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Tuesday, November 6, 2018
Midterm elections 2018
Midterm elections 2018: Taylor Swift effect helps youth vote surge across US – live
Tennessee early voting youth turnout jumps seven times 2014 total
Former vice president Joe Biden said he would be “dumbfounded” if Democrats don’t take control of the House of Representatives. “This is the single most important off-year election in my lifetime,”
Biden told reporters after voting near his home in Wilmington,
Delaware, according to the Washington Post. “It’s about the character of
the country.” Biden also predicted Democrats would pick up at least six governor’s seats, the Post reported.
Lauren Gambino
Top House Democrats have left no room for doubt that they will inherit the gavel on Tuesday night. “I am confident the democrats will win the majority of the US House
of Representatives,” congressman Ben Ray Lujan, the chairman of the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), told reporters in
Washington. He was joined by House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, who said the result would turn on one issue: healthcare. “This election is about health care,” the California Democrat said at a news conference. After Donald Trump
won the election, she said Democrats “didn’t agonize, we organized”.
They immediately began strategizing ways to protect the Affordable Care
Act and in 2017 remained united in their opposition to the House GOP’s
repeal of the 2010 health care law. “100%” Pelosi reminded reporters. The bill narrowly passed the House but was defeated in the Senate. She said Democrats “made our environment to make sure people knew the difference between Democrats and Republicans on this subject and what was at stake for them”. Asked how she intended work with Republicans if they take back the
House, Pelosi replied: “We will strive for bipartisanship because we
have a responsibility to find common ground where we can, stand our
ground where we can’t.” She added: “We are not going after the Republicans the way they went after us. We are no they.” Pelosi and Lujan urged voters in districts where voter suppression
tactics have been reported to stay in line and cast their ballot. “Do not let their scare tactics frighten you away from the polls,” Pelosi said. Luján added: “We have robust legal strategy to make sure that we’re protecting the integrity of the vote.” Asked if Pelosi is 100% confident her party will win tonight, she pulled the microphone close. “Yes, yes, I am.”
Updated
Parkland students get out the vote in Florida
Lois Beckett
In Parkland, Florida, more than two dozen teenagers gathered Tuesday
morning to make calls to remind voters to go to the polls. Many of the
Parkland students, who had lost 17 classmates and teachers to a school
shooting at their high school in February, were still too young to vote
themselves. “I can’t vote, so I wanted to do my part and get other people to vote
for me,” said Ariana Ali, a 17-year-old senior at Marjory Stoneman
Douglas high school. “Hi, I’m Kelly, I’m with March for Our Lives. Can I count on your
vote?” Kelly Mathesie, another 17-year-old senior, said brightly. She
and her friends were sitting in tight circle, their sticker-covered
laptops open in front of them. “Thank you so much for voting!” she said.
One of her friends cheered. Nine months after the shooting at their school, the students who helped organize a national youth violence against gun. “I think we’ve already reached victory,” said Sarah Chadwick, 17, a
senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Early youth voting had surged in
multiple states, including 700% in Tenneesee, more than 500% in Texas. Struggling to get their online phone banking interface working, some
students started going through their phones and leaving messages for
everyone they knew. Others broadcast live on Instagram. “I’m going through all my phone contacts as making sure that everyone
I’ve ever met has voted,” Sofie Whitney explained, leaving a message
for one contact. “If anyone you know isn’t voting, cut off all ties with
them,” she said on another message. “Everyone I know and love is voting,” she said. Whitney said she wanted to see youth voter turnout rise to match the
turnout for the oldest voters in the 2014 midterm elections: fewer than
20% of voters 18 to 29 had voted in 2014, compared with nearly 60% of
voters over sixty, giving the oldest voters a decisive power over the
election. Getting the youth vote turnout rate as high as 60% or 70% would be
unprecedented. Even a smaller jump in youth vote turnout could point to a
dramatic change in youth voting culture, experts said. “Honestly, everything is possible at this point, we’re proving everyone wrong,” Whitney said.
Lois Beckett (@loisbeckett)
“I can’t vote, so I wanted to
do my part and get other people to vote for me,” said Ariana Ali, a
senior at MSD, said at a get-out-the-vote @AMarch4OurLives phone bank in Parkland. pic.twitter.com/z07oSkHtbq
“Hi, my name is Kelly, and I’m with March for Our Lives....” Parkland students phone banking to get out the vote in Florida. pic.twitter.com/qVoDWiKG9z
On the West Coast, armies of enthusiastic Democratic Party volunteers
fanned out across southern California in the pre-dawn gloom to hang
door signs reminding target voters to cast their ballot in some of the
most competitive congressional races in the country. Four of those races
are being fought in suburban Orange County, south of Los Angeles, in
districts where Republican candidates prevailed in 2016 but where
Hillary Clinton won more votes than Donald Trump. LA’s progressive armies of the night descended on all four, as well
as a fifth tightly contested district northwest of the city. At the
campaign headquarters for Mike Levin, the Democrat favored to take the
seat currently occupied by the powerful retiring congressman Darrell
Issa, cars jammed the parking lot at 5 a.m. -- two hours before the
polls opened -- and the candidate himself was on hand to greet his
supporters. The volunteers, in festive mood, high-fived, took selfies
with the candidate, and called him “congressman” . Levin resisted that
label, but he welcomed the outpouring of support and said a couple
thousand door-hangers could make a crucial difference against his
Republican opponent, Diane Harkey. “The nation is watching our district,” the door-hanger read, under a
picture of Levin with former president Barack Obama. “Vote for Democrat
Mike Levin to flip Congress and place a check on Donald Trump’s
destructive agenda.”
Updated
Richard Luscombe reports from Orlando, Florida:
More than five million voters, or 38.4 percent of those registered in
Florida, had already cast their ballot, either early in person, or by
mail, before election sites opened at 7am Tuesday, according to a mid-morning update from the Florida division of elections. The figures, which keep the state on track to far surpass 2014’s
overall turnout of 51 percent by the time election-day polls close at
7pm, appeared to offer more comfort to the Democrats. Of the 5.1 million early votes cast, 2.08 million were by registered Republicans and 2.11 million by Democrats. No-party affiliation voters accounted for another 973,304 ballot papers. Final opinion polls in the two marquee races also favored Democrats,
although both are considered to be on a knife-edge. Incumbent US senator
Bill Nelson maintained a slim 3.3 percent advantage over his Republican challenger, the outgoing state governor Rick Scott, in the Real Clear Politics average of polls. Meanwhile Andrew Gillum, the Tallahassee mayor running to succeed Scott as governor, was 4.4 percent up on Republican Ron DeSantis, who resigned his US Congress seat in the summer to concentrate on the election.
Andrew Gillum cast his ballot Tuesday morning in Tallahassee and told
reporters that if he wins Florida’s governor’s race tonight, it will
send a message about Donald Trump’s hateful rhetoric. “If we win tonight, I think that will send a message to Mr. Trump and
Mr. DeSantis as well that the politics of hatred and division come to
an end- at least in this election,” Gillum said after voting at the Good
Shepherd Catholic Church in Tallahassee. His opponent, Ron DeSantis has
been accused of using racist “dogwhistles” throughout the campaign. “We’re going to show that people are going out and voting for
something, not against. And by voting for something, we’re restoring the
politics of decency and what’s right and common between all of us,”
Gillum said, adding:
“We’ll worry about history later. Today we’re working to win.” If elected, Gillum will be Florida’s first black governor. The two candidates were locked in a virtual tie running up to election day.
It’s
a humid day in the Florida capitol, sunshine peeking out from behind
grey clouds and intermittent showers giving voters reason to tote
umbrellas. A group of Gillum boosters waited for him outside his polling
place and loudly burst into his campaign slogan “bring it home” as he
emerged from the ballot.
Common in the apparel of the fans who
turned up was the florescent green and orange colors of Florida
Agricultural and Mechanical University, or FAMU. Not only is Gillum an
alumnus, but his political career actually began as student body
president of the Historically Black College and University, which is
located in Tallahassee.
Last night a get out the vote rally on
the school’s campus brought megastars like DJ Khaled and Diddy out to
try and mobilize the youth vote. As a DJ cranked bass-heavy favorites
from Fast Life Yungstaz and 21 Savage, students stepped and strolled
around the gymnasium- an HBCU tradition- as the MC and guest speakers
encouraged them to make it out to vote Tuesday.
“I want you to
show them just how powerful we are. I want you to show them just how
brilliant we are. I want you to show them that we cannot be stopped,”
said Brittany Packnett, an activist and organizer, to rousing applause.
“Show up tomorrow with 10 of your home girls and 10 of your home boys and bring it home for Andrew Gillum.”
Jamiles Lartey (@JamilesLartey)
Andrew Gillum just arrived at
his polling place in Tallahassee, son and daughter in tow, to cast his
vote. He's expected to make remarks after he's done. pic.twitter.com/fwXBxRaRb1
Andrew Gillum greeting voters outside his polling place in Tallahassee and getting a third round of his campaign slogan: #BringItHome. pic.twitter.com/rRcRl8Smg9
Gillum on what his possible
victory would mean, skirts historical angle and focuses on the state of
US politics: "If we win tonight I think that will send a message to Mr.
Trump and Mr. DeSantis that the politics of hatred and division come to
an end- at least in this election." pic.twitter.com/jHiAM1iijE
On Donald Trump’s mind this Election Day morning is a supposed rumor
that a Missouri Senate candidate he held a rally with left his event
early.
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
There is a rumor, put out by the Democrats,
that Josh Hawley of Missouri left the Arena last night early. It is
Fake News. He met me at the plane when I arrived, spoke at the great
Rally, & stayed to the very end. In fact, I said goodbye to him and
left before he did. Deception!
Turnout by young voters in Tennessee surged dramatically, the Tennessean reported. In early voting, 98,000 people ages 18 to 29 cast ballots – seven
times the 12,800 who voted in 2014, according to data from the group
TargetSmart. Tennessee is where pop star Taylor Swift made a plea for fans to vote, endorsing Democrat Phil Bredesen in a hotly contested Senate race against Republican Marsha Blackburn.
Technical difficulties forced voters to use paper ballots at some
precincts in Gwinnett county, Georgia, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported. The machines used to check voters in at their precincts were down for a time at three sites, according to the paper. The county, the most diverse in Georgia, has been the target of lawsuits for its high rate of rejecting absentee ballots. The troubles led to long lines, as voters began to cast their ballots
in the razor thin governor’s race between Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp.
In Georgia, a closely watched gubernatorial race between Democrat
Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp is expected to come down the
wire. With record early voting in the state, canvassers for Abrams were
out until dusk on Monday evening in Atlanta’s low income black
neighborhoods urging as many people as they could to get out to vote,
despite the rain that was forecast.
Abrams, who will become the first African American female governor in
America if elected, has pushed hard to get out the vote in communities
with low turnout in prior elections. Canvasser Assata Aminifaa, 33, who did not vote in 2016, said the
response she had encountered since she began knocking on doors had been
overwhelming. “They didn’t really feel that their voice mattered before. But now we
have someone that is listening to what you think. If you’re not going
to vote, other people control your reality and what’s going to happen in
your life. And a lot of people haven’t thought about it like that
[before],” she said. As Aminifaa and her group of two other canvassers knocked on doors,
many people said they planned to line up to cast their ballot. One
construction supervisor, who did not want to be named, said he planned
to give his crew the day off to go and vote. “It’s too important not to,” he said, confirming he planned to vote for Abrams.
Richard Luscombe reports from Kissimmee, Florida: Most of the campaign signs are in Spanish outside the Robert Guevera
community center in Kissimmee, Florida, where the tailwinds of Hurricane
Maria 14 months ago appeared to still be blowing as voters arrived at
the polls early on Tuesday. The population of the Buenaventura Lakes, or BVL as it’s known to
locals, is strongly Puerto Rican, and Donald Trump’s response to the
aftermath of the devastating hurricane and denial of the official death
toll on the island were uppermost in many people’s minds, according to
US congressman Darren Soto, who showed up to encourage voters. “Without question the deaths of 3,000 fellow Puerto Ricans are on the
hearts and minds of the 1.2 million of us here in Florida and is one of
the big factors in the higher turnout,” Soto, the state’s first elected
congressman of Puerto Rican descent, told the Guardian.
Soto, facing his own re-election battle, shook hands with supporters
and encouraged them to vote for “healing”, observing that the packed
community center parking lot was in stark contrast to poor turnout of
the 2014 midterms.“People are fired up. It’s a race between love and hate, a United
States and divided States,” he said. “It’s a race about respect for the
Hispanic community, and really for all communities. Over the last two
years we’ve seen the country morph into a horrible visage of itself that
we don’t
Here’s a new election day cartoon from Rob Rogers, the cartoonist fired by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after a series of cartoons skewering Donald Trump.
The stormy weather across the south today has disrupted voting in some locations. The storms have caused power outages, forcing voters to use paper
ballots instead of electronic machines, the Associated Press reported. In Tennessee, 20,000 customers were without power in Knox County.
Tennessee coordinator of elections Mark Goins told the AP the polling
places that had electricity knocked out are operating on generators and
have emergency ballots ready for voters. At a polling place in Knoxville, Tennessee at Cedar Bluff middle
school, power was out and backup generators had also failed, CNN reported. Citizens were voting by paper ballot outside of the darkened building.
Guardian readers have been in touch about how they’re voting and the reasons why.
For Lynne in New Mexico, universal healthcare and abortion rights are key issues. “I’d like to see universal healthcare provided for all, I also think
that government should keep its hands off of women’s healthcare and that
includes abortion. I definitely want to see a complete separation of
church and state. I’m an atheist and find many, if not most, of the
issues that are objectionable in this election, such as abortion rights,
gun control laws, lack of universal health care, tend to relate back to
evangelical Christians figuring out ways to push their agenda through
political means.
“There’s no way to tell at this point but I hope
Trump gets a resounding thumping in this election. In this election I
did something that I have never done in the past. I voted a straight
Democratic ticket. After the last two years of watching even moderate Republicans
pinch their noses and climb into bed with this nasty excuse of a
president, I feel that the Republican party in general has been
compromised in just about every way possible.”
In California,
48-year-old Vivek Sharma said he lives in a “red conservative island in
the blue ocean” where the tension is palpable:
“This
neighborhood went for Trump largely along racial lines – whites (the
majority of the neighborhood) went for Trump and Asians (about 40% of
the neighborhood) went for Hillary. We will see if the vote for governor
breaks down in a similar way this time. “My congressional district is overwhelmingly Democratic and while I
voted for Judy Chu (Democrat) there is no doubt about the outcome.
Similarly, I voted for Gavin Newsom (Democrat) for governor but there is
no doubt about this outcome either. More difficult were the
propositions that California voters are being asked to render a
judgement upon. I largely voted along with the progressive wing of the
Democratic party with one exception – Proposition 6 (the gas tax). I
voted for repeal because I dislike the regressive nature of the tax. It
overwhelmingly impacts the poor and I would like California to find a
different way to finance transportation related infrastructure. Most
progressives will vote for the gas tax (so against Proposition 6) but I
believe that the affordability crisis in California cannot be addressed
without dealing with the gas tax. “I am hoping that there is an overwhelming repudiation of Donald Trump.
However, I expect that while the Democrats will pick up the House and
make progress in a variety of state level races, that there will be no
decisive check on Trump.”
Daniel from North Adams, Massachusetts, said controversy there centered on local ballot questions.“I voted on local issues. There are three referenda on the ballot
concerning hospital staffing, campaign finance and LGBTQ rights. Of
course, Trump is the elephant in the room, but there are no strong
Republican candidates on the ballot for any office, hence the
concentration on local issues. “I voted on the liberal ‘positive’ side of the three referenda on the
ballot. I also voted for Elizabeth Warren to keep her in the Senate. I
am undecided about whether I’d support her for the presidency in 2020. I
do hope other progressive Democrats will step forward to challenge Trump.”
Updated
Beto O'Rourke casts his vote
Ed Pilkington
Beto O’Rourke just voted at the polling station around the corner
from his house in El Paso, Texas. It is a sign of the superstar status
he’s acquired in a little over a year of campaigning that this unlikely
insurgent Democratic candidate, who is seeking to unseat Ted Cruz from a
US senate seat, attracted more than 100 camera people and reporters
from all over the world to watch him vote. He came with his wife Amy and three kids. After voting, O’Rourke came
to talk to us and told us why he was feeling good about today’s results
and his chances of winning as a Democrat in a Texas senatorial race for
the first time in 25 years. “I don’t have a poll to point to, I don’t
have a pollster,” he said. “Just traveling all the counties in Texas,
knocking on millions of doors. People are ready to be brought back
together, I feel it. So yeah, it feels good today.”
Ed Pilkington (@Edpilkington)
Beto O'Rourke has just cast
his own ballot in a polling station near his home in El Paso, Texas. He
tells us he's "feeling good" about tonight's result - "Texas is ready to
come together" pic.twitter.com/IVDk3LDLhp
O’Rourke is banking on an army of young voters who have never voted
before coming out to the polls. He said early voting among 18 to
29-year-olds in Texas was up 500% on 2014. “I’m so grateful for all
these first-time voters,” he said.
Texas Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke returned to his home town of El
Paso and made the closing pitch that Americans have nothing to fear from
immigrants. “This community defines the positive story of immigration,” O’Rourke said Monday night, the Dallas News reported. “From Chihuahuita to the Segundo Barrio to Sunset Heights where we
live, we are a city of immigrants. We are made far stronger, we’re more
successful, than we would have been without their presence. So we will
continue to do what we have always done, be a nation of immigrants,
refugees and asylum seekers.” O’Rourke, a Democratic congressman, is taking on Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. The border patrol has announced a “crowd control exercise” for El Paso on Tuesday, drawing criticism of voter intimidation. “No walls, no CBP exercise is going to keep us from honoring our
laws, our commitments,” O’Rourke said, according to the Dallas News.
“Why is this happening now? Why is the president stirring these issues
up at this moment with 24 hours before we decide this election? I leave
that to you to conclude.”
Betty MacDonald Fan Club, founded by Wolfgang Hampel, has members in 40 countries.
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