Official midterm elections thread

[Liberty]

Polls start closing at 7 PM eastern. Nothing will be called before then.

For all the election year hoo-ha, my own race is fuck-off boring. I'm still registered in 1st New Jersey, so my congressional race is between a longtime Democratic incumbent who will win easily and a bunch of sacrificial mooks. No Senate election, no gubernatorial election. Special elections for state senator and assemblyman, in which I will vote Democrat, in order to help make governor fat fuck's life a little more difficult. Two county freeholders, and a completely sane proposition about how payroll taxes are allocated.

Maybe you should be glad your races are boring. I'm looking at getting a carpet bagging lobbyist teapartier for Senator and a 100% tea partier for Congressman. It's not a happy thought.

[Flagg]

I voted like a month ago. Straight dem ticket, and no on all the tax repealing ballot initiatives. Also yes on the income tax one. The great thing about a mail in ballot is you can take 15 minutes to research who and what you're voting for, while you vote.

[Ryushikaze]

The State and Federal level elections will probably not even be a close issue (As much as I want Burr out, he's probably staying in.) but the district level elections for me were a joke. Pretty much every seat was single democrat running unopposed.

I did quite like how they summarized the amendment and tax votes (Convicted Felons should not be eligible for Sheriff, agree or disagree), though I can see some issue with the .25% tax proposal being understood (Specifically, they called it 1/4th of a percent and listed it as .25% which I can see people mistaking as 25% hike) but otherwise, it was quick, painless, and used a simple, bubble in your choice ballot.

[General Zod]

The State and Federal level elections will probably not even be a close issue (As much as I want Burr out, he's probably staying in.) but the district level elections for me were a joke. Pretty much every seat was single democrat running unopposed.

I did quite like how they summarized the amendment and tax votes (Convicted Felons should not be eligible for Sheriff, agree or disagree), though I can see some issue with the .25% tax proposal being understood (Specifically, they called it 1/4th of a percent and listed it as .25% which I can see people mistaking as 25% hike) but otherwise, it was quick, painless, and used a simple, bubble in your choice ballot.

The amendment summaries were worthless on my ballot. I still had to look them up to make sure they said what I thought they did.

[Cecelia5578]

Which elections do you guys feel are the interesting ones to watch?

California. Prop 19, which if passed will legalize marijuana (obviously only applies to state law, still illegal under Federal law).

Goddamn, it'll be so nice for Fiorina and Whitman (esp Whitman) to lose. God, I can't stand her rich Atherton ass.

[Cecelia5578]

I voted quite a while ago, via vote by mail.

Since I'm from Oregon and just young enough, I've never voted in person, always by mail, though two elections were genuinely absentee because of the Army (2004 and 2006). Its such a...civilized and efficient alternative to the usual polling place shenanigans that seem to pop up all the time.

Here in CA I voted mostly straight Dem; I think its important to the future of High Speed Rail that Brown rather than Whitman win, and its not as if my local rep (Anna Eshoo) is seriously threatened.

And I swear, if Prop 19 doesn't pass, and there's a lighter than expected youth turnout, screw my anti-War on Drugs view, I'm going to have zero sympathy for young people busted by CA law enforcement for marijuana related offenses.

[Dave]

Voted this morning. No line, and I only saw three other people voting (though admittedly I stared at my shoes most of the time. Still waking up.)

Also, thanks to Broomstick for her arguments in favor of educating yourself before voting in the "A Critique and Rejoinder to the Stewart/Colbert Rally" thread. I lost an hour or two of sleep because of it, but I was confident that I was voting for the right thing in those races I voted for, and otherwise I might not have voted at all.

[Bakustra]

I live in Michigan. I voted consistently for Democrats for the state positions in races that are overwhelmingly Republican. Oh well, the Republican gubernatorial candidate won't really do anything bad that isn't already being done. At least I made my opinions known about zoo millages (for), felons being banned from political office (against), and maybe my votes for Trustee of Wayne State University will mean something.

[FSTargetDrone]

Straightforward electronic ballot, same as I always see. Simple to use and if this confuses you then you shouldn't have been allowed to drive yourself to the polls. This was the totality of the choices this year:



Press the name in its respective space and then when you are done, press the large glowing yellow VOTE button on the bottom (not in the picture). Write-ins are handed by a small keyboard at the bottom with an LCD screen.

I cast a vote for each and every one of the Democratic candidates (though I actually pressed the button for each candidate in turn instead of the "Straight Party"). Can't afford to fuck around with write-ins.

I went right at noon and turn out was moderate. That is, I actually had to wait around for a few minutes. The vote was conducted at a local public school and the kids had off for the day. Weather is beautiful out. No excuses.

[Mayabird]

The most important parts of the Iowa ballot were on the back. I voted to retain the judges. Yes, I know that even if they are kicked out it won't change the decision, but the precedent must not be set and the out-of-state religious special interest groups must not be allowed their spiteful victory.

[Edi]

Dominus Atheos's Onion thread merged here.

Not sure if Thanas's post made it, though...

[Pelranius]

Meg Whitman's campaign has been spamming my telephone with robocalls for the past few days. Even got one this morning. Somehow I think that is going to motivate higher turn out against her.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I actually registered and voted purely to keep the snide little Enzyte man drool-a-moron who runs a crooked bank from representing my state in the Senate, and also to vote to end the liquor monopoly so I can buy a bottle of Vodka at Safeway at 2 AM if I damned well want to. Other than that, though, this is Washington State, the income tax measure will never pass, and Eyman is at it again, so voting against the other anti-tax initiatives at least guarantees another hilarious failure for him like his "806 pound guerrilla" a couple years ago. Also Dino the Dino's campaign has been spamming my girlfriend's new phone (with a Washington area code) with text messages which cost me money, furthering my motivation to again keep the Enzyte man out of the Senate.

[FSTargetDrone]

Just got back a few minutes ago after voting around noon and then running some errands. Just as I drove up, a young kid with a clipboard was putting a Democratic voting reminder door hanger on the door. I got out of the car, he asked me if I was SoandSo and I said yes and that I had just got back from voting (which was true). He said he was just checking the "census" and then thanked me and walked off. I can't recall ever seeing people coming around this late in the election.

There were 2 or 3 Democratic volunteers around here over the past few weeks. No Republicans (or others).

Also Dino the Dino's campaign has been spamming my girlfriend's new phone (with a Washington area code) with text messages which cost me money, furthering my motivation to again keep the Enzyte man out of the Senate.

One of the joys of living in Pennsylvania is that we get to see amost the same number of TV commercials from New Jersey AND Delaware, along with the local crap. I actually got a phone call the other day (identified as a "Cell Phone" on caller ID) from someone calling for the NJ Republican Campaign for Whoeverthehell.

It's not enough that we get calls from people running in this state, I get bleed-over from New Jersey. Blech.

[Gil Hamilton]

I can either go sit in the cold and wait for the polls to open and fight a horde of old people to vote. Or wait until I get off of work, hurry up to the polls and fight a horde of old people to vote. Either way, I'll do it, since the Republicans running for seats here are all stereotypical teabagger rich white assholes (except for McCain, who's a senile rich white asshole,) and all of them should go. And virtually all the propositions, save the medical marijuana law and maybe a couple others that escape me at the moment, are offensively stupid.

Funnily, only the Medical Marijuana Prop was actually brought up by the People in the first place. Things like Prop 301 and 302 (which transfer the balance Land Conservation Funds and Early Childhood Development funds to the General State Fund respectively) were from Phoenix.

Unfortunately, my registration to vote in Arizona didn't go through in time, so I don't have the opportunity to vote against Jan Brewer. The goblin is probably going to win, but I'd have like the opportunity to vote for Goddard. John McCain is certainly going to beat Glassman, but miracles can happen.

I'm more interested in my native Pennsylvania. The Sestak/Toomey race is going to be close, but hopefully Sestak can pull it off because Toomey is a Tea Party scumbag. We'll see, Toomey has alot of out of state support, versus Sestak's large amount of support from organized labor from within the state and that Pennsylvania tends to lean Democratic anyway.

[Soontir C'boath]

Only thing close here seems to be the state attorney general. Cuomo is slated to be a shoe-in over Paladino for governor as well as both US senators for the democrats.

Oh, thank god for that! Paladino is scary - I asked my dad and sister to vote against him, though, of course, they'll make their own decisions.

Yea, polls are showing he's down by 20 points and in one article (that I can't find anymore) had a poll stating he was down all across the state ie. not just the "liberal infested city".

Just came back and voted for Jimmy McMillan and Joseph Huff of the "Rent Is Too Damn High" party in as I don't like Cuomo (D-Governor) and Gillibrand (D-US Senate) respectively. There are bad claims against the Rent party candidates but frankly they're frivolous enough to me that it's all just a red herring. Went democrat on everything else especially the state attorney general and comptroller since they were reportedly close races.

I went yes to go back to two term limits for city officials and no on that combo on the city election/government changes. Seven different items rolled into one vote is bullshit. We're not congress.

[ThatOneCatC]

As per usual I will stop by the liquor store to buy a bottle of Jack after work. I will then proceed to the polls to cast my vote to keep Kasich as far away from the Governorship as I can. After the baby goes to bed I will crack open the bottle and then either wallow in misery or relaxed contentment depending on what the polls are showing.

Just wondering, why are you voting against Kasich / voting for Strickland?

Not a judgement, just a question.

(I've voted myself)

Bit of both. I like Strickland as I think he has done a good job with the school systems, his stance on the casino issue is similar to mine and he seems to be able to relate to the problems the "everyman" has.

Kasich on the other hand seems to honestly not like Ohio citizens. He views the Governorship as nothing more than a stepping stone to get himself into the White House, wants to abolish the Dept. of Business Development and create a comission (stacked with his handpicked CEO's) that will be more fair than the public Dept. Added to that he seems to have attempted to lay every job loss in America squarely at Stricklands feet.

Can you buy alcohol in Ohio on election day? I know you can't in Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Alaska, South Carolina, Utah, Oklahoma, and a number of other states.

Yup. Wifey and I are gonna curl up with our choice of spirits and the internet and watch the numbers roll in. We have a good time with it as she and I do not always see eye to eye on issues, but when it comes to the politician we seem to be in synch.

[ShadowDragon8685]

My voting experience here in NJ was exceptionally boring.

There was the vote for the congress: I can't remember if it was Senate or Representative and honestly I didn't care. I've lost all hope in Democrats getting anything done, but there's at least a slight chance with them, as opposed to lockstep-marching Republicans, so I just voted for the Democrat. The other parties weren't worth even looking at since they have zero hope of winning and it would've been the same as abstaining.

On the county level the names were all unfamiliar and frankly I didn't care since they're all crooks and liars, and frankly the positions up for grabs were obtuse unknown positions anyway. I just abstained. The local race was Mayor-Seemingly-For-Life John Washington and his pal running unopposed, so I just abstained again since the crooked fuck's going to get back in no matter what. (Makes me wonder what happens if somebody runs unopposed and still garners no votes.)

The only interesting thing on the ballot was the amendment to the state constitution to prohibit the raiding of some fund to pay for anything else. Honestly, the interpretive statement was pretty much as obtuse as the actual legalese. While I know that things are never as simple as mere "Don't live beyond your means and cut spending, any housewife can tell you that!" as my aunt said, since it was talking about raiding payroll funds I decided it was probably better to cast my ballot in favor of prohibiting the raiding of that fund.

Honestly, it makes me wonder why in the hell they're letting people vote on this stuff. If it's this fucking obtuse, it either needs to be decided by people with the training and background to know what the hell they're doing, or it needs to be put in plain plain English. As in, fifth grade reading level. The voting booth is the one place you do not want misunderstandings.

[HarrionGreyjoy]

Voted against Governor Rick Fucking Perry (and some other dudes) at 3pm today. reasonable turnout, lots of old people, lots of college students - in other words, par for the course for a college town.

Also, liquor is legal to sell on Election Day in Texas. Kinda weird, our liquor laws are otherwise draconian.

Cooking curry, drinking scotch, waiting for word that Perry won.

[ThatOneCatC]

Ah, my vote is in. Time to crack the bottle and let the people decide.

[RedImperator]

It's not enough that we get calls from people running in this state, I get bleed-over from New Jersey. Blech.

That works both ways, pal. You know how many fucking Pat Toomey and Tom Corbett ads I've had to watch this year?

[Sinanju]

I'm in New Jersey's Third District, so the big ticket item was Adler vs. Runyan. It wasn't much of a choice at all. Most of Runyan's ideas are generic 'tax cuts rah rah' BS. His idea for how to balance the budget? 'Cut waste'. Gee, glad nobody thought of that one 'til he came around!

Of course, Adler's not exactly a saint so I kinda had to hold my nose there. I voted straight Democrat; I get a lot of Republican campaign literature thanks to my father and sister, and pretty much all of them are harping on tax cuts as the cure to what ails ya (and we're totally serious about fiscal responsibility this time. No, seriously!).

There wasn't a line at the polling station, in fact I think there were only two or three voters in the building. Period. That could be because I went while most people are at work, though.

[Thanas]

It looks like Feingold may be gone. Damn it, there goes one of more liberal and decent senators the USA ever had.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Did my part to stave off the wave of elephant diarrhea teabagging. Sadly, I'm afraid the forces of idiocy may yet carry the day. So . . . time to get the aspirin ready for the morning and drink to the results of this election.

[Wing Commander MAD]

Well here in Lawrence County, PA we had a relatively simple ballot consisting of Senator, Gov./Lt. Gov., Representative for the 4th Congressional District, and representative for state assembly. A simple straight Democratic vote. Now we wait.