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Voting experiences
I live in New York City. Like most New York City residents, my polling place is a 5-10-minute walk from my home. I walked in around 8 AM, took a few seconds to find the right table for my electoral district (about half a dozen share the same polling place), signed my name in the book (right under my "signature of record"; presumably they compare them somehow), and was given a paper optical-scan ballot and a folder to hide it in. I went to an empty ballot-filling-out station, used the pen at the station to fill in a bunch of bubbles, and went to one of the two scanner stations. One of them seemed to be having trouble, but there was no line for the other one, so I put each of the two double-sided pages of my ballot through the scanner, returned my folder, and left. Total elapsed time maybe five minutes. Got to work about the time I usually do, although state law guarantees me two hours of paid leave on election day. This is approximately what has happened every time I've voted in the past twenty years.
I'd like to say that's what it looks like when the local and state government actually want people to vote, rather than trying to prevent them from voting. Unfortunately, people elsewhere in New York City had very different experiences. Apparently the scanner machines at Brooklyn's Central Library (a major polling place) all malfunctioned, and voters had to put their ballots in a ballot box to be scanned later. There are scattered reports of long lines and jammed scanner machines in other parts of the city too.
National results: there was enough of a "blue wave" to give Democrats a majority in the House of Representatives, and to gain several governorships (which will make a difference to redistricting in 2020, and thus for the next ten years), but a number of the high-profile races still went narrowly to Republicans: Florida didn't elect a black Democratic Governor, Georgia still hasn't decided whether it will (which gives the Republican candidate still more opportunities to exercise his power as Secretary of State to put a thumb on the scale: how is it even legal for a candidate to supervise the voting in his own election?), Tennessee didn't elect a moderate Democratic Senator, Texas didn't elect a Democratic Senator (charismatic rock-star Beto O'Rourke failed to unseat Ted Cruz, who's intensely unpopular in Washington but fairly popular in Texas), that ex-Marine woman Democrat failed to get a House seat from Kentucky, etc. I guess the bright spot is that all of these elections were close, which tells the winners that they will face serious general-election challengers again next time so they can't afford to play exclusively to their base. Florida passed a ballot initiative restoring voting rights to 1.5 million ex-felons who have completed their sentences, so that will affect the results in 2020 and beyond. Florida seems to have also passed a ballot initiative outlawing greyhound racing, which may mean a flood of abruptly-retired racing greyhounds seeking homes in the next few months. And there are now two Moslem women in the House, and two Native American women in the House, and an openly gay Governor in Colorado, and so on... the Federal government will look just a bit more like the American people next year.
And Donald Trump, who loves nothing more than an enemy to blame for his problems, will actually face some opposition on Capitol Hill, as he hasn't for the past two years. So far I haven't heard him complaining that all the Democratic House wins were the result of voter fraud and illegal aliens, but I have no doubt that that's coming.
I'd like to say that's what it looks like when the local and state government actually want people to vote, rather than trying to prevent them from voting. Unfortunately, people elsewhere in New York City had very different experiences. Apparently the scanner machines at Brooklyn's Central Library (a major polling place) all malfunctioned, and voters had to put their ballots in a ballot box to be scanned later. There are scattered reports of long lines and jammed scanner machines in other parts of the city too.
National results: there was enough of a "blue wave" to give Democrats a majority in the House of Representatives, and to gain several governorships (which will make a difference to redistricting in 2020, and thus for the next ten years), but a number of the high-profile races still went narrowly to Republicans: Florida didn't elect a black Democratic Governor, Georgia still hasn't decided whether it will (which gives the Republican candidate still more opportunities to exercise his power as Secretary of State to put a thumb on the scale: how is it even legal for a candidate to supervise the voting in his own election?), Tennessee didn't elect a moderate Democratic Senator, Texas didn't elect a Democratic Senator (charismatic rock-star Beto O'Rourke failed to unseat Ted Cruz, who's intensely unpopular in Washington but fairly popular in Texas), that ex-Marine woman Democrat failed to get a House seat from Kentucky, etc. I guess the bright spot is that all of these elections were close, which tells the winners that they will face serious general-election challengers again next time so they can't afford to play exclusively to their base. Florida passed a ballot initiative restoring voting rights to 1.5 million ex-felons who have completed their sentences, so that will affect the results in 2020 and beyond. Florida seems to have also passed a ballot initiative outlawing greyhound racing, which may mean a flood of abruptly-retired racing greyhounds seeking homes in the next few months. And there are now two Moslem women in the House, and two Native American women in the House, and an openly gay Governor in Colorado, and so on... the Federal government will look just a bit more like the American people next year.
And Donald Trump, who loves nothing more than an enemy to blame for his problems, will actually face some opposition on Capitol Hill, as he hasn't for the past two years. So far I haven't heard him complaining that all the Democratic House wins were the result of voter fraud and illegal aliens, but I have no doubt that that's coming.