Election Day 2022

[WisNeuro]

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No matter which way you lean, get out there and vote peeps. Got mine in super quickly after dropping the gremlins off at the virus factory.

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fivethirtyeight.com

 

[PsychPhDone]

I didn't realize how much previous elections messed me up until today. I'm anxious AF.

Vote, friends! It may be the only thing we agree on!

 

[borne_before]

No matter which way you lean, get out there and vote peeps. Got mine in super quickly after dropping the gremlins off at the virus factory.

Politics News | Breaking Political News, Video & Analysis-ABC News

ABC News is your trusted source on political news stories and videos. Get the latest coverage and analysis on everything from the Trump presidency, Senate, House and Supreme Court.

fivethirtyeight.com

Haha - our nearly one year old is home with kennel cough and fever right now. My poor wife went into work at 330am this morning to be back by 9am for some time-sensitive embryo biopsies. I'm outta PTO and sick days.

I mailed mine in about a month ago. In my state like 90% mail in votes. I've never voted in-person. One reason I voted against the election deniers is that want to make more of a pain in the bottom to vote via mail. I'm like "naw dude." Also, baselessly undermining democracy is a bad vibe.

 

[PsychPhDone]

Haha - our nearly one year old is home with kennel cough and fever right now. My poor wife went into work at 330am this morning to be back by 9am for some time-sensitive embryo biopsies. I'm outta PTO and sick days.

I mailed mine in about a month ago. In my state like 90% mail in votes. I've never voted in-person. One reason I voted against the election deniers is that want to make more of a pain in the bottom to vote via mail. I'm like "naw dude." Also, baselessly undermining democracy is a bad vibe.

I love vote by mail.

Hope your little one feels better soon. ☹️

 

[cara susanna]

I voted by mail and am in a swing state that's been targeted by voting restriction laws, so here's hoping my vote doesn't get thrown out for some dumb reason.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

I procrastinated in actually mailing my ballot back, so I had to drive up and drop it off at an early poling location the other day, but I'll put in another plug for vote-by-mail.

 

[PsyDuck90]

Moving from a blue state to a red state has definitely been an experience.

 

[smalltownpsych]

I’m old fashioned and like to vote in person. Makes me feel more involved and motivated and connected to the process as well as others in the community including those that might be voting for different candidates.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

I’m old fashioned and like to vote in person. Makes me feel more involved and motivated and connected to the process as well as others in the community including those that might be voting for different candidates.

I usually enjoy voting early in person (and the poll workers are always so nice), but day-of can be rough. I'm also lazy at times, so mail-in it is.

 

[smalltownpsych]

I usually enjoy voting early in person (and the poll workers are always so nice), but day-of can be rough. I'm also lazy at times, so mail-in it is.

One benefit of living in a small community is that we don’t have to deal with crowds of people. 😉

 

[cara susanna]

The VA actually is now giving us time off to vote, if needed. So I may do in person in the future.

 

[WisNeuro]

I’m old fashioned and like to vote in person. Makes me feel more involved and motivated and connected to the process as well as others in the community including those that might be voting for different candidates.

Also prefer in-person. I'm all about early voting and mail-in, but I'll always choose in-person for myself as long as I can physically get there. I was teh 28th person in my precint to vote, in and out in less than 10 minutes.

 

[jdawg2017]

Moved to a purple state for internship and I am so excited that my vote will really matter this year, not that it hasn't mattered before but I have only ever lived in places where the GOP or Dems have won by land-slides in state-wide elections.

 

[Sanman]

The wife and I went absentee ballot. Put it in the drop box yesterday. I much prefer it as it gives me the chance to research all the questions on the ballot. Found a couple of local ballot measures that used tricky language.

 

[WisNeuro]

The wife and I went absentee ballot. Put it in the drop box yesterday. I much prefer it as it gives me the chance to research all the questions on the ballot. Found a couple of local ballot measures that used tricky language.

Any of the armed Gravy Seals staking our your dropbox?

 

[Sanman]

Any of the armed Gravy Seals staking our your dropbox?

Nope, I would love to see them try as my drop box is at the local high school and open carry there would not go well.

 

[WisNeuro]

Nope, I would love to see them try as my drop box is at the local high school and open carry there would not go well.

I imagine half of those dudes aren't allowed within 500 feet of a school, with or without firearms.

 

[WisNeuro]

Polls starting to close in some places, here we go

 

[WisNeuro]

GA numbers starting to come in, key race in the Senate there.

 

[PsyDr]

“Let’s reduce the solutions to social problems to a forced choice, either/or response.”

Biggest con possible.

 

[WisNeuro]

“Let’s reduce the solutions to social problems to a forced choice, either/or response.”

Biggest con possible.

"And let's solve those problems with short-term solutions that will get blown up by the opposition every 2 years!"

 

[PsyDr]

"And let's solve those problems with short-term solutions that will get blown up by the opposition every 2 years!"

Great demonstration. It shouldn’t be an either/or choice.

 

[Sanman]

“Let’s reduce the solutions to social problems to a forced choice, either/or response.”

Biggest con possible.

You mean politics is not about the two well meaning vetted candidates with the best ideas competing over the most promising vision for society as a whole? I assumed civil servants were all about service to country and citizens. The textbooks lied to me?!?

 

[futureapppsy2]

To be fair, even in countries with a lot of parties, colliation building often leads to a somewhat similar either/or issue. I mean, even in Australia, which has colliation building and ranked choice voting, the vast majority of the political dialogue is around the Labour (left-wing/liberal) and Liberal (right-wing/conservative) parties.

 

[futureapppsy2]

Surprised that the Wisconsin Senate race is so close, as well as the Oregon governor's race. Was really hoping a run-off in the Georgia Senate race would be avoided but sadly, it appears unlikely. Really surprised the Kansas governor's race broke the way it did.

 

[WisNeuro]

Dems definitely outperformed expectations. States where abortion rights were a ballot measure definitely helped dem turnout. Will lose the House, just by not as wide of a margin, which means any substantive policy will now be stalled for 2 years. They need to tie up the Senate if they want any chance of confirmation power.

 

[cara susanna]

Surprised that the Wisconsin Senate race is so close, as well as the Oregon governor's race. Was really hoping a run-off in the Georgia Senate race would be avoided but sadly, it appears unlikely. Really surprised the Kansas governor's race broke the way it did.

I'm not, sadly. Mandela Barnes was hit by a very strong, racist ad campaign that was basically amounted to "black man scary."

Unless you mean you expected Johnson to do better.

 

[WisNeuro]

Wisconsin has been trending red for a while now, and as unpopular as RJ is, he still had the inside track on this race. I haven't seen yet, have they called the WI state legislature yet?

 

[cara susanna]

Wisconsin has been trending red for a while now, and as unpopular as RJ is, he still had the inside track on this race. I haven't seen yet, have they called the WI state legislature yet?

State legislature is never gonna go Dem because of the gerrymander, but voters prevented a supermajority which, sadly, is good news. The biggest thing will be the spring election which will decide the state Supreme Court. If Dems win that, there is a chance of getting fair maps which is the only way Dems could have a chance of winning the state legislature.

It's weird to me that people would split a ticket between Evers and Johnson but... again, I think race did play a role. To be fair, though, Barnes wasn't the strongest candidate. It was one of those cases where the party liked him and wanted him. All of the other Dem senate candidates dropped out before the primary.

 

[WisNeuro]

State legislature is never gonna go Dem because of the gerrymander, but voters prevented a supermajority which, sadly, is good news. The biggest thing will be the spring election which will decide the state Supreme Court. If Dems win that, there is a chance of getting fair maps which is the only way Dems could have a chance of winning the state legislature.

It's weird to me that people would split a ticket between Evers and Johnson but... again, I think race did play a role. To be fair, though, Barnes wasn't the strongest candidate. It was one of those cases where the party liked him and wanted him. All of the other Dem senate candidates dropped out before the primary.

Hard to win running as a progressive in WI for national office. That was an error on the Dems part, they needed a true moderate with some name appeal, though that may have been a tall order. In some of these closer races in purple or reddish states, the left needs to swallow their pride and run their moderates instead of conceding the race altogether if they want to flip big seats.

 

[PsyDr]

You mean politics is not about the two well meaning vetted candidates with the best ideas competing over the most promising vision for society as a whole? I assumed civil servants were all about service to country and citizens. The textbooks lied to me?!?

Media has convinced people that there are only two choices. There is simply no way that complex social problems have an either/or solution.

It's like asking, "do you want to be punched now or in 10 minutes?" I don't accept the question. Why are you asking me this question? Why is this a potential solution? What are the alternative solutions? What are the pros and cons of each solution?

 

[Sanman]

Media has convinced people that there are only two choices. There is simply no way that complex social problems have an either/or solution.

It's like asking, "do you want to be punched now or in 10 minutes?" I don't accept the question. Why are you asking me this question? Why is this a potential solution? What are the alternative solutions? What are the pros and cons of each solution?

I mean, we know why people want to punch you. It's alright.

The issue is that we have lost the ability to have a dialogue in this country. Take a look at some of the other threads political threads here. The answer is this policy is correct or you are for the other side. It can't be that both sides have poor solutions to a complex situation.

 

[ClinicalABA]

Living in a blue state where the democratic primaries seem to be the deciding races, it can easily seem that your vote in November really doesn't mean much. We did have some interesting ballot questions that were close- raising income tax on those making $1million+ by 4% (passed); requiring dental insurers to spend 83% of premiums on patient care (passed); letting people who can't verify citizenship or immmigration status get drivers licences (passed). Suprisingly, there were more than zero "Stacy Abrams for GA Governor" signs around town, and this is Massachusetts.

 

[futureapppsy2]

I'm not, sadly. Mandela Barnes was hit by a very strong, racist ad campaign that was basically amounted to "black man scary."

Unless you mean you expected Johnson to do better.

Yeah, I meant I didn’t expect Barnes to do as well as he did. Saddened but not surprised by the racism. 🙁

 

[futureapppsy2]

I mean, we know why people want to punch you. It's alright.

The issue is that we have lost the ability to have a dialogue in this country. Take a look at some of the other threads political threads here. The answer is this policy is correct or you are for the other side. It can't be that both sides have poor solutions to a complex situation.

I think the issue with the "we need to have dialogue" rhetoric is that is that the Republicans (and typically Libertarians, who are increasingly just Republicans who like to get high) essentially offer nothing as the other option. For example, we can have either have a) the ACA or b) nothing; a) access to abortion or b) absolutely no abortion, including no pregnacy care for etopic pregnancies; a) trans people getting healthcare or b) trans people getting no healthcare; a) gay people have rights or b) gay people not having rights. I think with abortion and healthcare, we could work out compromises that would be mutually satisfactory (e.g., abortion legal through X weeks and for life and health of the mother; a Germany-style Medicare Part C for All plan), but the current Republican party doesn't seem open to that.

 

[WisNeuro]

I think the issue with the "we need to have dialogue" rhetoric is that is that the Republicans (and typically Libertarians, who are increasingly just Republicans who like to get high) essentially offer nothing as the other option. For example, we can have either have a) the ACA or b) nothing; a) access to abortion or b) absolutely no abortion, including no pregnacy care for etopic pregnancies; a) trans people getting healthcare or b) trans people getting no healthcare; a) gay people have rights or b) gay people not having rights. I think with abortion and healthcare, we could work out compromises that would be mutually satisfactory (e.g., abortion legal through X weeks and for life and health of the mother; a Germany-style Medicare Part C for All plan), but the current Republican party doesn't seem open to that.

I don't think it's as easy, or productive, to think about people who identify as Republican to be all or nothing on such issues. We actually saw several red states with abortion on the ballot, inwhich voters voted for abortion rights, but heavily favored GOP candidates. IMO, characterizing the GOP this way is one of the biggest mistakes of the left, and one of the reasons the GOP is making inroads to demos that traditionally were very loyal to the democratic party.

 

[futureapppsy2]

I don't think it's as easy, or productive, to think about people who identify as Republican to be all or nothing on such issues. We actually saw several red states with abortion on the ballot, inwhich voters voted for abortion rights, but heavily favored GOP candidates. IMO, characterizing the GOP this way is one of the biggest mistakes of the left, and one of the reasons the GOP is making inroads to demos that traditionally were very loyal to the democratic party.

I don’t think all people who identify as Republicans are that black and white about these things, but a lot of the actual candidates are—see the “repeal and replace” thing with the ACA, where the replace option was, essentially, nothing. We also see this with trigger laws for abortion—very black and white “no abortion ever” laws, even though we know a lot of the voting populace doesn’t support that.

 

[Sanman]

I think the issue with the "we need to have dialogue" rhetoric is that is that the Republicans (and typically Libertarians, who are increasingly just Republicans who like to get high) essentially offer nothing as the other option. For example, we can have either have a) the ACA or b) nothing; a) access to abortion or b) absolutely no abortion, including no pregnacy care for etopic pregnancies; a) trans people getting healthcare or b) trans people getting no healthcare; a) gay people have rights or b) gay people not having rights. I think with abortion and healthcare, we could work out compromises that would be mutually satisfactory (e.g., abortion legal through X weeks and for life and health of the mother; a Germany-style Medicare Part C for All plan), but the current Republican party doesn't seem open to that.

Honestly neither party seems open discussing all issues and compromising. Mostly because you can't campaign on it. The thing is, both parties lose moderates that way. As a moderate, I find myself disagreeing with policies from both parties recently and having a more difficult time voting because it is often the MAGA guy vs the uberliberal guy. I want abortion in this country. I also don't think we need to be handing $10,000 write offs to folks with $249k income but anyone that makes $251k is a rich bastard that deserves nothing.

 

[WisNeuro]

I don’t think all people who identify as Republicans are that black and white about these things, but a lot of the actual candidates are—see the “repeal and replace” thing with the ACA, where the replace option was, essentially, nothing. We also see this with trigger laws for abortion—very black and white “no abortion ever” laws, even though we know a lot of the voting populace doesn’t support that.

I agree, a lot of the candidates are, but to label the voting populace the same, just alienates those people from possibly voting the other way. Also, the left has not done a good job at messaging to actually appeal to the issues that some of those voters care about. For example, in this election, inflation and the economy were big issues in the middle, and the left essentially pretended like the issue didn't exist at all. These are unforced errors.

 

[cara susanna]

Hard to win running as a progressive in WI for national office. That was an error on the Dems part, they needed a true moderate with some name appeal, though that may have been a tall order. In some of these closer races in purple or reddish states, the left needs to swallow their pride and run their moderates instead of conceding the race altogether if they want to flip big seats.

I think they needed someone who wasn't from Madison or Milwaukee, personally. I would have liked Tom Nelson - he's a Democrat who has won elections in a very Republican area.

 

[WisNeuro]

I think they needed someone who wasn't from Madison or Milwaukee, personally. I would have liked Tom Nelson - he's a Democrat who has won elections in a very Republican area.

Maybe, they would have nailed him for running as a progressive, though. May have been close enough to squeak it out. I still think a moderate with name appeal would have been the way to go.

 

[futureapppsy2]

Maybe, they would have nailed him for running as a progressive, though. May have been close enough to squeak it out. I still think a moderate with name appeal would have been the way to go.

I think an issue with moderates from both parties is that it feeds into the "both sides are the same" rhetoric and leads to apathy. I think the best way to go about it is to deviate from the party/be more moderate about issues that are key in the state.

 

[WisNeuro]

I think an issue with moderates from both parties is that it feeds into the "both sides are the same" rhetoric and leads to apathy. I think the best way to go about it is to deviate from the party/be more moderate about issues that are key in the state.

While debatable, many in the middle do view the far wings of both party as the same. They simply do not like extreme positions and ideological purity testing. But yes, the way to go is to read the room of the particular races. For example, Joe Manchin in WV. He infuriates much of his party, and he's much more of a moderate republican in many issues. Because of that, the left wing of the democratic party wants to primary him out. Sure, go ahead. Do that and lose the general by a landslide to a MUCH farther right republican. There is sometimes a big failure in "reading the room."