaningless platitudes.
taylormattd
@MikeJ: I was gonna say. Some of us live in blue cities in blue states, so, yeah. The experience of being a democrat isn’t the same for everyone.
Matt McIrvin
…Though in the Virginia AG election ruemara is talking about, I’m pretty sure party affiliation was listed.
Pink Snapdragon
@Elizabelle: They are constitutional officials independent of each other. Consequently, the Gov. can’t tell the AG what to do. On the other hand, the AG can try to tell the Gov. what to do but the Gov. can ignore him.
Pink Snapdragon
@Another Holocene Human: You are an ass.
FlipYrWhig
@Matt McIrvin: Parties were listed on my Virginia ballot.
LanceThruster
@schrodinger’s cat:
Sounds like a winner.
Elie
We had a low turnout in Whatcom County (vote by mail, 30%), but progressives ROCKED the County Council for the first time in at least 5 years. This is VERY significant because of the role the Council will play on approving a huge coal terminal on our beautiful coastline. The right wingers dumped in plenty of outside money and still couldn’t get it done — YAY!
fuckwit
NO. That is not acceptable. It is not historically accurate if you go back before Reagan. It must not ever be accepted. Not OK! That is just wrong. It has to be made stunningly, permanently incorrect too.
What ever happened to “think globally, act locally”? What ever happened to the 50-state strategy? Democrats must be local and active in local races, from city council to county offices to especially statehouses, where redistricting is done.
Unions used to own this space. LOCAL unions, organized locally and federated nationally, were a strong force in local politics.
Since the destruction of unions in the Reagan era, over the past 30 years the christian fundamentalists have owned this space, organized LOCALLY on a church-by-church, parish-by-parish basis, and federated nationally.
The time has come to take back local politics. I’m really happy with what the fast-food-strikers have done. We need more of this. Local organizing, a local infrastructure, deep in red states, and everywhere. Bringing people out to vote in every odd-year election.
fuckwit
@Kay: THIS. Democrats used to have union locals in every town. Now Rethugs have fundamentalist churches in every town. Progressives need to rebuild local infrastructure somehow.
fuckwit
@Elizabelle: Been saying that for years. Marx said religion is the opiate of the masses. I disagree. I think sports is the opiate of the masses.
Chris
@low-tech cyclist:
Optimistically, maybe it’s just the fact that there can be a lag between the shift in national politics and its impact at the lower level. There was an entire generation from about 1968 to 1994 during which Republicans were absolutely kicking ass at the national level (by wider margins than they ever have since, in fact), but Democrats at the local level remained entrenched and a lot harder to beat than McGovern, Carter or Mondale (especially in the South where you could vote Republican for president and still support your local Democrat because he was a lot closer to you than the national party). Wasn’t until the nineties and Gingrich that Republicans were able to overcome the “I hate the party but I still like my congressman” feeling.
Of course during all that time the right wing was doing everything it could to built up the infrastructure that supports it now (think tanks, media outlets, outreach to churches and religious organizations, etc). That’s what the Dems need to do at the local level if they ever want to see the Obamentum translated into local races and into something that lasts beyond the Obama presidency.
Honus
@OzarkHillbilly: a recount won’t change much. With voting machines recounts won’t change more than at most a couple hundred votes statewide. This was the case on two I worked in 2006 and 2008. (Webb and Periello)
Absentee and provisional ballots could possibly make a difference, but I’m not sure how many are outstanding. If the canvass certifies. Herring he’s pretty safe.
Chris
@fuckwit:
Or what you said.
We need to rebuild institutions (e.g. the things that endure beyond individual candidates, however good they may be, and encourage voters to show up and vote in every election), and local ones in particular. Unions are having a hard enough time holding their own in the Northeast and Midwest, let alone the rest of the country. Whether they can make a comeback or something else will be needed, I don’t know, but something like the union influence of sixty years ago needs to come back.
Patricia Kayden
I wonder if the White women who voted for Romney and the Cooch will flip in 2016 and vote for Hilary Clinton. I guess we’ll see. And I wonder why any woman (regardless of race) would be comfortable voting for someone as extreme as Cuccinelli. I cannot imagine him being the governor of a neighboring state. The horror!
johnny aquitard
The base of olds and the god-bothering has no higher priorities in their lives. Everyone else has jobs, family, kids, and not enough time or money to meet all these other obligations that they rank as more important when time is tight.
The people who are determined to fuck over Those People because Jeebus and Freedumb are like toddlers bent on getting what they want in that they are single-minded and totally devoted to that end; they are willing to use all their time and energy to achieve it and are willing to accept the lost opportunity cost.
Like a battle of wills with a toddler, if they want to they can simply devote more time to obtaining what they want from the adult than the adult can. You, the adult, will at some point have to deal with reality’s other demands of time or responsibilities. At that point the adult will carry the screaming child out of the store, etc. because the adult has appointments, work schedules, and other things that preclude matching the toddler in time resources. Learning moments require time, and children are adept at finding the junctures in adults lives when they have little to linger. This is why tantrums happen at the checkout and other places where the adult needs to go do something else. Those behaviors are most effective when adults are squeezed for time.
Conservatives, like children, intuitively know this which is why they are devoting so much effort now to making it harder and harder to vote. They will always vote, they for the most part don’t have children or are retired, or they will do anything for God. Most people, and poor people especially, time is one thing they can’t match them for.
The poll tax is more than just the monetary cost of these voting ids. I would say even a bigger and more deleterious tax is on time.
Pink Snapdragon
@Matt McIrvin: It’s the same way here in Virginia for all elections below delegate level. There are always voters who come into the polling place, look at the voting screen or ballot, discover that it doesn’t say who is a democrat or republican and demand that we tell them. Of course, we can’t, and they get pissy and even occasionally leave without voting.
Mnemosyne
@Patricia Kayden:
A few of them will, but not that many, because it’s tribalism at this point. Their tribe votes Republican, so therefore they vote Republican. Even the ones who vote for Hillary will still vote for Republicans down-ticket.
Honestly, white people over about 40 are pretty much a lost cause, because they’ve been too infected with Reaganism (and I say that as a 44-year-old white woman). Better to concentrate on the women under 40 and get them to be regular voters.
danielx
@Mnemosyne:
True to a point…but I live in the reddest county of one of the reddest states in the country, and I can tell you for a fact that even some of the dyed-in-the-wool Republican types (most particularly women) are getting sick and tired of godbothering and Tea Party antics. Those, that is, who aren’t Tea Party types themselves…case in point being 2012, when Richard Mourdock got his ass handed to him due to uncontrollable verbal diarrhea while Mike Pence* (another godbotherer, bless his heart) was running over John Gregg like a road grader. Richard Lugar could have held his seat as a Republican senator until he had a beard to his ankles, but noooo…the Teahadists had to have their way. Since the shutdown local commentary has been acerbic, to put it mildly, amongst local business and corporate types. They don’t love Obama and would never vote for him, but they do have a grasp on the phrase “the full faith and credit of the United States” and might could vote for a Dem or stay home if the alternative is voting for Ted Cruz or his ilk.
*Taking over from the loathsome Mitch Daniels, who is currently making himself unpopular as president of Purdue University. I’ll tell ya, it’s damn difficult being a lib in Indiana.
JoyfulA
@Kay: I’ve noticed in years past that GOP areas have hardly any voters per precinct, and Democratic areas have stuffed precincts and, in presidential years, sometimes horrendous long lines.
When I noticed this effect via involvement with GOTV efforts, I raised cane to get more precincts in bluer townships (“but that costs the county money!”) and didn’t shut up until it happened.
Matt McIrvin
Keith Humphreys notices that the polling fairly accurately predicted McAuliiffe’s vote share; it just underestimated Cuccinelli’s and overestimated the vote for Sarvis, the Libertarian:
http://www.samefacts.com/2013/11/polling/only-mcaulliffes-polling-was-accurate-in-virginia/#comment-201290
To my eyes, there could be no big mystery here in the polling discrepancy; it might just be a typical case of a lot of people saying they’ll vote Libertarian and actually voting for the Republican. Third-party candidates almost always poll better than they actually do, with much of their stated support going to a major party.
Matt McIrvin
…Kristen Soltis at HuffPo Pollster thinks the same thing about Sarvis, and Mark Blumenthal mentioned it as a possibility.