[Discussion] The 2018 Midterms Catch-All

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News and discussion related to the 2018 midterms.

Rather than swamp the News thread over the next couple of days, I figured we could probably use a dedicated 2018 midterms thread.

I'll kick it off with news from Georgia that the Georgia Secretary of State Office, which is run by Republican candidate for governor Brian Kemp, has just launched an investigation into the Democratic Party of Georgia. Kemp claims that the Democratic Party of Georgia tried to unsuccessfully hack the state’s voter registration system. When asked for evidence or proof of these allegations Kemp's office declined, stating that they don't comment about ongoing investigations.

Are current expectations that the Dems will win the House and the Senate will remain Republican? If that is the result, I wonder if that situation will prompt cooperation or just a halt to all governing?

Nevin73 wrote:

Are current expectations that the Dems will win the House and the Senate will remain Republican? If that is the result, I wonder if that situation will prompt cooperation or just a halt to all governing?

You must be new here. There's less than zero chance that the GOP will make any attempt to reach compromises with the Dems. If the Dems have the House, they'll start using oversight powers to start fulfilling Congress' responsibility to act as a check on the executive branch. This will probably have limited actual effect on Trump, but will hopefully start getting more attention and access to what's actually going on. They'll also be able to put a stop to the worst of the GOP hard-right legislation.

However, since Dems are generally in favor of keeping government functioning, they'll continue to make efforts to compromise with Republicans on some stuff. The Republicans will take advantage of this as much as possible to pull Dem legislation as far to the right as possible, and it still won't have any traction in the Senate.

While all this is going on, Trump and the GOP will amplify their yelling about how the Dems are doing nothing but obstructing and attacking the Trump administration because they hate Trump.

Nevin73 wrote:

Are current expectations that the Dems will win the House and the Senate will remain Republican? If that is the result, I wonder if that situation will prompt cooperation or just a halt to all governing?

Current forecasts do predict that. Of course, they also predicted a win for Hillary, so take with the usual dosage of salt.

And as Chaz pointed out, it will probably mean a halt to all governing. McConnell almost certainly won't put up anything for a vote that the Democrats might want (see also: Merrick Garland). In the current Fox News cycle, all he has to do is claim the Democrats in the House "aren't willing to compromise" if they refuse to bend over backwards and do every single thing he wants, and suddenly it's all the Dem's fault. And I don't see the Democrats doing that if they take the House, because the entire point of the Blue Wave threatening to sweep them into office is to oppose McConnell and Trump's agendas. They may compromise on a few things, but we're going to see a lot more deadlock than not.

And even if by some miracle the Dems did take the Senate, there are 42 Republicans that aren't up for re-election this cycle, which means if the Democrats do get something through both chambers, all Trump has to do is veto it and there's zero chance they have the votes to override it. (This will be immediately followed by the Democrats getting blamed for not passing something "bipartisan" - i.e. Republican, because that's the only thing they'd let through.)

We've got one political party that has spent twenty years defining themselves as "our way or the highway, compromise is weakness." The current GOP's version of "compromise" is "do exactly what we say." They have a hugely popular media outlet that's thrilled to spin the narrative as the Democrats refuse to work with the Republicans, and the Republicans refusing to work with the Democrats is just them defending freedom.

Until the GOP as a party changes, the federal government is going to be completely paralyzed, whether the GOP is in the majority or minority.

Brian Kemp sounds absolutely disgusting in everything he does.

Early voting seems up everywhere. Hopefully a good sign.

Looking forward to Colbert live on Tues night.

Voting for the first time! Straight Democrat.

BoogtehWoog wrote:

Voting for the first time! Straight Democrat.

GOP delenda est!

Going to vote first thing in the morning of course, but here in MA no candidates I can vote for are going to affect much. My US Rep (Kennedy) and both state legislators are unopposed, Warren's going to walk away with it, and the Dem has no chance for governor. We do have a ballot question about nurse staffing levels that IMO has no business on the ballot because it's way too technical, but I expect I'll vote for it because the unions are for it. We've also got one to confirm a trans-rights law from a couple of years back. That's actually the only vote I've seen a canvasser for. Happily in my little area I have seen no signs or activism of any kind against keeping the law intact.

qaraq wrote:
BoogtehWoog wrote:

Voting for the first time! Straight Democrat.

GOP delenda est!

Elephants. Not even once...

I voted by mail this weekend. One vote for a state Republican who is pretty moderate and has a lot more experience than his opponent. Otherwise straight Democrat especially at the national level.

I’ll vote, but I live in Alabama, so... yeah.

Voted already. Straight Democrat. I used to vote for Republicans at the state level and even for Senate (Gordon Smith) and House. Never again.

I’ll never vote for a Republican until the stain of Trump is lifted from the party.

Man I can't wait to not see Josh Hawley's face on TV every 4 minutes. Half of his ads don't even make sense. The guy is smooth though, I'll grant him that.

In Washington voting is the highest of the last 3 mid terms, but still below the 2016 election. I just don't get it.

I really like mail in voting, and am glad that we no longer have to pay the postage on it, but people can't even do mail in votes right. Anything on the back side of the ballot receives significantly fewer votes and not just because they are less important. We had a vote on two levies earlier this year. One was on the front page, and the other on the back. 2 questions, that was it. And thousands of people couldn't be bothered to turn the ballot over.

Other than that, we might end up with a conspiracy theorist on the state supreme court. At least he's not white!

I’m going to be really interested to see how women candidates do. My highest priority was to vote for women whenever possible then prioritized Democrats second. Honestly if we had more women in power this country would be a much better place. Hopefully the backlash against the misogynist-in- chief will be huge.

Eh, there have been plenty of bad female candidates. I think you are better off looking at their stance on the issues first.

I'm all for getting more women into politics, but the issues have to come first. Voting for a Republican woman (and by extension for Trump) over a male Democrat in the name of feminism is lunacy.

Nevin73 wrote:

Eh, there have been plenty of bad female candidates. I think you are better off looking at their stance on the issues first.

I legit hope Barbara Comstock (R-VA) gets thrown out.

After voting 98% with Republicans she had the audacity to run campaign ads claiming she was "INDEPENDENT THINKER" in BIG BOLD letters, 'cause you know even affiliating with the Republican party is so damn toxic that you can't even associate your name with them.

What a complete phony.

Later, Barbs!

I mean, there are some pretty awful Republican female candidates out there so I gotta agree with Nevin and Djinn.

Voted straight democrat here in MD as well. The most impactful race here is for governor though the Democratic candidate (Ben Jealous) hasn't gotten much support from MD democrats and has run a rather poor campaign. Still, since early voting numbers skyrocketed across the state Jealous actually has a chance to unseat Hogan.

IMAGE(https://i.imgflip.com/2lukk3.jpg)

Voted this morning, and in almost 20 years of living here I don't think I've ever seen our polling place that busy. Not even in 2016.

We sent in our absentee ballets from France several weeks ago. Straight democrat. I hope we can also get rid of Scott Walker.

I voted Republican for my first election or two, but have voted Democrat since then - since George W. Bush's second term. The Republican party makes me more and more sick every year. I'm still registered independent because I hope there will be a time both parties are viable.

Voters turned away due to missing voting machines at precinct in Detroit

DETROIT (WXYZ) - At Martin Luther King Jr. High School in Detroit, voters arrived shortly after polls opened ready to vote.

However, they were shocked to find out that the precinct wasn't prepared – they had no voting machines.

Simply put, some voters were turned away while others were unable to vote for an hour and a half. Chris Morris said he showed up to find election workers struggling to find a voting machine.

Officials said there was a miscommunication about where the machine was located in the school. After learning it was in a locked closet, workers said they were left with no key to open the door.

Voters say they were initially told to go to the precinct across the street, though that was incorrect information.

The delay left avid voters like Sheree Walton outraged.

"I take it very seriously," she said. "Someone died so I would have the right to vote."

Around 8:30 a.m., workers finally had the machine up and running. Some who waited were worried about others that may have missed out on the opportunity.

Yeah, sure, a "miscommunication".

I'm a little worried because they had me marked as vote by mail when I tried to vote this morning. It is anecdotal but I was the 3rd or 4th voter this happened to while I was there out of a dozen.
I still voted but I had to put it in an envelope and could not run it through a scanner. I also had to sign the envelope and mark a reason why I was voting today.
Could be a screw up, but that would be an easy way to disqualify or discourage voters. And this is in the SF Bay area. It was a new polling place but that could be because they anticipate high turnout.

It will be interesting to see if this is more widespread in CA or the country.

Nevin73 wrote:

Yeah, sure, a "miscommunication".

There was a location in Chandler, Arizona in Mariposa County that poll workers set up yesterday. They came back this morning only to find that the building's owner foreclosed on it during the middle of the night, had all the locks changed, and shut off the power.

https://polls.pizza/

Just found out this is a thing.

Pretty awesome.

IMAGE(https://scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/45496814_2179424082068819_8549059663121874944_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-2.xx&oh=b75b42dea44694ef0fb565992c8d27e7&oe=5C7D8911)

Not a long line. I voted on paper, while my wife voted on a computer. Both finished up at the same time.

We're going to see Bohemian Rhapsody tonight, which will be a nice way to avoid the pundits punditating without any data in yet. Hopefully when we get out, around 10pm CST, we will get some good news. Regardless, I won't miss the dread leading up to it.

Lol, the wife and I are going to do the same.
I almost balked yesterday as I wanted to be hopeful with the news trickling out that voter registrations were big and seemingly big among youngsters.

Quick note - Bohemian Rhapsody is way tf better than the critics are saying. I am confident you will enjoy yourself.

(Try not to check your phone for election results though, you’re in a theater! :))

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