In response to my post last night about voting lines, I had a number of people write in saying they’ve never waited more than a few minutes to vote – often people in their 50s or 60s and older, so people who’ve voted in a lot of elections. And most of those people asked, how does that even happen? What’s the root cause? Obviously in any given election, in any given precinct, you can have a random malfunction or screw up that leads to long lines. In theory, that can happen anywhere. But the cause of long lines in the vast majority of cases is really, really simple. Depending on where you vote, the number of voting machines and precinct workers per eligible voter can vary wildly. If one polling station has one polling machine per x eligible voters and another has one per 50x eligible voters, the outcome is pretty obvious. And there are numerous studies showing that precincts with a lot of poor and/or non-whites have on average many fewer voting machines, poll workers, etc. Some of this is by design; some of it is a recapitulation of the same structural dynamics that leave underprivileged communities under-resourced across the board. Same difference.
We’re now seeing numerous examples across the country of extremely long lines and long waits to vote – especially in states which took steps since 2012 to make it harder to vote and vote early. North Carolina is one of the best examples of this. People are waiting three and four hours to vote. It’s genuinely shameful that we, as a society, find this acceptable. And yet millions of people are lining up to vote. They are undeterred.
The TPM Senate Scoreboard currently stands at 49(D)-48(R) with three states in the toss-up category: North Carolina, Missouri and Nevada.
But I’m starting to get the sense that Democrats may significantly over-perform what has been a close fought, essentially tied race for control of the Senate. Here’s why.
Donald Trump is laying out out his agenda for his first hundred days in office. A major part will be suing all the “liars” who accused him of sexual assault. “All of these liars will be sued after the election,” Trump told a crowd in Gettysburg. He’ll also use discovery to unearth evidence against the Clintons being involved in creating the false accusations.
The Pennsylvania GOP has sued to allow Pennsylvania to be poll watchers outside the counties they live in – which is not currently allowed by state law. It sounds very much like Trump’s call for supporters to go to “other communities” to patrol for voter fraud.
Thank God for airbags and car safety. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) was in a high speed car crash Thursday afternoon but he and apparently all others involved are basically fine, albeit a bit bruised up. Safety belts, airbags. They really make a difference.
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My sons came home from school today wanting to play an online ‘Win the White House’ game they learned about and played at school. A bit worn out from covering the real thing, I first kind of begged off. But my sons are highly persistent – especially one of them who shall remain unnamed. So I finally agreed. And you know what? It was pretty fun.
It was fun playing with them of course. But it was even enjoyable and a bit challenging in its own right. It’s pretty straightforward. You have a national electoral map. You can fundraise, poll, run media and make appearances. And it’s basically a matter of a matter of figuring out where to focus your resources based on the best opportunities to pick up or not lose electoral votes. In other words, something like the real thing. Along the way, you have to identify campaign messages tied to specific issues. That’s most of the educational aspect – understanding basic formulations and positions on high profile policy issues – taxes, gun, environment, energy, spending, etc. Pretty basic if you’re an adult politics junkie. But definitely educational for a kid and some non-kids. Anyway, if you have children of almost any edge (you can play at different educational difficulty levels) you might want to give it a spin. And if you don’t have kids, frankly, I found it pretty fun anyway. Here’s the link.
Concerned about voter suppression? Bands of feral Trumpers descending areas with large populations of black or Hispanic voters to harass and vet voters? Me too. So in Episode #7 of the Josh Marshall show I talked to my favorite election law expert, Professor Rick Hasen. Rick isn’t just an election law experts he’s one of the most knowledgable and vocal experts on bogus claims of ‘vote fraud’ and voters suppression. We talk about all these issues, incredibly pressing in the lead up to election day, in Episode #7 of the Josh Marshall Show.