2010 Midterm Elections Thread
 

Hi everyone! I hope you had a lovely day voting, if you chose to do so.

In this thread, we talk about the midterm elections. Who won in your state? Were the precincts busy? Did you have any troubles at the polls?

I voted early (on Saturday) and it wasn't nearly as bad as it was when I did it in 2008.

So far, in Ohio, Rob Portman (Republican) is assuming a seat vacated by a Republican, so no shocker there. No other official results as of yet.

I voted for the first time today! :) I was a little upset because when I left class I heard people saying "Vote for what?", "Who's he?", "Do we have to?". Apparently people don't watch the news these days...

The polls were pretty busy( I went during everyones lunch break) I did just here on the news though that some churches didn't have enough booths for people. The results will be up in a few hours but I'm sure that we've stayed Republican, most states in the South haven't changed in years.

Fixed that for you. :p

The polls were peaceful (with exception for some people's registrations not being in the system. But that is easily addressed by patient and peaceful voters and poll volunteers) because the news told people when the busiest times would be. Therefore, if you didn't want a line don't go first thing in the morning or after you get off of work.

I voted last Friday. There was a ~15 minute wait when I went.

It's storming here now, so I've been hearing that precincts are either packed wall-to-wall or completely empty.

They're not calling anything in Connecticut just yet.

I work from home, so I went to my polling place (an elementary school) mid-afternoon. The only other voters I saw were a couple of senior citizens. I was in and out in less than five minutes. I also got a nice walk out of it - the school is less than half a mile from my house.

DH voted in the morning on his way to work, and didn't have to wait long. He drives past the school anyway on his commute. He tells me that, as he drove past the school on his way home, he noticed that the line was out the door, and there was a police car and an ambulance outside (!).

Edit: While I was typing this, the NY Times called the Senate race for Blumenthal.

Fair enough, I will take that correction. :)

One observation: Chicago has polling locations in random places. I've heard of churches, schools, community centers, and auditoriums before, but they had polling locations in funeral homes and nursing homes as well.

That might get a little uncomfortable.

I voted on my way into work today, prior to 7am so there wasn't a line but it was marginally busy in the sense that there were at least 2-4 people voting at one time.

Live-in voted about half an hour before me, and said it was empty.

As I walked past the community center tonight (2 blocks away right on the way to and from work FTW!) it was definitely hopping.

We used the "fill in the arrow" ballots in my precinct, but many precincts got the electronic touchscreens, especially in the suburbs.

Any concerns about the security of those machines?

Our state joined Oregon this year in going all-absentee. Most people in this state already voted that way anyway, but some people are determined to still try to go to one of the three polling locations in King County (Seattle area) to vote in-person. Turnout is expected to be more than 60% in our state, but we'll see. I will say that when I dropped our ballots off today at one of the many free drop boxes around town, there was a line just to drop the ballots off in the box.

Brian Williams is projecting a Republican House 237-198.

Rand Paul won.

Governor race in OH is tight. 49% for Strickland (Democratic incumbent) v. 47% for Kasich. 25% precincts reporting.

GOP has the House

I voted! No wait for me--I live across the street from the school, so I voted before I left for work around 7am.

Christine O'Donnell is giving her concession speech. She creeped me out (along with pleeeeeenty of candidates that I was able to actually vote on).

I voted after internship today, and it was less than a 10 minute wait. I would've gone before internship (the school is on my street), but I didn't know that the polls opened at 6 am.
agzg, we used the fill the arrow ballots at my precinct...and yes I filled out all 230+ arrows :p

Me too. I figured if I had heard about any of the "yes or no should they stay in" judges, that would be a bad thing. :)

I voted via absentee ballot. There are polling places conveniently located on my campus but my polling place, for whatever reason, is some random elementary school and I knew I was NOT going there today.

I live in MD and Martin O'Malley (Democrat) is winning.

Michigan will have a Governor who is One Tough Nerd (Rick Snyder, Republican). It is looking like John Dingell, who has served my district for more than 50 years is going to be out :( He is a great man who really fought for the middle class. All of the incumbents in my district have been voted out. At this moment, I feel both helpless and hopeless because Wall Street has taken over both nationally and locally. Over-reaction? Probably, but it's been a really crappy week for announcements from work ... so tired of being treated like crap and then being reminded "Be glad you have a job, a lot of people don't". Somehow, I thought I'd get ahead the longer I worked, but I make less money every year.

So let me see..

You are upset that a party which (in conjunction with the unions) has turned the state into a Northern version of Mississippi, has been kicked out?

Are you crazy?

I believe that the Bush administration killed our state. Our state died when the banking industry tanked due to lack of regulations and people couldn't get loans to buy cars. Our state died when Wall Street was in power. Now Wall Street is in power again and we have no hope of ever recovering in any way, shape, or form.

I must have missed it...

How is Wall-Street in power again?

Quite interesting.

What branch of government do you believe to be the most powerful?

That's some pretty interesting assumptions (that aren't really founded but you know, thats how it goes)

I'm not really a Republican/Democrat fan. But I do like logic.

Are you not watching election results?

I am.

What does the Republicans gaining seats have anything to do with Wall Street anymore than the Democrats have to do with Wall Street?

(which is waaaaay too much. "When buying and selling is legislated, the first thing bought and sold is legislators"- P.J. O'Rourke)

And I really would be interested in which branch you perceive to be the most powerful.

Republicans are pro-wealthy businesses and don't care about the middle or lower class= Wall Street. Example: Rick Snyder- voted in as Governor of Michigan, former CEO of Gateway Computers, current head of an investment company. Wall Street.

Democrats are pro-union, pro-middle and lower class= Main Street. Example: John Dingell- pro health care reform, pro-working class, would do anything in his power to help a constituent who asked him for assistance.

When the branches are split, nothing gets done. A progressive President who wants to make changes can't make them without the support of Congress. A progressive Congress who wants to make changes can't do so without the support of the President. Example: Health Care Reform would not pass without a Democratic House, Senate and President.

There are no surprises here in Tennessee. Haslam (R) won for Governor, and though I was one of the 30% that didn't give him my vote, I hope he's as effective as Phil Bredesen has been.

I was appalled, but sadly not surprised to hear that Scott DesJarlais, a man who stuck a gun in his mouth for 3 hours to mess with his ex-wife, got elected. According to his website, he's "pro-gun and pro-marriage". Uh huh.

Fantastic prejudices.

Let's just go with this:
Which person gave jobs to middle-class and poor people in Michigan, the unions....or the "wealthy" Wall-Street people? The unions only eliminated the poor's opportunities to gain employment (that's a hint).

Yes, the illogical would assume that. (the pro-middle and lower classes) In practice, mitigation of the free-market results in suppression of the middle and lower classes further pushing them down. Ultimately, they have the same economic ambitions the Republicans do. (Look at Al Gore and the money he's making off global warming)

An example of what I'm talking about above.

Thank God. The point of government is not to figure out how to make it work, but how to make it stop.

But how else could the current government compound its anti-poor agenda?

I still would be interested in what you perceive to be the most powerful branch.

I really wish that Nikki Haley didn't win my home state. The state really needs a change, and I'm not sure if she can provide that :mad:

Many of our state elections are too close to call, but Tom Corbett (R) won for Governor. One of our councilmen lives on my street, and didn't have my cellphone to come meet him. Grrrr! Great statement in his speech: "I want to be the Governor of all of Pennsylvania, not just the Republicans or the Democrats." Here's hoping he's sincere.

At this point, I'm glad it's over. It's been a battleground here since the Primaries, and it will be wonderful to be able to not shudder when the phone rings.

My sincere thanks to the thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of poll workers across the country who sit diligently at each polling place, to ensure that everyone is able to vote quickly and accurately. It's a thankless job, but I appreciate each one of them.

CNN has a cool live map going on right now. I'm watching the votes for California governor come in. I wish I would have done an absentee ballot (since I live in Michigan). It's been an interesting and dirty race between Brown (D) and Whitman (R).

Whoa. Illinois is super close.

^^ Yeah, it's looking like Kirk and Quinn right now but both are within the range of changing. Although Kirk is less likely to lose at this point w/o a recount.

---envy---

We don't have early voting here in CT. It's very difficult to get an absentee ballot - you have to be totally unable to get to your polling place (e.g. off at college, traveling on business) during the 14 hours when the polls are open. "I don't wanna get in line to vote at 6am before work" is not a valid excuse.

As it happens, I was nearly 25 years old before I cast a vote in a voting booth. I voted absentee while in college, and my first job out of college required a lot of travel, so I continued to vote absentee. My standby "I Never" challenge was "I've never voted in a voting booth." :p

-------

The Times is calling CT CD4 for Himes with 41.5% of the vote and 26% of precincts reporting. <scratches head>

EW: You and I are philosophically on completely different ends of the spectrum so this debate is fruitless. Your life experiences and my life experiences are so completely opposite that our basic belief systems will never reach congruence. The statements you make are not in any way consistent with what I have experienced or what I see. Unions elevated the poor into the middle to upper middle class and increased salaries in every sector as a result because other industries/sectors had to compete.

If government is supposed to do nothing, then why do they exist? I don't want to pay all those legislators to do nothing or to maintain the status quo because, quite frankly, the status quo sucks.

Neither branch is more powerful. Both need to be on the same page to get anything done.

ETA: On the plus side, Dingell is now at 50% of the vote so he has a chance still.

ETA (again!): Dingell is ahead 53-47.

Where's a clappy clappy Bravo! emoticon when I need one?

WHOA! Come on Dee, you really don't think that, do you? The writing has been on the wall ( Michigan's economic blight) since the 90's when NAFTA was signed. Michigan had all of their economic eggs in one basket......the manufacturing industry, which had been in decline well before Bush took office. To blame GWB is so....partisan.

I'm glad to have a Republican Governor back in office in MI. Do you really think two penny Jenny Granholm was better than Engler??

The unions intentionally price out the poor from gaining jobs.

Walter E. Williams explains:
Unions also used these same methods to keep lower-wage oppressed minorities away from working in Apartheid South Africa and the United States. The unions have very little concern for the poor. Their only concern is with maintaining jobs. The problem is that because they inflate their compensations so greatly they end up financially endangering the very business that provides them with jobs (see Michigan's situation). Then, they no longer have their jobs nor do the poor.

To maintain order. (well, that's why they were created. I'm not sure that actually happens but to be fair I border on anarchism)

Once it got past that, it failed.

The status quo was created because of those legislators.

You did graduate high school, right?

Congress ultimately holds the most power of the branches. Some may argue the Supreme Court, but I'm not sure that argument holds water.The least Constitutionally powerful is certainly the President. Guess which party has dominated Congress during this horrific downturn?

EW, your opinion and interpretation is not everyone's interpretation.

Can you point out where I said that?

Again, I'm not terribly interested in Republican/Democrat.

I am interested in the logic, which has so far been a failure.

When you make claims like "The unions intentionally price the poor out of work" you're the one failing at logic.

You can argue that this is a side effect, but the goal of unions is to ensure that their workers, many of whom are poor themselves, get paid a liveable wage and are treated fairly.

You might not think they live up to that, and you may find that the negatives outweigh the positives, but they do not intentionally keep poor people from working.

You cannot claim the logical high ground and commit such egregious errors.

Nor accuse someone of failing to graduate high school for not considering one branch to be more powerful than another when in fact what high school teaches is that all are checks and balances on each other. And that is true, YMMV on how that power is used.

Yes, it's okay that you think that.

But that has nothing to do with logical errors.
Yes, it's okay that you think that.

But there are still no logical errors.
High school teaches that the checks and balances are not equal. More properly said, "checks and imbalances". This is simple American Government teaching.