2018 Midterm Elections Thread.

[TimothyC]

though one of those Republican seats is McCain's currently unfilled seat.

No. The seat held by the late Sen. McCain is currently being filled by Sen. Jon Kyl, former Senator from Arizona (he retired after three terms from the other Arizona senate seat in 2013, and was replaced in the Senate by Sen. Jeff Flake). Because Sen. McCain died after the May 1st deadline for having the seat be up for election this year, the seat will not be up for election until 2020. We talked about this before in that if Rep. McSally looses, Sen. Kyl could resign, and Gov. Ducey could appoint either himself or Rep. McSally to the seat, and retain an incumbency advantage going into the 2020 race (Sen. Kyl has explicitly stated he will not be running for re-election).

[The Romulan Republic]

Right. Still, the options range from "no change" to "Republicans plus three".

In other news, Rick Scott, Governor and Senate candidate in Florida, has preemptively accused his opponent of fraud, with zero evidence.

He is also the man who gets to certify the final vote.

Democrats, understandably, have sued to force him to recuse himself. But we are facing a very real possibility that the Republican candidate for Florida Senate can and will simply refuse to recognize any result other than his own victory.

Edit: I don't care what party you're in, I don't see how anyone can defend this and still claim to believe in democracy, freedom, or justice. This is a fucking coup. For fuck's sake, when I ran for municipal council up here, I remember reading the guidelines for what was expected of a councillor, and IIRC we would be obliged to recuse ourselves from any debate or vote in which we had a financial interest. But apparently the ethical bar is higher for a municipal councillor in BC than for a fucking Governor in Florida.

[The Romulan Republic]

On the positive side, breaking on CNN, THEY JUST CALLED ARIZONA SENATE FOR THE DEMOCRATS! Flake's seat has gone blue.

[Galvatron]

Not sure why this isn't getting more attention:

http://floridapolitics.com/archives/281 ... mail-votes

[The Romulan Republic]

So a heavily-Republican county accepted illegal ballots. Republicans then accuse the Democrats of voter fraud, and demand that legal votes get thrown out.

This is full-blown, open, shameless, dictatorship election-rigging. This is a slow-motion coup.

[The Romulan Republic]

15, including Democratic State Senator, arrested in a protest at the Georgia State Capital:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... f62c1058c4

ATLANTA — The Latest on the Georgia governor’s race (all times local):

5:15 p.m.

Georgia public safety officials say police arrested 15 protesters during a demonstration inside the state Capitol as they called for uncounted ballots from last week’s election to be tallied.

The Georgia Department of Public Safety said in an emailed statement Tuesday that demonstrators were charged with misdemeanors under a law that makes it illegal to disrupt meetings of the state legislature with “loud, threatening, or abusive language.”

Democratic state Sen. Nikema Williams was among those arrested and taken to the Fulton County jail. Police ordered dozens of demonstrators to disperse from the second-floor rotunda Tuesday afternoon as lawmakers began a special session to approve funds for hurricane recovery.

Supporters of Democrat Stacey Abrams say thousands of uncounted votes could still tip the governor’s race into a Dec. 4 runoff against Republican Brian Kemp.


___

2:25 p.m.

Several protesters, including a state senator, have been arrested during a demonstration at the Georgia state Capitol calling for tallying of uncounted ballots from last week’s election.

Sen. Nikema Williams, a Democrat from Atlanta, was led from the statehouse with wrists zip-tied behind her back Tuesday after as Capitol police ordered demonstrators to disperse from the statehouse rotunda.

Williams said she was arrested “because I refused to leave the floor of this building where I’m a state senator.” She said she was “standing peacefully beside constituents I represent.”

Dozens filled the rotunda in the center of the Capitol’s second floor Tuesday just as the House was scheduled to convene for a special session. People chanted “Count every vote!” and held signs with the same slogan.


Supporters of Democrat Stacey Abrams say thousands of uncounted votes could still tip the governor’s race into a Dec. 4 runoff against Republican Brian Kemp.

___

1 p.m.

Democratic state lawmakers rallied Tuesday at the Georgia Capitol in support of gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, insisting that thousands of uncounted votes could still tip the governor’s race into a Dec. 4 runoff.

Sen. Nikema Williams of Atlanta and fellow Democrats accused Republican Brian Kemp of bungling the election as secretary of state. They cited problems ranging from long lines at the polls to an “exact match” policy that placed 53,000 Georgians’ voter registrations on hold.

Kemp resigned as secretary of state last week after declaring himself the winner in the governor’s race. He has insisted there aren’t enough outstanding ballots to alter the race’s outcome.


The lawmakers are at the Capitol for a special legislative session.

About 25 black clergy members led by Bishop Reginald T. Jackson, who heads the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Georgia, chanted “Count the votes! All the votes!” before the Democrats’ news conference.

___

12:20 p.m.

A federal judge has ordered a populous Georgia county not to reject absentee ballots because the voter’s birth year is missing or wrong.

The order issued Tuesday by U.S. Judge Leigh May says rejecting absentee ballots solely because of a missing or incorrect birth year violates the Civil Rights Act.

She ordered Gwinnett County election officials not to reject those ballots and to count any that were cast in the Nov. 6 midterm election. She also ordered Gwinnett County to delay certification of its election results until those ballots have been counted.


The order stems from requests filed by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and by Democratic congressional candidate Carolyn Bourdeaux.

The race between Bourdeaux and Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Rob Woodall for Georgia’s 7th Congressional District remains too close to call.

___

11:30 p.m.

A federal judge has ordered Georgia’s secretary of state to wait until Friday to certify the results of the midterm elections that include an unsettled race for governor and to take steps to protect provisional ballots.

U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg ruled Monday that the secretary of state must not certify the results of the election until Friday at 5 p.m.

She ordered the state to establish a hotline or website where voters can check whether their provisional ballots were counted and, if not, the reason why.

For all counties with 100 or more provisional ballots, she ordered the secretary of state’s office to order county election officials to conduct a “good faith review” or to do an “independent review” itself of the eligibility of voters who had to cast a provisional ballot because of registration issues.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Also, CNN reporting now that there are 10 outstanding House raises, with Democrats leading in 7. Another seat just flipped today. Democrats may end up gaining up to 40 seats, marking the largest Democratic gain in decades.

[Galvatron]

So a heavily-Republican county accepted illegal ballots. Republicans then accuse the Democrats of voter fraud, and demand that legal votes get thrown out.

This is full-blown, open, shameless, dictatorship election-rigging. This is a slow-motion coup.

Update:

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politi ... 03710.html

[Crossroads Inc.]

Just as an aside from my home state of Arizona here.
With Sinema officially winning the Senat seat, Arizona in general is finally reflecting its more purple nature
Ann Kirkpatrick won her race to unseat a Republican, and Katie Hobbs won to become Secretary of State

[Galvatron]

More Florida shenanigans:

Voters were sent mail-in ballot forms that incorrectly told them they had until 5PM on Election Day to mail them back, instead of the day before.

[The Romulan Republic]

Yeah, there was fraud alright- Republican fraud.

[Highlord Laan]

Yeah, there was fraud alright- Republican fraud.

Thats called Patriotism, citizen.

[The Romulan Republic]

Sigh... Stacey Abrams has finally withdrawn from the race. Georgia's next governor will be a man who blatantly stole his seat by mass voter suppression while overseeing an election where he was a candidate.

Notably, Abrams did not offer a gracious concession, and says that she intends to sue the State of Georgia. I have no doubt that the Alt. Reich will viciously lambast her "partisanship" for not knowing her place not politely conceding, and that many on the Left will say that she "should have been more civil." Well, fuck them. She's absolutely right:

Democrat Stacey Abrams on Friday acknowledged that Republican Brian Kemp will become the next governor of Georgia, ending her bid to become the first African American woman elected to lead a state.

The announcement followed more than a week of post-election legal maneuvering from her campaign and allies as they sought to find enough votes to reduce Kemp's lead and force a December 4 runoff.
Abrams was considering further legal challenges as recently as Friday morning, but ultimately made the decision to end her campaign in a fiery speech to supporters at her headquarters in Atlanta. She did, however, announce plans for a "major federal lawsuit against the state of Georgia for the gross mismanagement of this election and to protect future elections from unconstitutional actions."
Even in acknowledging defeat, Abrams insisted her speech was not giving a concession and instead delivered a series of sharp criticisms of Kemp.
"So let's be clear -- this is not a speech of concession, because concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true or proper," she said. "As a woman of conscience and faith, I cannot concede that. But, my assessment is the law currently allows no further viable remedy. Now, I can certainly bring a new case to keep this one contest alive, but I don't want to hold public office if I need to scheme my way into the post. Because the title of governor isn't nearly as important as our shared title -- voters. And that is why we fight on."
Abrams had previously described Kemp as an "architect of voter suppression" and in her remarks said he had purposefully made the process a "gut-wrenching hardship" for many in Georgia.
"Under the watch of the now former secretary of state, democracy failed Georgia," Abrams said of Kemp, who served as the state's chief elections officer for nearly a decade before resigning after overseeing his own contest.
"Make no mistake, the former secretary of state was deliberate and intentional in his actions," Abrams said. "I know that eight years of systemic disenfranchisement, disinvestment and incompetence had its desired affect on the electoral process in Georgia."
Abrams also announced she will launch a new voting rights group called "Fair Fight Georgia."
Earlier in the day, Abrams' campaign rolled out a digital ad -- with nearly $100,000 behind it, according to a spokeswoman -- that asks voters to share their stories of trouble at the polls.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/16/politics ... index.html

I disagree with her on only one point: democracy did not fail. To say that democracy failed is to imply that we had a democratic election and that it lead to a bad result.

What happened in Georgia had nothing to do with democracy.

[The Romulan Republic]

Neo-Nazi Holocaust denier loses Congressional campaign- but gets over 25% of the vote:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/pol ... story.html

The long-shot candidacy of a Holocaust denier’s Republican bid for Congress was defeated Tuesday, but not before the neo-Nazi received more than 56,000 votes in Illinois’ 3rd District.

As expected, incumbent U.S Rep. Dan Lipinski cruised to victory with just under 75 percent of the unofficial vote tally in the Democratic stronghold that stretches from the city’s Southwest Side to the west and south suburbs.

With a little over 99 percent of precincts reporting, Lipinski received 155,940 votes compared with Jones’ 56,350 The results may not include all early voting tallies.

ELECTION 2018: Get midterm election results here »

Lipinski issued a statement Tuesday night but did not specifically mention his opponent. Throughout the race, Lipinski has condemned Jones as a racist, a bigot and an anti-Semite, but has also tried to limit speaking about him to avoid giving his challenger a platform to “spew his hatred.”

In a statement on Twitter, Lipinski said, “Voters want more of my commonsense leadership that produces results for the district and our country. People will always have disagreements, but I believe we all agree on making America a better place today and for future generations.”

Jones, a 70-year-old from Lyons, had run for office several times before but never advanced to the general election. He received 20,681 votes when he ran unopposed in the Republican primary in March.

Jones has previously described himself as a “white racialist,” or someone who “knows the facts of race,” in an interview with the Chicago Tribune.

A former member of the American National Socialist Workers Party, Jones said he also opposed equality, interracial marriage and school integration.

Jones landed himself in the race by collecting 832 signatures to appear on the November ballot, although he reportedly did not disclose his anti-Semitic and racist views.

After the March primary election, La Grange lawyer Justin Hanson, 35, joined the race as a write-in candidate.

Lipinski has represented the district since he first won election in 2005. Before that his father, Bill Lipinski, held the seat for more than two decades.

READ MORE: Illinois takes deep blue dive as national Democrats hope for wave election »

Jones’ candidacy has brought national embarrassment to the Illinois Republican Party, which had kept him off the ballot before but failed to do so this time. Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas weighed in on Twitter earlier this election cycle, saying Jones had to be stopped by either voting for the Democrat or submitting a write-in.

The state’s 3rd Congressional District includes the city’s Bridgeport neighborhood, areas around Midway Airport and parts of Oak Lawn, Orland Park and Bridgeview.

Jones received most of his votes in suburban Cook County, with 34,198, according to the Cook County Clerk’s Office.

In Chicago, Jones had gotten more than 10,295 votes as of 11 p.m. Tuesday; in Will County, he received 11,576 votes in the county; and in DuPage County, he got 176 votes, according to unofficial tallies. Jones won four of Will County’s 43 precincts, taking one in Lockport and three in Homer Glen by just dozens of votes, with 100 percent of precincts reporting and according to unofficial results.

Even though fewer people voted in the Illinois 3rd District congressional race in 2014, the Republican candidate then received about 11,000 more votes than Jones did on Tuesday, according to state voting data.

In 2014, 180,855 people cast ballots, 116,000 for Lipinski, records show. His 2014 challenger received about 64,000 votes.

56,000 people voted for an open Neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier for Congress.

[Highlord Laan]

56,000 people voted for an open Neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier for Congress.

Republicans gonna republican.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

It's official as of two days ago: Brian "Psychobilly" Kemp has sucessfully cheated his way into the Governor's Mansion.

Now, it's time for the Atlanta news media to concocct various bullshit scenarios to explain why Abrams lost.

[The Romulan Republic]

And Nelson has conceded Florida. Not a huge shock, but still disappointing. So that's at least two Senate seats Republicans were able to take, likely through fraudulent means and voter suppression.

We've still got the Mississippi run-off, so its possible that Republican gains will be kept to as little as one seat. But by all rights, this should have been at least one Democratic seat picked up (giving us a tied Senate).

[U.P. Cinnabar]

The parry in power generally wins Southern run offs, though, that party bring the Dixiecrats turned GOP.

[The Romulan Republic]

Eh, its over when its over. The Republicans also generally win Alabama and Arizona Senate, or they did up until recently.

As far as I'm concerned, every race is worth fighting out to the bitter end. Even if we lose, we force them onto the defensive in territory that was once safe, sucking up resources they would otherwise be spending going after us in swing states.

[The Romulan Republic]

Mississippi will hold its runoff on Tuesday. Odds favour Candidate Lynch Joke, though there is a slight chance of a Democratic upset if there's high black turnout.

The Democratic candidate would be the first black Senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction, if elected.

[The Romulan Republic]

Dems picked up another House seat, in Utah of all places. This brings the tally to 39 Democrat gains, according to NBC:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/electi ... ia-n940156

The losing Republican candidate blamed Republican treatment of minorities for Republican losses (before falling back on Republican talking points about how Democrats are trying to keep minorities in poverty):

In her concession speech Monday, Love hit back at the president for his comments about her immediately following Election Day. In a press conference, Trump blasted a number of Republican lawmakers, including Love, for not embracing him closely enough and losing their races. Love's race, however, was too close to call for weeks following the election.

"Mia Love. I saw Mia Love, and she would call me all the time to help her with a hostage situation, being held hostage in Venezuela," Trump said on Nov. 7, in reference to Josh Holt, a Utahn who was imprisoned in Venezuela without trial for nearly two years. "But Mia Love gave me no love. And she lost. Too bad. Sorry about that, Mia."

Love said Monday that she was glad she pressed Trump repeatedly about Holt, adding that she was surprised by Trump's comments.




Trump shames Republicans who lost midterms, did not 'embrace' his support
NOV. 7, 201802:42
"The president's behavior towards me made me wonder, what did he have to gain by saying such a thing about a fellow Republican?" Love said. "It was not really about asking him to do more, was it? Or was it something else? Well, Mr. President, we'll have to chat about that. However, this gave me a clear vision of his world as it is — no real relationships, just convenient transactions. That is an insufficient way to implement sincere service and policy."

Love then tore into Republicans for their treatment of minority voters before vigorously defending conservative policies as more beneficial to all Americans.

"Because Republicans never take minority communities into their home and citizens into their home and into their hearts, they stay with Democrats and bureaucrats in Washington because they do take them home or at least make them feel like they have a home," Love said. "I've seen the cost of conservatives for not truly taking people into their hearts."

"Democrats saw newly elected black members and women into Congress this election," she continued. "This is a matter of fact that Republicans lost in this regard. However, minority communities need to ask themselves this question also: At what cost? What is the cost of staying with the Democrat Party that perpetually delivers exactly what you need to stay exactly where you are?

[Knife]

Mia Love was a tea bagger piece of shit. Glad she's gone even though I'm not in that State anymore.

[Elfdart]

If the GOp hadn't spent the last three decades gerrymandering districts and Ku Kluxing the vote, the Democrats would have won 60-70 seats.

[Napoleon the Clown]

Poor Mia Love, she won't be able to keep pulling the ladder up behind her now. Thoughts and prayers!

The Salt Lake Valley is going increasingly blue, and I suspect that the state GOP is gonna try and gerrymander the districts some more to "correct" this.

[The Romulan Republic]

Well, looks like Candidate Lynch has won in Mississippi. Good to know that Mississippi still proudly embraces the murder of black people.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

And, Oklahoma now has an anti-vaxxer for governor. Glad I got the hell out of there, though less so, since Psychobilly Kemp is now my governor