Today is the first day of early voting in Florida, and I was there within an hour of the polls opening. I was more moved and excited about the chance to vote for the first woman president than expected this morning. To mark the occasion, I decided to wear all white in honor of the suffragettes — as Hillary herself has done.
I was much less fancy, of course — decked out in white shorts, white t-shirt and white oxford button-down against the 70-degree morning chill. This being Florida, anyone who noticed my snowy ensemble probably assumed I’m a surprisingly Caucasian-looking Santeria initiate. But it meant something to me.
Anyhoo, our election day polling place is right around the corner at a church, but the early voting location is at a library several miles away and near a fairly sizable retirement community. There were no lines before 8 AM, but the polling place was doing a brisk business. There were signs for candidates lining the driveway and thickly planted in every grassy median in the parking lot, mostly for Republicans.
There were two electioneering ladies in the parking lot, one holding a conventional sign for the more conservative-leaning candidate running for a non-partisan circuit court seat, and the other holding a three-tiered tribute to Trump-Pence. The latter featured a standard yard sign plus two homemade signs fore and aft, all held aloft on a single yardstick.
I suspect the holder of the Trump-Pence sign compelled her grandchildren to construct the homemade components, given the quality of the penmanship and the volume of glitter and streamers. That lady was wearing Mickey Mouse ears; I shit you not.
So, I voted. And for the next 15 days, I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure other Democrats vote too. Let’s win this thing — bigly.
germy
Darrell Castle?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darrell_Castle
Elizabelle
Yea Betty!
Out there, citizens.
BR
And everyone else: GOTV HERE — sign up for something. Only two weeks to go, let’s run the table and win the house. I know everyone can find time for two weeks to volunteer. And if you already have signed up, sign up for another shift.
clay
Congrats!!!
Florida resident here, but I won’t be able to vote until Thursday at the earliest.
You may wish to amend your post however, because it is illegal to take a picture of your ballot in Florida (as well as most other states):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/03/photo-polling-place_n_6095746.html
Woodrowfan
no photos of the trump sign??
Cermet
Looks more like a massive win (320 or more?) if small hand’s best bud doesn’t interfere …putin the pig, that is.
amk
Yes bigly.
Also. Too. Patrick Murphy.
Cckids
@germy: He was on my ballot here in NV, too. Right at the top, because we list ’em alphabetically. I took a millisecond to think “wtf?”, then clicked for Hillary, smirked at Trump down in last place, & voted “D” all the way down.
Two other women were finishing at the same time as me; the older one met her husband & they promptly began a discussion about “getting the illegals out”. The other, probably in her early 40’s, handed her voting machine card back in & did a both-fists-to-the-sky celebratory little jig. It was her first vote after becoming a citizen earlier this year. She & her family, clearly all thrilled, were off to a festive dinner. I greatly preferred her attitude to the couple’s.
It was the first days of early voting here in NV this weekend. Pretty long lines-an hour Saturday & hour & a half Sunday. Worth every minute.
Plus we have nifty new “I Voted” stickers that show the Vegas skyline. Fun!
Betty Cracker
@Woodrowfan: I was so tempted, but I didn’t want to talk to them, and it seemed rude to photograph them without permission.
Rock the World
How are early voting numbers looking?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
It’s so appropriate that a Trump electioneering recruit wore Mickey Mouse ears. As a grandmother with a composite yard sign embellished with grandkid elements. It kinda captures the gestalt of this election.
@Betty Cracker: Your good manners are our loss, but your instinct was correct and you did the right thing, in my view.
Punchy
It just struck me that for peeps under the age of, say, approx. 30, every time they hear about Nixon’s Watergate, they assume it was controversy/scandal involving water.
BlueNC
@BR: Voted early in Durham, North Carolina, on Thursday. 30 minutes total. According to early numbers, 7% of registered Durham County voters had voted as of Friday. (Note that Durham is one of the top three most blue counties in North Carolina.) I would describe the people in line as Very Determined.
Major Major Major Major
@Cermet: Their latest October Surprise is …something about McAuliffe, but it’s got ‘Clinton Ally’ and ‘FBI’ in the headline so I guess they’re going with it.
ETA: And I see RT reported on the newest Wikileaks dump 30 minutes before Wikileaks dumped it. It’s like they aren’t even trying.
Oldgold
Yesterday, on Meet the Press, a Romney advisor, Stuart Stevens, said the Trump political operation is more akin to a rock concert tour than a presidential political operation. These figures seem to validate his observation.
Paid staff sizes, per FEC reports: Clinton-809/Trump-152.
Trump’s campaign seems to consist of wandering around 5 of 6 states to have rallies where he preaches to the converted and calling Fox and Fiends for a shout out to his hallelujah choir.
Botsplainer
I find myself wondering just how much old Soviet KGB ratfuckery was used to build up the American right wing, given the disdain that Putin seems to have for American liberals.
JPL
@BR: The phone bank near me is for calls to FL. I did receive an email though, looking for help canvassing in Atlanta. It does appear that the campaign is starting to make a move for GA. This morning, I saw three Hillary ads. Two of which were priorities USA.
Major Major Major Major
I keep trying to vote early in San Francisco but I can’t figure out which of the 16 ballot pages Hillary is on.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Hmmph… I would’ve thought being rude to a Trump supporter was required behavior.
amygdala
@Major Major Major Major: I hear that. Every general election, I thank the Founding Dads for sheltering us from direct democracy.
liberal
@Major Major Major Major: Yeah, direct democracy is an amazingly terrible idea. It doesn’t seem that way at first blush, but empirically, it’s just awful.
Betty Cracker
@Major Major Major Major: That’s the second time that’s happened, IIRC. (Putin’s agitprop shop getting the WikiLeaks dump before the general public, I mean.) I heard something on NPR (I think) that explained Putin’s animosity toward HRC: She questioned the legitimacy of one of his landslide “victories,” so he’s attempted to delegitimize her. It’s utterly unsurprising that Trump would feel an affinity for a fellow vindictive dickhead like Putin and become putty in his hands.
Tyler Forrest
Dropping my Oregon ballet in the mail today. Hosting my trump voting inlaws this week. Our two year old has been practicing “babba, vote for Hillary!”
I wonder how many grandparents realize they are in the processes of wrecking their image with their grandkids. Finding out my grandfather voted for Nixon twice was bad enough, but it would have been worse if it had been Wallace.
Major Major Major Major
@amygdala: @liberal: Turns out. And the worst part is, the only way to get rid of all these plebiscites in CA is a plebiscite.
geg6
As I mentioned in the last dying thread, I am so jealous of all of you in early voting states. I just want to get my vote banked and get that anxiety out of my system. It must feel good. I could concentrate more on my GOTV activities if I just knew I’d already finalized my vote and didn’t have to think about it any more.
I just want to touch the screen for Hillary Clinton, Katie McGinty (US Senate), Erin McClelland (US House) and Mike Rossi (PA House). Sadly, not even a Dem wave will probably bring the last two over the finish line first. Nice that it’s so many women on the Dem ballot, though.
Roger Moore
@Cckids:
Which is a bad system. Studies have shown that candidates at the top of the ballot get significantly more support than ones at the bottom. California actually has an elaborate system where they shuffle the letters and alphabetize according to the shuffled alphabet, with different precincts rotating the candidate at the top so there’s no consistent advantage.
Major Major Major Major
@amygdala: @liberal: I used to vote no on almost all plebiscites (especially in CA where they’re mostly constitutional amendments, WTF) because I don’t think that it’s the right way to legislate. But then I realized that’s sort of like “I’m not voting because the system is corrupt!” It makes you feel good, and you’re after a fashion not wrong, but it doesn’t prevent bad things.
bemused
@Betty Cracker:
Scratching my head why the lady wore Mickey Mouse ears but the answer probably wouldn’t make any sense.
The Pale Scot
We want pics!
hovercraft
@Betty Cracker:
This was how I felt when I voted for her in the primary, but I’m sure it will be multiplied a thousand times on election day. Can’t wait!!
Oldgold
I own a shack in a part of Florida where the elephants go
to die. Yesterday, I wandered up through the gold plated beachside residences for 5 or 6 miles. I saw 4 Hillary yard signs and 2 Trump signs. More interesting, I saw dozens of Rubio and Rooney signs.
amygdala
@Major Major Major Major: Yeah, we gotta work with the system we have, flawed though it may be. At least it’s easy to vote early in SF.
Avi
Two more Hillary (and Murphy, and No on 1) votes in the ballot box in Florida. I dropped off both my mail ballot and my mother’s at the Supervisor of Elections office last Thursday.
As for signs, here’s what I’ve got: Driving through a nearby well-off neighborhood that was lousy with Romney signs four years ago, I saw no Trump signs. None.
low-tech cyclist
Good on ya, Betty!
And I don’t know about this morning, but yesterday morning was almost chilly down your way. (We were down in Plant City for my FIL’s 75th birthday.) This Yankee had to actually turn the heat on.
Maryland doesn’t seem to have early voting, so I’ll wait another 15 days for casting my vote.
prob50
The photo of your ballot marked for “Hillary Rodham Clinton” was a great touch and inspiring as well. I’m not a woman but I will gladly and proudly be casting my vote for HRC very shortly, I just got my CA vote-by-mail ballot on Saturday and have to wade through all the Propositions first, though.
The Pale Scot
@bemused:
Maybe it’s a guerilla OP like Ladies Against Women?
prob50
@Oldgold:
More like a “Millie-Vanilly” (sp.?) tour.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
I’m voting absentee today here in the reddest county in Misery, and no we’re not in the batshit, crazy, god bothering southwest corner of the state. We went 77% for Rmoney in 2012, that’s how red we are. I’m guessing we’ll hit 80% for Cheeto Donnie.
We have to either request an absentee ballot by *fax*, yes, fax, that’s how backwards this POS state is. Or go to the “local election authority” which in my case is the country clerk at the county courthouse. It’s all of 10 minutes out of my way so not a big deal.
Clinton won’t win here and I seriously doubt we’ll oust the odious Blunt. I blame me for all of this: every state I’ve moved to, they turn red. When I leave, they revert.
dexwood
My wife and I voted on Saturday morning and it was our pleasure. I can’t tell you how satisfying it was for this old, white guy to darken the oval next to Hillary’s name. Most enjoyable. And, if I thought I was happy about it, damn, you should have seen the grin on my Native American wife’s face. She wore her “I Voted Early” sticker proudly the rest of the day.
SFAW
Betty –
“Vote early, vote often”
I expect at least two more posts like this from you, i.e., “so I just voted for Hillary (again)”
And some wingnut will see that, and get Alex Jones and Pond Scum Steve Bannon on the job. (Apologies to pond scum everywhere, by the way.)
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
As for yard signs, I saw a yard with only 2 signs last week. One was Trump/Pence, and the other was for the Democratic candidate for County Prosecutor, who happens to be black. This is a busy street (residential and commercial and this stretch heads toward heavy commercial concentration) on a road with dozens of Trump signs and perhaps 2 Clinton signs.
Major Major Major Major
@SFAW: I don’t want poor Betty getting the countertops (or worse!) treatment ☹️️
hovercraft
@Major Major Major Major:
From what I heard on msnbc, the wife of a Deputy FBI head who was involved in the e-ghazi investigation, was encouraged to run for some office by Terry MacCauliff, and according to the talking points, the “Clinton’s gave her 600K.” Now since obviously they could not have given her that kind of money, it probably involves fundraising, by the Clinton’s bestest most closest friend ever. So Hillary bought off the FBI and the investigation was rigged, rigged I tell you.
Roger Moore
@Major Major Major Major:
I don’t think it’s a lack of effort; it’s a lack of understanding. They don’t live in a real democracy, so they lack a practical understanding of how they really work. It shows up both in how they don’t get the theater of the process right and in how they think the stuff in the Podesta emails is devastating rather than boring.
OzarkHillbilly
@Avi:
So he’s not getting a single vote there, right? (I do wonder at the mix of pride and embarrassment these people will feel when they pull the lever for the dumpster)
burnspbesq
Enjoying a rainy Monday morning (I don’t have to get on the freeway). Lightning in a pitch-black sky is pretty cool.
Waiting for my mail-in ballot to show up. The top is easy, but there are too damn many initiatives and referenda. My fellow Californians, elect me dictator-for-a-day and i promise i will do away with this nonsense.
JPL
@hovercraft: The dates don’t work though. You have to pretend there is some back to the future thing.
Bobby Thomson
@Betty Cracker: good call.
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore: yeah, the cultural gap feels very much like our spooks not really understanding the elections they’ve tried to swing. I would say that “even by that standard they’re ridiculously incompetent!” but that wouldn’t be true. Well, ok, maybe it’s true. The scale of our operations was much bigger. Still, how ridiculously incompetent!
JJ
@hovercraft: I can’t wait either. She accepted the nom on my birthday. Best bday gift ever.
burnspbesq
@hovercraft:
Outsourcing my reaction to this latest nonsense to Drum.
O. Felix Culpa
I voted Saturday, the first day of early in-person voting in NM. Long lines all day at the early voting centers, which is not the norm. Many enthusiastic and determined HRC voters in our region and so far, Democratic turnout outpaces Republican by about 2 to 1. GOTV efforts continue to ramp up regardless; we’re taking nothing for granted.
Casting my vote for Hillary was much more emotional than I anticipated, in a very good way.
hovercraft
Lying liar lies.
MazeDancer
Congratulations, Betty! Wearing white is a great idea, well done!
Your feelings, hovercraft’s expressed above, and most of us reading BJ about being so thrilled voting for the First Woman President are among the many Democratic voter aspects not being covered by the media.
Beyond the first woman, people are excited to be voting for Hillary, herself. The impressive, experienced, strong woman battling through the insane misogyny and staying calm and committed to public service. Twitter abounds with vids and pics of people thrilled and teary-eyed to be voting early for her.
Trumpiacs covered incessantly. The “two bad candidates” group get plenty of airtime. The much larger group of Dems excited by Hillary, especially women, nothing. Maybe on election night. Hope so. (knocking wood for all good election things.)
Bobby Thomson
@liberal: See generally California. See also Brexit.
SWMBO
I dropped W off at school at 8:20 and went to vote. The Pompano Beach Civic Center was full of cheerful, happy poll workers. There was about 20 people voting while I was there. Plenty of voting machines and no lines. It took less than 15 minutes to vote (and that was looking up candidates and ballot initiatives on my phone). Usually the Democratic Party of Broward has someone outside the voting place with a card with recommendations for who/what to vote for. I got there early enough they didn’t have anyone in place to hand out the recommendations. I voted for Hillary and the straight DEM ticket. It was harder to decide whether to retain justices but when I looked on my phone, the League of Women Voters had a thumbnail bio on each one and who appointed them to office. There was a brief synopsis on major cases that told how they ruled in those cases. Any time they ruled more than once in Rick Scott’s favor, I did not vote to retain them.
@bemused: To hide her tin foil?
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
Elections in the South, huh? It’s inconceivable that electioneering like that is legal. Back when we had polling places here (WA), any signs like that would have been torn up, and anyone seen planting them, or carrying (!) them within sight of a polling place would have been instantly arrested. SMDH….
amk
@hovercraft: hillary: trump who?
O. Felix Culpa
@hovercraft:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
That is all.
dexwood
@O. Felix Culpa:
We voted in Albuquerque Saturday. There were a lot of people, but the check in and voting process was smooth, fast, and efficient.
BC in Illinois
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: I’m in the (much more blue) St. Louis area* and I am much more hopeful about ousting The Odious Blunt. The commercials – – Blunt, resident of Georgetown, dinners with lobbyists instead of Missourians, wife/lobbyist, all three children/all lobbyists, Kander in Afghanistan, Kander with a rifle – – have been great. And constant. And if there is a wave, and GOPers stay home, depressed, then we may be able to send MO’s 10 Electoral Votes to HRC. The percentages aren’t so very far off . . .
We can hope . . . and contribute and canvass. I really wasn’t all that good as a phone canvasser, but we’ll see about door-to-door this week.
*BC in “Illinois” is an anachronism.
prob50
@burnspbesq:
Only if you let me keep MY nonsense intact. Priorities, ya’ know.
TS
@SWMBO:
A perfect decision making technique
Shana
@Cckids: My brother, who lives in Las Vegas, told me 40,000 people voted in Nevada the first day.
John D
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
The solution is obviously to move to a state that is already red, then repeat the process.
hovercraft
Josh Marshal says: The emergence of bitter and dejected low-energy Trump.
So SAD!
ETA forgot the link, just go to TPM
JMG
Just got back from early voting in Lexington, Mass. one of the bluest towns in our blue state. Turnout was not massive, but better than I expected for 10 a,m. on the first day of early voting in state history. Constant line of about 10 people. A certain amount of confusion in that a number of voters (almost all voters were older people) did not know their precinct number because they’ve just voted at the same polling place for years without knowing number. They had a map to help. Also, free parking on both sides of the street in front of the town building where early voting is taking place. Well organized.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@BC in Illinois:
Good luck. I last phone banked for Judy Baker’s losing 2008 Congressional campaign against the equally odious Hulsof back before the wingnuts down the street from me gerrymandered the crap outta everything.
I’ll give Kander this: he’s had the money to go toe to toe with Blunt. But I’ve learned in 20+ years of living in red,rurl Misery, never underestimate the redness of this state, even in a wave election. And if Koster loses, we’ll all find out on Jan 1 that we’re living in Kansas and never even had to move. That’s how seriously batshit insane this legislature is.
Lee
My wife & I are going to vote today (North Texas).
Yesterday the Dem running stopped by the house asking for our vote (we primaried for Obama in 08 so they had our address). We let her know our plans to early vote.
I read somewhere that in some areas the early voting might be so popular & 1 sided that the election (in that area) might be determined before Nov 8th.
Roger Moore
@Major Major Major Major:
Voting no on worthwhile propositions because you don’t like the system is a bad idea, but voting no on reasonable sounding but flawed propositions seems entirely reasonable. The thing I hate about direct democracy is the take it or leave it aspect; there’s no chance to work out the inevitable flaws of basically good ideas. You’re stuck with what the author thought of, which often includes not only mistakes but actual attempts to put one past the voters. Even worse, the California system makes it so that the legislature can’t meddle with ballot propositions, so the inevitable flaws require more ballot measures to fix.
bemused
@SWMBO:
Tin foil or various other reasons that are understood only by people living in the wingnut bubble.
hovercraft
@amk:
Is that a question.
@O. Felix Culpa:
Exactly this!!
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
@Betty Cracker: No that is not it.
He wants to de-legitimize the election which therefore de-legitimizes democracy and the US Gov’t. In the world chess game that equals more Russian influence.
Wanting to see Trump win is secondary.
amygdala
You know, as painful as it would be to watch, a 4th debate could help with taking the House.
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore: gosh, it’s like we have legislatures for a reason.
I do vote no on ones with flawed language because the unintended (or in some cases intended) secondary effects can be horrendous. gosh. Legislative language is so hard to write right. If only we had some sort of professional class of people to make sure it was done properly.
Lee
@The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge:
In Texas there is a certain distance the signs have to be away from the polling place.
In one place I voted awhile back, that distance was the middle of a parking lot so all of the signs were along a small patch of grass along the road.
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Well there you have it. I guess Trump wins the election then.
Seriously people. What is this fascination with yard signs? It means nothing! It indicates nothing.
Matt McIrvin
I voted this morning too; it’s the first day of early voting in Massachusetts, and it’s the first time there has been in-person early voting (as well as no-excuse vote by mail) here.
Early voting was in the basement of City Hall; the signs leading to the voting station were scant and no electioneering was going on anywhere nearby. There were only a few people at the voting station, all elderly white people. I’m sure the crowd will diversify a little for the times when they’re open outside of business hours.
It was slightly more cumbersome than Election Day voting, because the ballots have to go in sealed envelopes to be sent back to the individual voters’ home precincts for counting on Election Day. The poll workers haven’t quite gotten the crowd flow down to a science yet, though the small crowd meant it hardly mattered. Instead of the printed voter lists the precinct workers have, they were managing the voter rolls on a tablet computer, and could scan drivers’ license bar codes to expedite the process (though they were very careful to note that this was optional and ID was not required). When they checked me in, a small printer printed out a receipt-like slip that they kept at the check-in table.
After being checked in, I got a yellow envelope, a marker pen, a ballot (which was a regular optical-scan ballot, only pre-creased to go in the envelope), and a sheet of instructions, which seemed to actually be the instructions for mail-in voting (the only difference was the part about mailing the envelope). There was a long and mostly unoccupied line of cubbies for voting. I had to fill out the ballot, stick it in the envelope, seal it and write my name and address and sign an affidavit on the front. So there’s not 100% assurance of ballot secrecy at the time of voting, though I suppose mail-in voting is the same way.
After doing that, I handed the envelope back to the people at the check-in table, and they gave me my “I VOTED” sticker, stapled the printed slip to the front of the envelope and stuck it in a box.
Peale
@Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious: bAsically the message is “you’re living in a place that’s just as corrupt as my place.” To us. To his people the message is “don’t look to the west as a solution to political problems. They’re just as bad if not worse than me, so don’t even think about protesting my regime ever again”
hovercraft
@JPL:
As has been the case with so much of this nonsense, if only we had a chalkboard like Glenn Beck we could explain it. Just like if the media only had access to graphics where they could show the timeline of all these e-mails and documents and show that the dates for the various controversies and smoking guns simply do not work. Perhaps one day soon they will be able to show us once and for all that this is all just cherry picked nonsense.
NCSteve
http://thumbs.media.smithsonianmag.com//filer/76/e0/76e09d9a-69e0-4547-bcf8-4a64cbbea26c/13006517_1171781879522700_1909387776297095984_n.jpg__800x600_q85_crop.jpg
Chokes me up every time I see it.
Kropadope
My political activity this morning has consisted of rebutting the idea that this email released by WikiLeaks reflects some nefarious plot to rig the election. After I pointed out that they were discussing normal techniques to make the sample look more like the American public and that this email is 8 years old and HRC most decidedly did NOT steal the 2008 election, his response was a James O’Keefe video.
Those moments when you realize you are wasting your time…
Avi
I voted to retain all of the justices because if they’re removed, Rick Scott chooses their replacements, and I don’t trust the Judicial Nominating Commission (a third of whose members Scott appointed) to deliver a slate entirely of non-ideologues. It’s bad enough that Scott will get to replace Perry; I don’t also want to give him a chance to find someone who’s on fucking Canady’s right and could be on the court for 25+ years.
hovercraft
@burnspbesq:
THIS.
catclub
@Major Major Major Major:
Kevin Drum describes the latest nothingburger as not even trying any more. Someone in Washington DC has a vague connection to the Clintons.
Nothing they did was illegal or even unethical. reporters do their ( not particularly) best to make it ominous.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious: ???
I was commenting on an interesting (to me, if no one else) phenomenon of a sign for a local D candidate in a yard with a Trump sign as the only 2 signs, in a stretch of road with lots of Trump/other GOP signs. No comment as to significance was offered. It was an observation I shared, thinking others might find it interesting; clearly you do not.
This – that I posted about what I saw – annoyed you in some fashion?
JR in WV
Two precincts vote at the school where our election day voting happens. So I have to look at the older folks working the polls to see which one is ours. We got new voter’s registration cards a couple of elections ago, because they consolidated some smaller precincts.
So then the next election they wanted to see your new card to be sure you were getting into the correct precinct line. But not at the last primary, it appears to have been just after the re-org to help folks find the correct place to vote. Which made me glad. There are usually two places to vote early, the county courthouse and a community center on the west edge of the county.
We plan to vote on Nov 8, just to see the old-timers at the polling precinct. I like voting with other folks, makes it a community-feeling thing. Even sitting on the bottom row of bleacher seats (we vote at the elememtary/middle school gym) and sliding to the left as people come off the row of seats to vote at one end, and other voters arrive and sit down at the end by the table where people check in. If there’s any wait at all, sometimes there isn’t, as we can go in early afternoon.
Also Mrs J is getting a knee replaced tomorrow, and so will be a couple of weeks into rehab by election day if all goes as planned.
waysel
@Betty Cracker: So I’m in NW Florida and I could use any advice about Florida judges that anyone can give. There are nine up for retention. Help.
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
@Peale: And that is where smart leadership comes in. Trump is a fucking idiot and his stubborn support for Putin shows just how much of an idiot he is.
When the US gov’t said they are going to do a proportional response to the DNC hacks, that is probably a message that says, “ok, if you want to try fuck with our internal politics we are now going to fuck with yours.” Something is a worry to Putin since he has a history of jailing and killing political opponents. Also shutting down and harassing media that is critical of him.
This is a new situation because the US, Russia, and China have have an understanding that they do not fuck with each others internal politics. If the gloves are now off it will be interesting to see just how much the US intelligence apparatus will be able to fuck with Russian politics.
Major Major Major Major
@Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious: I don’t ordinarily mind them but it’s galling to see somebody so publicly associate their domicile with Il Douche this year. I doubt anybody here thinks they have predictive value.
hovercraft
@amygdala:
He wouldn’t actually accept, Kellyanne might want it, but Trump hate, just hates that the polling keeps telling him he’s losing these debates. The pundits may keep saying he’s so improved that he fought her to a draw, but the people while agreeing that he’s improving are still calling him a loser. He would not do it. Kellyanne just wants to be able to say that Hillary is afraid to debate the ass.
Chris
@Punchy:
I and my sci-fi-watching friends keep waiting until the day there’s a political scandal somehow involving outer space. Then it can be called “Stargate.”
Major Major Major Major
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
I think Supercala… might be an old friend of ours.
hovercraft
@Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious:
Dame Peggy disagrees with yo. If we cannot gauge an election by this yardstick, how can you gauge it.
skerry
@low-tech cyclist: Maryland early voting starts Thursday, Oct 27 and goes through Nov 3. Check link for location in your county.
SWMBO
@Avi: @waysel: https://www.floridabar.org/thevotesinyourcourt
Florida law requires Florida Supreme Court justices and appeals court judges to be placed on the ballot in nonpartisan elections every six years, so voters can determine whether the judges or justices should remain on their courts for another six-year term.These are called “merit retention” elections. In 2016, three Supreme Court justices and 28 of the state’s 62 appeals court judges will be on the ballot.
The 2016 Guide has answers to questions such as:
What is the difference between a county and circuit court judge and an appellate judge?
Why is it important to vote in judicial elections and merit retention elections?
What exactly does a judge do?
Guide for Florida Voters: Q and A about Judges, Judicial Elections and Merit Retention PDF document opens in new window
Matt McIrvin
I actually saw a Clinton-Kaine yard sign on the way back from City Hall today. I think it’s the first one I’ve seen in Haverhill. The Trumpists’ ginormous yard-billboards have been out ever since early in the year.
amygdala
@hovercraft: Ayup. He cannot abide the fact that he’s getting beat by a woman.
Kropadope
@Major Major Major Major:
I dunno, most of the signs I see up are for Hillary and I bet she’ll win MA in a walk.
SWMBO
Can I get a jailbreak? I’m stuck in moderation.
Chris
@Roger Moore:
And more generally, they don’t live in the U.S. and so don’t have enough understanding of the various quirks and specificities of our political culture to know what’s really damaging and what isn’t. And also overestimate their influence, or rather that of their chosen proxies, over the public. WikiLeaks isn’t Newscorp. It’s not even CNN.
(Bibi lives in a democracy, of sorts. But he also ended up with egg all over his face when he thought he could derail the Iran treaty. And he’s supposed to be much more in tune with U.S. politics than the average foreign leader!)
hedgehog the occasional commenter
Two banked in Colorado for HRC!
Emma
My father and I mailed our ballots today. For the first time in his entire adult life, my 84 year old cranky conservative Republican dad voted for a Democrat. Enthusiastically, I may add.
Major Major Major Major
@Kropadope: that would explain how Bernie won the California primary by eleventy billion points!
Betty Cracker
@waysel: You probably have a different slate of judges to vote for than I do, given your location. My recommendation is to go to the relevant district website and see if there’s a merit retention poll that lets you know what the attorneys who deal with those individual judges think. If it’s not on the district site, check the Florida Bar site. Then check the Judicial Qualifications Commission to see if any of the judges have faced charges. Good luck!
tamiasmin
@Punchy: Well, they did have the Plumbers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Plumbers
SWMBO
@Betty Cracker: I have a link that points to the Bar Association’s poll and recommendations. Jailbreak me and they can see it.
Chris
@Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious:
I think it’s more that he wants the U.S. to be in the hands of a nationalistic, isolationist loony who, at best, would break up NATO, and at worst, would put it under significant strain. Same with all the far right anti-EU parties he supports in Europe. Putin wants to break up the West as a unified alliance, so that he can deal with nations individually instead of as a whole, which is much more practical to him.
gvg
@Major Major Major Major: No. You can still get laws the normal way, through legislative compromise and executive signature. Those plebiscites are at best not written well for legal enforcement and usually don’t cover how it is to be paid for. I think the lack of legislative examination gets us some especially bad laws. Here in Florida they are often written to disguise the intent to much that its hard to be sure you are voting as you intended. It also puts them in our constitution which makes for a messy unreadable document and I have no idea how you can enforce that as supreme law of this state. Its always so dumb, though often sentimental.
Legislators need to do their job. If a law is needed they need to convince enough elected support and stand up to criticism or praise for it.
nominus
The wife and I plan to go this afternoon since early voting in Texas started today. We have a newborn in tow, so we may have to try several times before we get a time with minimal waiting. But we have two weeks plus election day, and 12 hours each day, so one way or another we’ll make it.
My one wish for the Dems this coming session: fix the voting clusterfuck. Fix registration, fix the ID bullshit, fix early voting irregularities, make election day a holiday, whatever. The Dems could fix a lot of electoral disadvantages by working to straighten out the voting issues that the R’s have severely fucked up. I think that would probably help them more than any policies they could get through in the next two years.
Major Major Major Major
@gvg:
Not in California you can’t, not if it involves taxes. Effectively speaking. I’m sorry but that whole thing is just not a description of the California legislative process.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker: If they’re in a public place, it’s legal to photograph them without their permission. Then again, Florida’s a Stand Your Ground state and they’re Trump supporters(and don’t seem all that bright) so it’s probably advisable to not snap a pic without their permission(they might just shoot you for asking).
Betty Cracker
@NCSteve: I saved my “I Voted” sticker for that purpose, though I might use it to honor Elizabeth Cady Stanton instead of Susan B. Anthony because 1) I’m more likely to visit NYC than Rochester, and 2) ECS doesn’t get the credit she deserves, IMO.
Matt McIrvin
@nominus: I heard that Barack Obama is prominently mentioning voting rights and voting issues as a major cause for his post-presidential advocacy.
cmorenc
Vote early, vote often. Get aboard one of those buses Trump is talking about that take voters from precinct to precinct to cast multiple votes. I hear that at the end of the day, the Clinton campaign is paying bus-the-vote riders $20 plus a pint of Jim Beam for their troubles.
:=) Necessary emoticon for those among you with mis-calibrated snark-meters.
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
@Chris: I thought I said that. I didn’t go into the details but yea, weakening the NATO alliance would be part of that calculus.
Matt McIrvin
@cmorenc: I heard they make you turn the mystery crank that secretly makes the windmills go around to annoy Paul LePage.
WaterGirl
cleanup on aisle 118.
Gin & Tonic
@Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious: You can say pussy if you know how. Same with poker and casino.
catclub
@Gin & Tonic: the trick was putting invisible stuff in the middle of the word.
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
@catclub: Oh oh. You shouldn’t have said how. Now the ball juice church lady manning the word filter is on the case.
pussy
pussy
pussy
pussy
Kropadope
@catclub: Oh, I get it, let me try: casino.
ETA: I did it, rad. By the way, is there a comprehensive list of banned words somewhere?
Steeplejack
I got a photo this weekend from my old college friend in Las Vegas: the front of her Lost Dog Café T-shirt (which she bought when she was here in NoVA; their pet charity is here) with an “I voted” sticker. We talked later, and I was reminded of how this year she went from being a rabidly anti-Clinton Berniac to an enthusiastic Clinton voter. She thought Clinton was corrupt and “shady” and she would never vote for her!
I laughed because now she has come so far around that she says that Clinton’s slight “shadiness” will actually help her in smiting and blocking the Republicans as necessary. And Bernie will get a chairmanship, if the Democrats take the Senate, so the revolution will continue! (Oops, sorry, that last bit is me editorializing.)
I think one of Clinton’s big achievements has been to get out from behind her media-concocted image and let people see her as she really is. I myself have gone from being a lukewarm voter—“Veto stupid Republican stuff and appoint a Supreme Court justice or two”—to an enthusiastic supporter who will be very happy to vote for her. At times I even allow myself a little optimism about the next four years.
Steeplejack
@Kropadope:
There is not. Aside from the words mentioned above, steer clear of boner pills or brand-name drugs likely to be mentioned in spam. One word that still trips me up occasionally (usually in music threads) is ambient, because it contains a drug name.
Roger Moore
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
I’ve seen weirder. One I remember in particular was one that had signs for opposing sides on the same issue right next to each other. I’m not sure how that one happened; if it were random people putting signs in the yard, I would have expected some for other items on the ballot.
Kropadope
@Steeplejack: Gotcha. It just sux when word press won’t let my post something and it’s some mundane thing that I would never guess
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
@Gin & Tonic: Ok got it. Now I am sure ball juice church lady is hard at work trying to plug that hole…so to speak.
lemongingerporkstirfrychopsticksoptional
@Gin & Tonic: Will try that.
Steeplejack
@Kropadope:
The list has been improved somewhat. For a long time socialism (and variants) would sink you—unfortunate for a political blog. And just last week Watson and sheeple were rehabilitated. (They had been blackened by association with some trolls.)
stinger
@Emma: Yay! Thank you both!
opiejeanne
Am I blocked from posting for some reason?
ETA: apparently not. FYWP just ate my previous post for some reason.
opiejeanne
@Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious: No one has said that. Not me nor anyone else is using the Peggy Noonan “count the yard signs” method of predicting an election.
You need to sharpen your reading comprehension skills.
opiejeanne
Ok, it ate another post directed at supercallifragilistic etc. Telling him/her/them that none of us is using the Peggy Noonan “count the yard signs ” method of predicting an election.
Gelfling 545
@OzarkHillbilly: I picture them chuckling in a Snidely Whiplash manner.
Feebog
@Matt McIrvin:
You’re in Haverhill? My dad is from there, left when he enlisted in WWII and never returned. But lot’s of fond memories of visits, including my first fried clams.
Ben Cisco
@hovercraft: “It’s just a flesh wound!”
Betty Cracker
@opiejeanne: That commenter is an incarnation of another who was ban-hammered by Adam (I think). Using his name will get your comment in the filter.
Uncle Cosmo
@Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious: Lawn signs, and bumper stickers, and workers at polling places mean something for an under-the-radar low-budget campaign with a good ground game in a downballot race. You don’t need a lot of the first two, just enough to help reassure voters who are already inclined to support the candidate (which gets done via the ground game) that this is a serious candidacy & not “throwing away your vote.”
IMO the most important reinforcement is presence at the polling place. It there’s no one there supporting your candidate you may get this feeling that you’re the only person who’s going to vote for her or him, which generates psychological pressure to “go along with the crowd” even though your ballot is secret. Having a couple of people at a polling place supporting that candidate helps dissipate feelings of estrangement. And TBH that’s true in the upticket races as well.
Just my $0.02 from years of experience in downballot races (some of which we actually won!).
opiejeanne
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): That person was fussing at me and others in a late-night thread about the same thing. Omnes told him/her to be polite but I think they missed it.
opiejeanne
@hovercraft: I love you.
opiejeanne
@Roger Moore: Husband and wife disagree.
Many years ago a neighbor and his wife had competing signs for mayor of that town; on the 4th of July the wife’s side flew the Union Jack: she was a naturalized citizen.
opiejeanne
@Betty Cracker: Thanks. I figured something like that after the second time I tried. Really, pretty rude commenter.
Sandia Blanca
So excited to vote today for Hillary and all the Dems! Long lines at the Travis County (Texas) early polling places. We are reliably blue, but I think our turnout will be even higher than usual, as we try to drown out the “red” voices of the more rural portions of the state.
Gelfling 545
@Steeplejack: A FB friend or mine was musing on the correct form of “sheeple” if you are only trying to wake up one person. Would sheeperson do?
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: yep, I think this guy is on at least nym #5. I truly cannot imagine wanting to be in a place where I am not wanted. mind boggling.
Matt McIrvin
@Feebog: Yeah. Still kind of a down-at-heel town, but the downtown area has shown some vitality lately.
One of Haverhill’s weird minor claims to fame is that Bob Montana, the creator of Archie comics, went to high school there in the 1930s and vaguely based v1.0 of Riverdale High on his experiences there. The old high-school building was converted into City Hall. So I just voted in the basement of Riverdale High.
Seanly
We can early vote here in Boise, ID. Pretty sure Clinton won’t beat Trump in ID, but I can still make my voice heard. My state senator & representatives are D’s and running unopposed (Boise is kinda purplish). There’s also another stupid state constitution change on the ballot to vote against, plus vote against Capo & my congresscritter. Also, a big bond issue for our local community college, CWI. Bond initiatives in ID require 66.7% so it needs all the help it can get (I’m pro).
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Gelfling 545:
Well, for radical consciousness-raising and scare-mongering, it’s pointless to excoriate/scream at just one person, so the issue rarely comes up. I guess “you idiot!” would suffice.
catclub
@Gelfling 545: sheepling
Denali
@Betty Cracker,
Actually Rochester is a pretty nice place to visit May-October. Frederick Douglas is also buried here. And the George Eastman Museum of Photography rocks!
Bill Arnold
Can somebody tell me how to find out current polling/odds for a congressional district, specifically
New York’s 18th Congressional District?
Tx for any pointers. (in moderation in another thread so copied here).
Ah, here is useful (edit district number for other districts):
State of Politics
Bill Arnold
@Major Major Major Major:
That’s timing of two tweets.
Wikileaks could well have had the files up before the tweet; not saying they did, just that this is circumstantial. Or was there other timing information?
Bill Arnold
@Emma:
For the first time in his entire adult life, my 84 year old cranky conservative Republican dad voted for a Democrat.
Smile. :-) May it become a habit, at least an occasional habit.
seaboogie
@Betty Cracker: Nym change plus keeping the same “verbal” tics is just a genius strategy that none of us will see though, like never ever.
Exit 135
We live in a major battleground state and voted for Hillary today. Fuck you trump and your disgusting family. May this orange faced maggot loose trump tower in a poker game.
seaboogie
@Major Major Major Major: I am filling in my mail-in ballot now. I usually have a preference for major offices, otherwise I select Dem and given a choice between 2 dems, just pick the woman (my own gender bias, plus CA Dem women are usually pretty great). US Senator is between 2 dem women, so no matter who I select, it’s a win-win proposition.
The rest of it is a bunch to sort, and if I don’t have a preference or clear understanding – especially on the propositions, I rely on the Sonoma Valley Democrats FB position posting, assuming that they’ve given each proposition more thought and attention than I am willing to do. Might work the same for you on your end in the city.
blackhawks kane jersey
Actually most of Doughty’s excellence comes from his particular decision-making.