Early Voting Is Surging, and That Could Help Democrats
Source: Bloomberg
Early voting is under way or about to start in several states, and so far, turnout is up -- way up.
That turnout could benefit Democrats, who are vying to take the House and have long-shot hope of flipping the Senate. The party has seen a surge in special elections throughout this year and last, and could see their highest level of voter turnout for a midterm election in at least a decade, according to an analysis by the New York Times.
Republicans meanwhile, say theyre confident that the fight over Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court nomination will provide enough motivation to turn out their supporters as they seek to reduce any potential enthusiasm gap.
In Indiana and Tennessee, states with competitive Senate races, and Minnesota, a state with four competitive House races that could help determine if Democrats are able to flip the chamber, turnout is surging. On Wednesday, the first day of early voting in Tennessee, more than 120,000 people voted, which is nearly four times the number of people that voted on the first day of early voting in 2014 midterm, according to the Tennessean. That state is home to a tight race between former Democratic Governor Phil Bredesen and Republican Representative Marsha Blackburn. Republicans hope to hold onto that seat as part of a firewall to protect their Senate majority.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-19/midterm-elections-2018
Let us hope--and do more than hope. Vote and help others vote.
bucolic_frolic
(43,308 posts)it's the marginal voters, the stragglers, the last minute why-notters, the people who are cajoled into making their vote count, those who never vote in midterms. I think we have a solid turnout going, very solid, but we may have difficulty going over the top if we can't brew a last minute surge that shoots out the lights.
NewJeffCT
(56,829 posts)but, if I recall, HRC had early votings leads in Florida and NC in 2016
mnhtnbb
(31,405 posts)when they started releasing the returns that night. I was thrilled. I thought there was no way that hideous con man could overtake that kind of lead.
Farmer-Rick
(10,212 posts)This is more a surge which is really good. It's harder to estimate how much you have to rig if the numbers keep increasing unpredictably.
Overwhelm the cheat machine.
beachbum bob
(10,437 posts)or no party affiliation, or new voters. I know we can see that data in Illinois and my Il-13th district. "increased voter turn out" can work both ways.
With what we see in Ill-13, the democratic earlier votes (based on past primary declarations) running 2-1 over GOP and we are taking a conservative approach the NPA votes are evenly split. With over 2 weeks left to go with early voting, ALL records have been smashed.
cstanleytech
(26,319 posts)Now who it will help is our guys as it gives them a huge thing to use against the Repugnants and our guys will hopefully tie it around the neck of every vulnerable Repugnant so it can drag them under.
Norbert
(6,041 posts)on Renacci's TV ads. He is using anything, even false claims about Brown. He is so far behind now it doesn't really matter. I see very little of Kav from other GPO candidates.
Did my early voting yesterday, straight ticket blue, of course. Even though it was mid-afternoon when I voted it was kind of busy. Hoping that is a good sign for Aftab, Cordray and the rest of the statewide races.
YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)Cadfael
(1,299 posts)The only option here is that damned touchscreen voting. At least with the optical scanning ballot box on Election Day there is a paper record of sorts...
Calista241
(5,586 posts)than Kemp signs. I see far less signs for Abrams in my district than there were Ossoff signs 2 years ago. In my neighborhood, there were 5 houses that had Ossoff signs. In those houses now, 2 have Kemp signs, and the other 3 have no signs.
I'm very worried.
Takket
(21,633 posts)Until Democrats tried to stop a rapist from being seated on the Suprene Court.