We have 3 sets of in-laws in Georgia. Their comments and pictures around their homes (two in Atlanta, one in Athens) showing the number of pro-Walker signs and messages is astounding. One brother- and sister-in-law have said that priests at their church have stated that “Walker is a better Christian than Warnock”.

I don’t know how that runoff will end up, but it will be close and could very well result in the election of a right-wing extremist who is even less intelligent and more dishonest than trump.

On a funnier note: the Nov 16 cover of the New York Post ran this comment at the bottom of the page:

Florida man makes announcement: Page 26

Gonna take a barrel of aloe vera to ease that burn.

Now we need Krysten Sinema to remember she is a Democrat, at least until her next election.

Aside – I think that the obsessive reporting on polls does more to steer the races than it does reflect what people will do if they concentrate on issues (as much as they claim to.)

Good point. The elections are closer now then in the past – really since 2000. Technology has caused that.

Nevada does the right (left) thing

There should be no paywall on that, but for excerpts:

Ms. Cortez Masto’s modest lead — half a percentage point — was secure enough for The Associated Press to project a winner on Saturday night. Most of the remaining votes left to be counted were from mail ballots, which have tended to break for Ms. Cortez Masto by a wide margin.

Speaking in New York, a triumphant Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader, called his party’s victory “a vindication for Democrats, our agenda and for the American people.” He added, “The American people rejected the anti-democratic extremist MAGA Republicans.”

A Dec. 6 runoff in Georgia between Senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, will offer only a slight padding of Democrats’ majority or a consolation prize to Republicans.

Long-time Vikings fans will send money to Warnock. The Walker trade not only brought a player that Dennis Green didn’t want to have, it gave a whole lot of draft choices to the already hated Cowboys who used them to win Super Bowls wtih Michael Irvin, Nate Newton, etc. Re-electing Warnock would be a repudidation of Mike Lynn.

So, it takes a time after election day to count the ballots.

Maricopa County’s board of election supervisors has 3 Republicans, 1 Democrat. The County Recorder is a Republican (lead official in administering the elections. ) Maricopa County was where the Cyber Ninjas were trying to find the Big Bambu (ballots sent from China would have bamboo threads. Why not rice paper? Don’t ask, there’s no logic.)

Kari Lake, who’s seeing her lead slip away, is busy insinuating fraud on the slow election count, of course, because she is seeing her lead slip away. Conservative Trumpist Tweeters are tweeting democratic fraud, as the Democrats are somehow finding a way to slow walk the tally so that a Democrat wins. They are also claiming that since Katie Hobbs, who Kari Lake called a Basement Candidate that no one voted for, is the Secretary of State, there is a conflict of interest.

But, the Secretary of State’s office doesn’t count the ballots. The county counts the ballots.

The losers are really showing their true colors. And MAGA Republicans, when the makeup of the Maricopa elections board is explained to them, blame it on McCain Republicans.

I was briefly worried about Civil War. No longer. If the Republicans start a Civil War, they’ll shoot each other.

Also, Adrian Fontes winning the AZ Secretary of State is a good thing. He was the county recorder and worked to enable changes to make it easier to vote in Maricopa. He added polling places and also enacted a rule that you could vote in any precinct, so that people could get to their polling place easily and vote in their allotted time. His predecessor had cut the number of polling places, and many Bernie Democrats believed it was a conspiracy to help Hillary. (That was when I got off the Bernie Bandwagon – too much hatred and conspiracy mongering.) Asides aside, I talked to Adrian a few times and he’s good and smart. This is a win for Arizona, and I’m sure that Hobbs will win, too.

Rick, what we see in Arizona is the result of onerous laws designed to prevent fraud. See if you can convince your friends to take a serious look at the unintended consequences of laws that don’t have the intended effect.

I actually did not get any calls from Minnesota for polls, but I still get them for Arizona.

I think polls largely now are used to lead the vote rather than to sample what will happen, and I would prefer that politics was less about the horse race and polls and that news would cover the candidates rather than what people think of them.

The parties don’t really need them, except to scare people into contributing using the least favorable poll. Wellstone once said “Always run like you’re 20 points behind.” Never take any votes for granted. The polls may look good, but actually talking to people to make sure they vote is more important.

Oh well. Maybe the lesson will stick this time.