Results I

This morning at 10:30 I walked down the hill to my polling station and there was a line, first I ever saw there, but that was more because of an illiterate poll worker who was non-functional than because of voter enthusiasm per se. The whole process from arming my home alarm to disarming it took 19 minutes-- and that was a tough walk back up in the hill in the hot sun. It's 85 degrees and sunny, different from how I remember November voting days in NY and San Francisco!

Meanwhile Trump was working to disenfranchise American citizens of Hispanic origin in Nevada, while the Republican Party was up to it's old tricks of suppressing the black vote in North Carolina "When the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that North Carolina had intentionally passed a law containing provisions making it harder for Black people to vote, the court probably thought it was sending the state a clear message: Stop discriminating. North Carolina Republicans, however, don’t seem to be getting the point... Since Republicans have been unable to convince meaningful numbers of Black people to vote for them, they resort to underhanded tactics that, as the Fourth Circuit noted, target Black voters with 'almost surgical precision.'" The state GOP's executive director, Dallas Woodhouse, ordered Republicans on county elections boards to cut early voting hours and keep polling sites away from college campuses.

In Nevada, Trump lawyers were nearly laughed out of court for whining to a judge the early voting sites in Hispanic neighborhoods were allowed to stay open too late. Although Trump calls it "rigged," it has been generally accepted in every single state that when someone is on line when the polls close they get to vote no matter how long it takes. People who are pro-democracy encourage voters. Authoritarians discourage voters and try to hold down turnout and participation. The Nevada judge threw the suite out. Trump's attorney general pick, Rudy Giuliani, was screaming on MSNBC "If the polls close at 9pm, close 'em at 9pm!" something that never happened in New York City when he was mayor.

Artie Blanco, Director for a group called For Nevada’s Future didn't take well to Trump's clownish lawsuit either. Moments after it was thrown out, he told the media that "For the past three hours, the Trump campaign has wasted the time and tax dollars of the people of Nevada. Their frivolous lawsuit, thrown out just moments ago, was aimed towards doing one thing, and one thing only, disenfranchising voters. Meanwhile, dozens of organizations are helping to remind Nevada’s voters that today is election day and that all Nevada’s citizens should come to the polls in order to have their voices heard as they have already done in record numbers during early vote."

Meanwhile, over at Fox, Charles Krauthammer was on with Bill Hemmer warning about a Republican civil war. He warned that Trump (and his gang) will try to turn the GOP into a populist party-- remember, right-wing populism is usually a precursor to outright fascism-- and that "the country will not have a conservative party." (I guess he hasn't been taking a serious look at Hillary and the people around her, although he did say he thinks she will try to make a Grand Bargain-- cutting entitlements and raising taxes-- as soon as she takes office.)



Pelosi and Ben Ray Lujan, her lame DCCC chair, came out before there were any results to whine that it wasn't the DCCC's fault that they wouldn't win back the House today because it is Jim Comey's fault. Something that's true, on the other hand, was that anyone who predicted that the unfavorables for both Trump and Clinton would hold down turnout. Turnout has been very heavy though-- everywhere.

The first states to close-- at 6pm (which seems odd in 2016)-- were most of Indiana and most of Kentucky. By 7pm AP called Kentucky and Indiana for Trump and Vermont for Clinton. No surprises there. AP also called the Senate races in Kentucky and South Carolina for the GOP and Vermont for the Dems. No surprises there either. And then came West Virginia, also for Trump. Right off the bat, though, Hillary pulled ahead in Florida, while Murphy sunk down below Rubio. We'll update every now and then tonight. But my Twitter page is probably better.