Friday, November 9, 2018

Election Aftertakes: "Democrats Led Republicans by More Than 12 Million Votes in Senate Races" — And Vote Count Problems from Arizona to Georgia to Florida


Among the most eye-catching was a statistic showing Democrats led Republicans by more than 12 million votes in Senate races, and yet still suffered losses on the night and failed to win a majority of seats in the chamber.



About 24,000 ballots in Broward County registered a vote in the governor's race but not for the Senate race. 
The discrepancy with the Senate race tally is consistent down the ballot, with more votes cast in lower-profile races like commissioner of agriculture, chief financial officer, and attorney general than in the Senate race, according to the preliminary county results.


A reminder: what we are talking about here is the counting of votes, which is the basic fundamental process for every election. We are not talking about recounts and chads and all that other nonsense that is surely coming down the pike because this is Florida, man. We are talking about counting the votes. And Scott is using his authority as governor to ratfck that process with armed law-enforcement personnel. Somebody get this guy a white suit with some braid, and a balcony on which to stand.



[L]awyers for Abrams's campaign held their own press conference, where they explained why the candidate would not be conceding the election and blamed Kemp for a number of issues on Election Day, which saw voters in a handful of precincts with large nonwhite populations deal with hours-long lines, an insufficient number of voting machines, and a dearth of provisional ballots. 
Abrams's campaign also noted that ballots were still being counted in some counties, despite these countries previously reporting that all votes were in. As an example, Abrams campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo mentioned Cobb County, which reported some 300 additional votes this morning. Groh-Wargo and other members of Abrams's campaign also said they had spoken with college students living out of state who sent back absentee ballots well before the deadline but have yet to receive confirmation of their ballots being counted. 


Cameron Joseph







The only appeal the conservative movement has left is white panic. And they ― not just the demagogues like Donald Trump, but also the supposedly responsible wonks like Paul Ryan, and every shade of Republican in between ― are shameless and irresponsible enough to go to that well again and again, if it helps them maintain power. The caravan ad is the entire Republican midterm message, and they are actively restricting the electorate to exclude the people who wouldn’t fall for it. An entire political party stands united in its defense of the prevailing racial order, and its politicians are more than happy to say so in their campaigns. The racism isn't some oafish slip-up; it's the point. 
What makes that story so difficult for the mainstream press to tell?

  

No comments: