2022 elections. The steady march for sanity continues.

2 Georgia poll workers removed after social media post show them at the US Capitol on Jan. 6
From CNN's Katie Lobosco and Jason Morris

Voting stickers are laid out on a table at a polling location in Atlanta on Tuesday. (Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

A mother and son were removed as poll workers in Johns Creek, Georgia, minutes before polls opened this morning, after a social media post surfaced showing them attending the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

“I stood up for what’s right today in Washington DC. This election was a sham. Mike Pence is a traitor. I was tear gassed FOUR times. I have pepper spray in my throat. I stormed the Capitol building. And my children have had the best learning experience of their lives,” one Facebook post shared with CNN by state election officials read.

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“I am aware that it occurred. That really is a Fulton County internal issue. They have to mitigate the risk the way they see fit given that information,” said Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, when asked about it by CNN’s Erin Burnett Tuesday.

“I think it would have been better if they found out earlier potentially and worked with the people, but since it was so last minute and it came to light so late, I leave it to Fulton County. But yes, that did happen earlier this morning,” Sterling said.
The social media post is under “investigation for concern,” Nadine Williams, Fulton County interim director of registration and elections, said at a press conference earlier on Tuesday.

“We decided to remove them until we could complete the investigation,” Williams said.
“We just want to make sure the election is secure,” she added.

Social media posts and a comment made during a poll worker event was brought to the Fulton County board’s attention by a peer. Williams said the secretary of state’s office was consulted on the matter, and the state office agreed that there was a concern.

Williams said she was not at liberty to comment on the nature of the social media post when asked by a reporter, but she confirmed that it included a threat about election security.

“There were some things in there that were not allowed. You cannot take videos or photos in the election. That’s what brought it to our attention,” Williams said.

Exit polls: Inflation is the top issue for voters, followed by abortion
From CNN's Ariel Edwards-Levy
Inflation tops voters’ list of concerns in this year’s midterm elections, with abortion a close second, according to the preliminary national results of the exit poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research.

Approximately one-third called inflation the most important issue to their vote, with about 27% citing abortion. The remainder were roughly divided between picking crime, gun policy and immigration as their chief concerns.

The electorate’s views of the economy are largely gloomy. Only about one-quarter of voters felt positively about the current condition of the economy, with roughly three-quarters viewing it negatively – and about 4 in 10 saying it’s downright poor.
That’s more pessimistic than in the 2018 midterms when 68% of voters said the state of the economy was excellent or good, and the 2020 presidential election, when 49% said the same.

About 46% of voters in this election say that their family’s financial situation had worsened over the past two years, while only about 1 in 5 said it had improved.

More than three-quarters of voters in this year’s election say that inflation has caused hardship for them and their family over the past year, with about 20% saying it’s been a severe hardship. And about 6 in 10 say that gas prices, specifically, have recently been a hardship.

Exit polls: Midterm electorate may skew older compared with 2018
From CNN's Ariel Edwards-Levy
Early indications suggest that this year’s midterm electorate may look older than the voters in the 2018 midterms, according to the preliminary national results of the exit poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research.

Only about a tenth of voters in this election were under age 30, while roughly one-third were age 65 or older. In 2018, about 13% were under 30, and about 26% were 65 or older.

The electorate this year was split roughly between those who generally identify as Democrats (about 34%) and those who generally identify as Republicans (about 35%), with the remainder consisting of political independents and members of other parties. In 2018, Democrats made up a slightly larger voting bloc, about 37%.

About 76% of voters were White, and about 24% were voters of color. White voters with college degrees look to be a slightly larger share of the electorate this year – about 40% per the preliminary data, compared with 31% four years ago. By contrast, voters of color without a college degree look to have made up a slightly smaller share of the electorate this year.

From Michael Moor's running commentary running up to this election.



Well, my friends, it’s been a very interesting few days. After 5 weeks of my daily insistence that we, the majority, are going to have a Blue Tsunami on Tuesday, I am now (especially after being on TV last night) hearing from Democratic Party insiders who want to tell me (confidentially) that my belief in our victory is not unfounded and is now looking more and more, well, likely.

A couple of these Dem apparatchiks of course had their own reasons to share this good news with me. One asked if I could stop saying we’re gonna win. “We’re worried if people think we’ve pulled ahead,” one said to me, “there’s a chance they'll say ‘oh good, I don’t need to vote!’”
“That’s old thinking,” I texted back. “The public is already setting new early-voting records. People — our people — are on fire! Women are fed up and in the middle of a not-so-quiet rampage. They’re gleefully looking forward to extracting the men from Congress who support the medieval practice of forced procreation.”

“True,” he texted back. “Pollsters show abortion as #3 on the list of concerns, but that doesn’t account for the intensity and yes it’s huge. The anger over Roe decision is huge.”

I added: “And the anger from young voters is also huge. They know we’ve left them with a dying planet. Their only hope for survival is to toss every last one of the planet killers overboard.“

“Agreed. They’ll also be there in record numbers on Tuesday.”

Another Dem Party person contacted me to thank me for the “brave and correct” stance of believing in the “possibility of the Democratic victory.” She also said I was probably hurting their fundraising.

“You mean,” I replied, “all those scary emails you guys keep sending out saying we need to ‘DONATE $17 BY MIDNIGHT TONIGHT OR WE’RE GOING TO LOSE!!’”

“Yes,” she said. “We need the money. And yes, the more scared people are, the more they’ll give. Your blog is making many of them feel less scared and more hopeful. Not good Mike.”

Last night I received a letter to my Substack address from someone else who works inside the Democratic Party. Someone who wanted me to know the truth about what they knew from inside the (soft) belly of the party of Obama, JFK and FDR. He wanted me to know that what I’ve been telling you for 37 days is the truth and nothing but.
Here’s his letter:

In 2018, I started working as a consultant for the Democratic Party in its campaigns. It was a dream job come true. I've always been a politics junkie and it felt good to be doing my part (and make a living wage).
But 2022 has broken me.
Last year, I started working for the Dems on digital fundraising and let me tell ya, Mike: These motherf***ers in the Party really do care more about raising money than helping people or even winning their own elections.

You know all those emails that say "give us $25 or terrible stuff will happen"? Yeah, I’m the one who writes them.
Part of the reason I wanted to reach out to you is because of your prediction that Dems can still win big on Election Night. As someone on the inside who watches and monitors this stuff for a living — I want to tell you why you are 100% right.
Anytime you see a headline talking about a “Republican surge” in the polls, that data is likely sourced from one of three places: FiveThirtyEight, Real Clear Politics, or the Cook Political Report.

These outlets are poll aggregators that average the results of multiple polls to come up with their “predictions.”

Since September, the GOP has purposefully flooded the zone with conservative-leaning polls in an effort to game these aggregators.

This is admittedly a brilliant strategy — but it also means headlines warning of a red tsunami that may be severely overstating the Republican advantage.
It also explains why recent polls don't reflect the early-voting data — which shows a clear Democratic advantage.
Numbers do, in fact, sometimes lie. If folks actually show up between now and Tuesday to the polls, the Democrats will win.
I know you say it all the time — but please, please, please beg listeners to vote.

The first polls close at 7 pm ET. All of Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia
Parts of Florida and New Hampshire

Then the results will come pouring in. Let's hope the story of the night comes from Republicans accusing Democrats of election fraud.

Fogdog said:

From Michael Moor's running commentary running up to this election.



Well, my friends, it’s been a very interesting few days. After 5 weeks of my daily insistence that we, the majority, are going to have a Blue Tsunami on Tuesday, I am now (especially after being on TV last night) hearing from Democratic Party insiders who want to tell me (confidentially) that my belief in our victory is not unfounded and is now looking more and more, well, likely.

A couple of these Dem apparatchiks of course had their own reasons to share this good news with me. One asked if I could stop saying we’re gonna win. “We’re worried if people think we’ve pulled ahead,” one said to me, “there’s a chance they'll say ‘oh good, I don’t need to vote!’”
“That’s old thinking,” I texted back. “The public is already setting new early-voting records. People — our people — are on fire! Women are fed up and in the middle of a not-so-quiet rampage. They’re gleefully looking forward to extracting the men from Congress who support the medieval practice of forced procreation.”

“True,” he texted back. “Pollsters show abortion as #3 on the list of concerns, but that doesn’t account for the intensity and yes it’s huge. The anger over Roe decision is huge.”

I added: “And the anger from young voters is also huge. They know we’ve left them with a dying planet. Their only hope for survival is to toss every last one of the planet killers overboard.“

“Agreed. They’ll also be there in record numbers on Tuesday.”

Another Dem Party person contacted me to thank me for the “brave and correct” stance of believing in the “possibility of the Democratic victory.” She also said I was probably hurting their fundraising.

“You mean,” I replied, “all those scary emails you guys keep sending out saying we need to ‘DONATE $17 BY MIDNIGHT TONIGHT OR WE’RE GOING TO LOSE!!’”

“Yes,” she said. “We need the money. And yes, the more scared people are, the more they’ll give. Your blog is making many of them feel less scared and more hopeful. Not good Mike.”

Last night I received a letter to my Substack address from someone else who works inside the Democratic Party. Someone who wanted me to know the truth about what they knew from inside the (soft) belly of the party of Obama, JFK and FDR. He wanted me to know that what I’ve been telling you for 37 days is the truth and nothing but.
Here’s his letter:

In 2018, I started working as a consultant for the Democratic Party in its campaigns. It was a dream job come true. I've always been a politics junkie and it felt good to be doing my part (and make a living wage).
But 2022 has broken me.
Last year, I started working for the Dems on digital fundraising and let me tell ya, Mike: These motherf***ers in the Party really do care more about raising money than helping people or even winning their own elections.

You know all those emails that say "give us $25 or terrible stuff will happen"? Yeah, I’m the one who writes them.
Part of the reason I wanted to reach out to you is because of your prediction that Dems can still win big on Election Night. As someone on the inside who watches and monitors this stuff for a living — I want to tell you why you are 100% right.
Anytime you see a headline talking about a “Republican surge” in the polls, that data is likely sourced from one of three places: FiveThirtyEight, Real Clear Politics, or the Cook Political Report.

These outlets are poll aggregators that average the results of multiple polls to come up with their “predictions.”

Since September, the GOP has purposefully flooded the zone with conservative-leaning polls in an effort to game these aggregators.

This is admittedly a brilliant strategy — but it also means headlines warning of a red tsunami that may be severely overstating the Republican advantage.
It also explains why recent polls don't reflect the early-voting data — which shows a clear Democratic advantage.
Numbers do, in fact, sometimes lie. If folks actually show up between now and Tuesday to the polls, the Democrats will win.
I know you say it all the time — but please, please, please beg listeners to vote.

The first polls close at 7 pm ET. All of Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia
Parts of Florida and New Hampshire

Then the results will come pouring in. Let's hope the story of the night comes from Republicans accusing Democrats of election fraud.

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It would be nice if a clear unambiguous message was sent to the GOP that this bullshit does not work. We will soon find out, it is opinion, better informed opinion than mine and I do hope he is right. I too feel the polls are not reflecting things correctly for a variety of reasons, but perhaps its wishful thinking. Reality will soon become apparent, let's hope the usual suspects have trouble accepting it!

If the republicans win today and impeach Joe Biden as promised this will be your next US President.....

doublejj said:

If the republicans win today and impeach Joe Biden as promised this will be your next US President.....
View attachment 5223552

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she could immediately pardon Joe... a-la Gerald Ford and pick Hillary as her new VP....

or maybe Michelle Obama.....

or Gavin Newsome....

What a fucking joke, he will announce on the 15th he says, but the FBI will have probably have the fucker in cuffs and on the way to a plea hearing a day or two before then. DeSantis is in no hurry; he can wait until Donald is muzzled and tucked away, the republican primaries are a long way off.

Donald needs the base now more than ever as the walls close in and DeSantis is a threat to that and his money making grift.

Imagine, he says this on election day!

Republicans file emergency motion to extend Maricopa County voting hours

A Republican coalition is filing an emergency motion to extend voting hours in Arizona’s Maricopa County, citing concerns about voting machine issues.

The Republican National Committee (RNC), the National Republican Senatorial Committee, former state lawmaker Jill Norgaard, and the campaigns of the Arizona GOP nominees for Senate and governor — Blake Masters and Kari Lake, respectively — filed a request that all voting centers in the county stay open until 10 p.m. local time on Tuesday.

The coalition alleges that “at least 36% of all voting centers across Maricopa County have been afflicted with pervasive and systemic malfunctions of ballot tabulation devices and printers, which has burdened voters with excessive delays and long lines,” according to the filing, shared by the RNC.
The group is also asking that the public release of any early ballot results be suspended until 11 p.m.

“The widespread issues – in an election administered by Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbs – are completely unacceptable, especially as Republicans flock to the polls to vote in-person on Election Day,” said RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel in a statement.

Two Texas counties extend voting by an hour after delays

State judges extended voting in Texas’s Harris County and Bell County by one hour after malfunctions caused delays at some polling locations.
The elections department in Harris County, which includes Houston and is the state’s most populous county with nearly 5 million residents, said voting will be extended until 8 p.m. at the county’s 782 polling locations but did not provide specifics about what caused the mishaps.

James Stafford, Bell County’s public information officer, told The Hill that officials noticed issues with the county’s election check-in technology early Tuesday morning, leading eight locations to not open until shortly before 9 a.m. local time.

Stafford said voters in the county can cast a ballot at any polling location, and the issue occurred because some of the county’s systems failed to calibrate properly after not adjusting to the time change when Daylight Saving Time ended over the weekend.
In both counties, voters who arrive in line after 7 p.m. will cast provisional ballots.

Stafford said Bell County was doing so to sequester the ballots in case of challenges but stressed that officials plan to count those votes.

Michigan secretary of state blasts Trump over electoral ‘lies’ that might lead to violence
Michigan’s secretary of state ripped former President Trump for spreading lies that could encourage political violence after he drafted a series of posts casting doubt on the election integrity of the midterms before polls had closed Tuesday.

“This isn’t true,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson responded after a post from Trump that said voters in Detroit were being turned away from polling stations. The former president offered no evidence to back up his assertion.

“Please don’t spread lies to foment or encourage political violence in our state. Or anywhere. Thanks,” Benson tweeted.

In posts on his social media platform over three hours, Trump complained about voting processes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona, at one point encouraging people to protest.

All three are states lost by Trump in the 2020 election. He has repeatedly made baseless accusations about those losses, which have been confirmed by courts and political officials of both parties.

“Same thing is happening with Voter Fraud as happened in 2020???” Trump, who is eyeing a reelection bid announcement as soon as next week, said in one of his posts.

Arizona was a top focus for Trump on Tuesday, as Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, was having issues with vote counting machines in about 20 percent of polling places. The problem was resolved by changing the printer settings, allowing votes to be tabulated.

But the issue sent Trump on a tirade, claiming in various posts that “they are trying to steal the election with bad Machines and DELAY” and that we “can’t let this happen, AGAIN!!!” Trump did not specify who he was referring to by “they” and provided no evidence for his claims.

Maricopa County’s government was on offense even before polls opened Tuesday, drafting tweets Monday night about election myths and facts in an attempt to battle disinformation.

“From how long it takes to get all ballots counted to concerns about tabulation equipment– we anticipate false election narratives to spread in the coming days,” the county wrote via Twitter.

There were no indications from authorities Tuesday of anything other than a largely routine Election Day.

During a call with reporters Tuesday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said it has not identified any “specific or credible threats” that would disrupt the election system.

“It’s important to remember that such incidents will not affect a person’s ability to cast a ballot or know that their ballot was counted accurately, and that the election is secure,” an official with the agency emphasized.

Trump says he won’t get enough credit for GOP victories
Former President Trump in an Election Day interview said that if the candidates he has endorsed win their races in the midterms, then he should get “all of the credit,” although he believes he will see “very little.”

When asked how much he believes candidates’ victories or losses should be credited to him, Trump told NewsNation’s Markie Martin, “Well, I think if they win, I should get all the credit, and if they lose, I should not be blamed at all. OK, but it’ll probably be just the opposite.”

However, Trump added that he believes the results will show his endorsements win.
“When they win, [and] I think they’re going to do very well, I’ll probably be given very little credit even though in many cases I told people to run, and they ran, and they turned out to be very good candidates,” he said.

“But usually what would happen is when they do well, I won’t be given any credit, and if they do badly, they will blame everything on me. So I’m prepared for anything, but we’ll defend ourselves,” the former president added.

Trump has endorsed more than 330 candidates this election cycle and had a strong track record of successful endorsements in GOP primaries.
Trump’s team has previously asserted that his endorsement has helped propel Republicans to larger victories.

“The power of President Trump’s endorsement hasn’t just resulted in massive wins for Republicans across the nation, it also has meant bigger margins of victory and an ever-growing movement for the future,” spokesman Taylor Budowich said in a statement to The Hill.

“Every candidate who earns the endorsement of President Trump benefits tremendously and has been gracious in their appreciation for his support,” Budowich added.

However, some of Trump’s chosen nominees, such as Georgia Senate hopeful Herschel Walker, have faced doubts about their chances of success in the general election.

“I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate. Senate races are just different — they’re statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in August.

The former president’s full interview will air at 6 p.m. Eastern on NewsNation, which is owned by The Hill’s parent company, Nexstar Media Group.

Today could be the beginning of the end of Ukraine. If republicans win and cut off support as promised, Putler wins and then it's only a matter of time.

https://www.cbs58.com/news/west-bend-police-arrest-armed-man-at-library-threatening-staff-to-stop-the-voting

WEST BEND, Wis. (CBS 5 -- West Bend police say they took a man into custody Tuesday afternoon after he arrived at the West Bend Community Memorial Library with a knife, demanding staff to "stop the voting."

Police say the 38-year-old man was taken into custody and no injuries were reported.

The library is a polling location for the city of West Bend.

Authorities say voting was paused for just over half an hour while the scene was secured, and an investigation was conducted.

All library staff, election officials and citizens are safe, and the polling site has reopened.

Police say there is no threat to the public.

The incident remains under investigation.

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printer said:

Republicans file emergency motion to extend Maricopa County voting hours

A Republican coalition is filing an emergency motion to extend voting hours in Arizona’s Maricopa County, citing concerns about voting machine issues.

The Republican National Committee (RNC), the National Republican Senatorial Committee, former state lawmaker Jill Norgaard, and the campaigns of the Arizona GOP nominees for Senate and governor — Blake Masters and Kari Lake, respectively — filed a request that all voting centers in the county stay open until 10 p.m. local time on Tuesday.

The coalition alleges that “at least 36% of all voting centers across Maricopa County have been afflicted with pervasive and systemic malfunctions of ballot tabulation devices and printers, which has burdened voters with excessive delays and long lines,” according to the filing, shared by the RNC.
The group is also asking that the public release of any early ballot results be suspended until 11 p.m.

“The widespread issues – in an election administered by Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbs – are completely unacceptable, especially as Republicans flock to the polls to vote in-person on Election Day,” said RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel in a statement.

Republicans file emergency motion to extend Maricopa County voting hours

A Republican coalition is filing an emergency motion to extend voting hours in Arizona’s Maricopa County, citing concerns about voting machine issues. The Republican National Committee (RNC), the N…

thehill.com

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2 minutes ago
Neil Vigdor
As the polls were about to close in Arizona at 9 p.m. Eastern time, a Superior Court judge in Maricopa County denied a Republican National Committee lawsuit that sought to extend voting by three hours, until 10 p.m. local time. The county opposed the extension.

Fixed! Fixed!

Judge denies Republican request to extend Maricopa County voting hours
A state judge on Tuesday evening denied a Republican coalition’s emergency request to extend voting hours in Arizona’s Maricopa County, casting doubt on allegations that some people were unable to vote.

The judge, who ruled just minutes before polls’ scheduled closing time in the state, also said the request could not be implemented in time.

The GOP groups — which include the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a former state lawmaker, and the campaigns of Arizona GOP Senate nominee Blake Masters and gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake — alleged that some precincts’ tabulation malfunctions earlier in the day led some voters in the battleground state to be denied the opportunity to vote.

The groups claimed some voters at malfunctioning locations were told they could go to a different polling place instead, only to be told at the new location that they could not vote because they already had checked in at the initial precinct.

The judge said he “does not have any evidence” that residents were denied the right to vote.
Sen. Mark Kelly’s (D-Ariz.) campaign opposed the Republican effort and argued against the motion at the hearing.

Officials from Maricopa County — which comprises more than half of the state’s population — at the hearing argued they had no way to inform polling places about an extension given the hearing occurred in the final minutes before they shut down.

doublejj said:

Today could be the beginning of the end of Ukraine. If republicans win and cut off support as promised, Putler wins and then it's only a matter of time.

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that's just not true...the support America has given has been extremely important, but the rest of NATO and other countries have been stepping up and making significant donations too.
they're sitting in a good place right now, while the russians are pretty fucked. even if the republicans somehow gained enough control to lift most sanctions, the damage has been done, and if the russians can find any weapons they can afford, they don't have any personnel
to use them.
the EU won't let putin win, even if the republicans somehow sabotage everything they can, and they will remember what the republicans did.