POLLS ARE CLOSING, BERNIE WON VERMONT, WE STILL DON'T KNOW JACK SHIT
The polls have closed! The polls have closed! In some states (not in Washington, okay???) Don't panic. Remain calm. Whatever you do, don't trust these first results as they eke in. That won't have anyone feeling very good. Here's where you can find some live updates on those closed-poll-states:
Polls have closed in a few more key states. You can start tracking live results here:
Florida (most parts): https://t.co/Gw4OAbJmdv
Georgia: https://t.co/J4faLqPBP2
Vermont: https://t.co/ia2lSvXZSH#ElectionNight
â Vox (@voxdotcom) November 7, 2018
Live results are coming in at all those places you like to get your live election results: The New York Times and the New Yorker have their maps showing tiny bits of states (read: counties) glowing red or blue on a scale of faint to VERY SOLID. You can refresh those pages as much as you like. It's addicting. It's also horrifying. It's like 2016 all over again. Except hopefully more positive?
Plot twist: Vermont feels the Bern! No one saw it coming!!
BREAKING: Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders is projected to win his re-election bid. https://t.co/aEbQQMVVRY pic.twitter.com/4RtqSbGq8T
â NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) November 7, 2018
You know how I know Cathy McMorris Rodgers is running scared? Because sheâs tweeting about tax reform at the 11th hour. Give it up, McMorris Rodgers!
Because of #taxreformâ Our economy is booming and Americaâs manufacturers are #BetterOffNow https://t.co/d44DUy96d9
â CathyMcMorrisRodgers (@cathymcmorris) November 6, 2018
***
3:50 PM: QUEEN BEY FOR BETO
3:10 PM: NATIONWIDE TURNOUT IS BONKERS
2:35 PM: THE YOUTH VOTE IS THREATENED IN ATLANTA
1:00 PM: BETO LOOKED GREAT THIS MORNING
***
QUEEN BEY FOR BETO IN THE ELEVENTH HOUR AND BRIAN KEMP HAS TROUBLE VOTING
My, my, my, how the tables have turned: What goes around comes around for Brian Kemp.
GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp also had a voting issue today. When he tried to vote, his voter card said "invalid." Our @DaveHWSB was with Kemp today as he voted and is covering the campaign all night. #ElectionOn2 https://t.co/d4yktfco6v pic.twitter.com/YR9FeJUijj
â WSB-TV (@wsbtv) November 6, 2018
Listen to Greg:
Greg Martin, 70, is a native of Atlanta. He says the hour and half he waited to vote is the longest heâs ever waited. âI voted for Stacey Abrams because Brian Kemp is an asshole...and misogynistic piece of shit.â #ElectionDay @guardian pic.twitter.com/g4faT8zWOe
â Khushbu Shah (@KhushbuOShea) November 6, 2018
Bey for Beto but maybe a bit late: Beyoncé, notorious Texas-native, has come out in support for Beto O'Rourke. Too bad polls close there in less than three hours. This would've been great like, at least a week ago, Beyoncé!!! Maybe the Beyhive will still turn out in droves.
First NBC News exit polls show thatâshockinglyâpeople disapprove of Trump: NBC found that nearly half of voters "strongly disapprove" of Trump. More info on more of those exit poll findings here.
Proof that the sun can set on this fucking nightmare administration: Please let it be an omen, please, please.
The sun sets over the West Wing of the White House on election day. @WhiteHouse pic.twitter.com/y6gSxhgDNA
â Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) November 6, 2018
UNPRECEDENTED VOTER TURNOUT NATIONWIDE BUT WAITâTHIS SHIT FROM THE GOP IS ANTI-SEMITIC
Turnout has been bonkers! According to the United State Election Project, nearly 39 million people have already turned in their ballots across the country, which blows past the midterm total at this point in 2014. In Washington, auditors in every county in Washingtonâs 8th District, where Democrat Kim Schrier is hoping to hand Dino Rossi his fourth and potentially final loss in American politics, are reporting record-breaking turnout for a midterm. King County elections anticipates 630,000 ballots in the first drop and maybe a million total, bringing us to 75 percent projected participation. Pierce County expects to drop 125,000 ballots for the 8:00 oâclock release tonight. Kittitas County says theyâre expecting 80 percent turnout, while Chelan is looking at 50 percent. If you havenât voted, thereâs still time!
Hmm⊠this voter suppression thing might not be coincidental? And isn't that a funny little happenstance? No. It's bad. Stop systematically oppressing people and their right to fucking vote. Do we really have to go over this again?
đđđđ https://t.co/nvtqb96NTc
â WIRED (@WIRED) November 6, 2018
Shit is about to start happening: Polls are about to close in places that are not the West Coast. Then results will start rolling in.
Polls are about to close in Indiana and Kentucky. When the rest close: pic.twitter.com/uMeUbRgV7z
â Axios (@axios) November 6, 2018
Oh, and Also Fuck Washington State GOPâs Anti-Semitic Kim Schrier Ad: According to the The Seattle Times, Washington State Republicans paid for a mailer that âillustrated Kim Schrier, a Democrat who is Jewish, with a wad of $20 bills fanned out in her hands.â At least three other Republican mailers across the country show Jewish candidates holding a bundle of cash. And this only a week after a right-wing nutjob gunned down 11 Jews in Pittsburgh because the President told him George Soros was paying a caravan of migrants to âinvadeâ the country. The Times quotes Kyle Fischer, the flack who tried to prevent the SECB from attending Dino Rossiâs primary night election party, saying that the ad merely aims to suggest that Schrier supports âpolicies that would cost taxpayers billions of dollars.â First of all, thatâs not true. Schrier supports policies like expanding Medicare, which would ultimately SAVE taxpayers billions of dollars. And second of all, as Schrierâs spokesperson, Katie Rodihan, pointed out to the Times: no other candidate in Washington state is depicted with a fistful of dollars in their hands. Only the Jewish one. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO CIVILITY IN POLITICS, CALEB HEIMLICH, CHAIR OF WASHINGTON STATE GOP?
UPDATE: Looks like Schrier isnât the only Democrat of Jewish heritage in Washington whoâs been the victim of anti-Semitic ads. The Timesâs Melissa Santos just tweeted out a mailer showing state Senate candidate Claire Wilson, whose parents escaped the Nazis, clutching dollars.
These ads being run by @EntWA against state Senate candidate Claire Wilson play on the ugliest anti-Semitic stereotypes and deserve widespread condemnation. I am just seeing them now and they are beyond gross. #waleg #waelex pic.twitter.com/F5d4yVr2yc
â Melissa Santos (@MelissaSantos1) November 6, 2018
THE YOUTH VOTE IS THREATENED IN ATLANTA, SO IS THIS POLLING PLACE IN BOSTON, BUT THERE'S A RAINBOW ABOVE THE WHITE HOUSE
Is this a sign? All we have now is omens.
Rainbow visible above the U.S. Capitol as millions of voters nationwide head to the polls to determine control of Congress. https://t.co/QF15MHrJt2 #ElectionDay pic.twitter.com/RaYQRvtfoD
â ABC News (@ABC) November 6, 2018
Suppressing that youth vote in Atlanta! Young voters were turned away at this polling place when they presented their student I.D.'s to vote. Poll workers didn't explain why. Brian Kemp, the Republican candidate for governor of Georgia, is Georgia's current secretary of stateâthat means he's running the election that he's running in. That's not okay, especially when shit like this is happening in his state under his watch to people who will decide his fate.
The line to vote at the Liberty Baptist Church in Atlanta is roughly 1.5 hours right now. Iâm hearing reports that voters with student ID are being denied ballots, even though student IDs are valid forms of voter ID here in Georgia pic.twitter.com/RvwCh8NuaI
â Kira Lerner (@kira_lerner) November 6, 2018
A Boston poll worker found an envelope with some powder inside: Are no polling locations safe? It turns out this one was, after authorities in some tasteful hazmat suits determined that the substance was innocuous. But still. What's up with that?!
#BREAKING: Authorities are responding to a hazmat situation at a Roxbury polling location after a worker found an envelope with an unknown powder inside. https://t.co/r30CXIGilx
â NBC10 Boston (@NBC10Boston) November 6, 2018
BETO LOOKED GREAT THIS MORNING BUT POLLING PLACES ACROSS THE COUNTRY WERE HONESTLY LACKING BECAUSE "VOTER SUPPRESSION"
Beto-loving Pam will thaw your icy heart: Watch this 77-year-old get teary-eyed after voting for Texas's Beto O'Rourke, Ted Cruz's challenger for Senate. Currently, the most recent polls have O'Rourke behind Cruz, the Texas incumbent. However, polls have been fluctuatingâsome put O'Rourke a mere margin of error behind Cruzâand after 2016, can we trust anything anymore? Finger's crossed O'Rourke pulls ahead, for Pam and for that blue wave we've been hearing so much about.
WATCH: Pamela, 77, with her oxygen tank and her âBETO FOR SENATEâ T-shirt, fights back tears while talking about seeing Rep. O'Rourke while they both voted in Texas this morning:
âWeâre honored that he was here ⊠We want him to win.âhttps://t.co/qDB70fNNbp pic.twitter.com/zpapr62e1c
â MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 6, 2018
Are⊠are Republican white women giving us⊠hope? White women overwhelmingly voted for Trump last year in 2016 (this goddamn presidency has made time meaningless)âand don't anyone forget itâbut this lady apparently has some morals. The Kavanaugh hearings swayed her to vote a completely Democrat ticket for the first time in her life. These mythical Republican white women with a conscienceâare there more?
[whispers]: I think an underreported (and huge) election day story today will be suburban Republican women voting with the Democrats because of Kavanaugh and the hard core misogyny of the Republican Party.
Polls were mixed on this & don't want to confirm priors but gut says yes.
â Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) November 6, 2018
Polling places sure aren't making voting easy today, though: Talk about testing the limits of democracy! Long lines and machine malfunctions are plaguing polling places nationwide.
In Brooklyn:
New York is a state *without* early voting, mail-in ballots, or no-excuse absentee.
You can only cast a ballot from 6am-9pm. Election Day isnât a holiday.
When pollsites break down, it has enormous consequences for election turnout.
Enough. We need voting reform in New York. https://t.co/TzvbAroXJX
â Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 6, 2018
In Georgia: There's a close gubernatorial race in Atlanta between Brian Kemp (R) and Stacey Abrams (D), who would be the first black woman in U.S. history to be elected governor. All over the state voting machines have broken down causing long lines and hours-long waits. Many voters have been turned away or given up waiting.
In Arizona: A polling site was foreclosed on overnight, a surprise to election officials. Voters had to be redirected to a new polling place.
So how are we feeling right now? The New York Times wants to know. They're using new emoji tech.
We're trying something a little different today: How are you feeling America? Let us know by adding your emoji to this national map. https://t.co/EZbR43xRQ0
â Stuart A. Thompson (@stuartathompson) November 6, 2018
Beto-loving Pam will thaw your icy heart: Watch this 77-year-old get teary-eyed after voting for Texas's Beto O'Rourke, Ted Cruz's challenger for Senate. Currently, the most recent polls have O'Rourke behind Cruz, the Texas incumbent. However, polls have been fluctuatingâsome put O'Rourke a mere margin of error behind Cruzâand after 2016, can we trust anything anymore? Finger's crossed O'Rourke pulls ahead, for Pam and for that blue wave we've been hearing so much about.
WATCH: Pamela, 77, with her oxygen tank and her âBETO FOR SENATEâ T-shirt, fights back tears while talking about seeing Rep. O'Rourke while they both voted in Texas this morning:
âWeâre honored that he was here ⊠We want him to win.âhttps://t.co/qDB70fNNbp pic.twitter.com/zpapr62e1c
â MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 6, 2018
Are⊠are Republican white women giving us⊠hope? White women overwhelmingly voted for Trump last year in 2016 (this goddamn presidency has made time meaningless)âand don't anyone forget itâbut this lady apparently has some morals. The Kavanaugh hearings swayed her to vote a completely Democrat ticket for the first time in her life. These mythical Republican white women with a conscienceâare there more?
[whispers]: I think an underreported (and huge) election day story today will be suburban Republican women voting with the Democrats because of Kavanaugh and the hard core misogyny of the Republican Party.
Polls were mixed on this & don't want to confirm priors but gut says yes.
â Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) November 6, 2018
Polling places sure aren't making voting easy today, though: Talk about testing the limits of democracy! Long lines and machine malfunctions are plaguing polling places nationwide.
In Brooklyn:
New York is a state *without* early voting, mail-in ballots, or no-excuse absentee.
You can only cast a ballot from 6am-9pm. Election Day isnât a holiday.
When pollsites break down, it has enormous consequences for election turnout.
Enough. We need voting reform in New York. https://t.co/TzvbAroXJX
â Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 6, 2018
In Georgia: There's a close gubernatorial race in Atlanta between Brian Kemp (R) and Stacey Abrams (D), who would be the first black woman in U.S. history to be elected governor. All over the state voting machines have broken down causing long lines and hours-long waits. Many voters have been turned away or given up waiting.
In Arizona: A polling site was foreclosed on overnight, a surprise to election officials. Voters had to be redirected to a new polling place.
So how are we feeling right now? The New York Times wants to know. They're using new emoji tech.
We're trying something a little different today: How are you feeling America? Let us know by adding your emoji to this national map. https://t.co/EZbR43xRQ0
â Stuart A. Thompson (@stuartathompson) November 6, 2018