Democrat wins secretary of state in AZ as well, beating a vehement election denier.
What have we learned this cycle? The electorate wants "normal". People running too far on either side got shellacked. This is particularly true in state wide elections, rather than congressional districts. But even Boebert's weakness shows that you can only be so crazy.
Well except where I live, and it looks like the House will be 219-216 R and the return of the freedom caucus to the front pages, and they’re saying mccarthy isn’t crazy enough to be speaker. Usually 60%+ seats are blue here, now they are all red, and none of the house races were that close here
Been going to the office twice a week lately (many have transitioned to 100% WFH). In office they’ve been yammering about this bail reform crap for months, and never provide any proof that’s the reason crime is supposedly up. Knowing my coworkers bought into the GOP BS is brutal. I am on an island here, not sure I see this why Dems are ignoring the reason why they lost the house. Without Long Island and the crime issue, the Dems would have won the house.
GOP lies still work, and there is a solid blueprint for them to take presidency and congress in 2024
edit, rereconsidering your comment, it looks like bail reform, not locking up poor nonviolent kids for two years awaiting trial, who can’t afford bail, is too extreme a position to take for Dems. If they don’t learn that lesson fast, the Rs can sweep DC next time
Nevada and senate looking promising per NYT, hopefully their analysis is right-
Democrats appeared on the cusp of securing control of the Senate over the weekend, as the counting of mail ballots in Nevada brought Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democratic incumbent, within 1,000 votes of overtaking her Republican opponent, Adam Laxalt, for the final seat the party needs to maintain its 50-50 Senate majority.
All eyes will be on Clark County, home to Las Vegas, which is a Democratic stronghold. Ms. Cortez Masto has led mail ballots tabulated after Election Day there by nearly two to one, a margin that would be more than enough to overtake Mr. Laxalt if the trend continues among the approximately 25,000 mail ballots that remain to be counted.
The bulk of the remaining mail ballots in Clark County are expected to be reported on Saturday (though the deadline to have all ballots counted is not until Tuesday). That could be enough to allow news organizations to project a winner, depending on the number of ballots counted and the size of Ms. Cortez Masto’s lead.
Most news organizations, including The Associated Press, are reluctant to call races when the leading candidate is ahead by less than half a percentage point, or about 5,000 votes in this case.
Even so, Ms. Cortez Masto would build a lead of more than 5,000 votes if she fares as well in the final Clark mail ballots as she has in those counted so far. She is also expected to have an advantage in the remaining mail ballots from Washoe County, as well as the more than 10,000 mail ballots that voters can “cure” after being initially rejected for a bad signature match.
Only a few thousand mail votes remain from the state’s rural, Republican counties.
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,320
Nevada and senate looking promising per NYT, hopefully their analysis is right-
Democrats appeared on the cusp of securing control of the Senate over the weekend, as the counting of mail ballots in Nevada brought Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democratic incumbent, within 1,000 votes of overtaking her Republican opponent, Adam Laxalt, for the final seat the party needs to maintain its 50-50 Senate majority.
All eyes will be on Clark County, home to Las Vegas, which is a Democratic stronghold. Ms. Cortez Masto has led mail ballots tabulated after Election Day there by nearly two to one, a margin that would be more than enough to overtake Mr. Laxalt if the trend continues among the approximately 25,000 mail ballots that remain to be counted.
The bulk of the remaining mail ballots in Clark County are expected to be reported on Saturday (though the deadline to have all ballots counted is not until Tuesday). That could be enough to allow news organizations to project a winner, depending on the number of ballots counted and the size of Ms. Cortez Masto’s lead.
Most news organizations, including The Associated Press, are reluctant to call races when the leading candidate is ahead by less than half a percentage point, or about 5,000 votes in this case.
Even so, Ms. Cortez Masto would build a lead of more than 5,000 votes if she fares as well in the final Clark mail ballots as she has in those counted so far. She is also expected to have an advantage in the remaining mail ballots from Washoe County, as well as the more than 10,000 mail ballots that voters can “cure” after being initially rejected for a bad signature match.
Only a few thousand mail votes remain from the state’s rural, Republican counties.
Fingers crossed!
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
"Try to not spook the horse."
-Neil Young
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,320
Election Day saw few major problems, despite new voting laws
By CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY and GARY FIELDS
46 mins ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Heading into this year’s midterms, voting rights groups were concerned that restrictions in Republican-leaning states triggered by false claims surrounding the 2020 election might jeopardize access to the ballot box for scores of voters.
Those worries did not appear to come true. There have been no widespread reports of voters being turned away at the polls, and turnout, while down from the last midterm cycle four years ago, appeared robust in Georgia, a state with hotly competitive contests for governor and U.S. Senate.
The lack of broad disenfranchisement isn't necessarily a sign that everyone who wanted to vote could; there's no good way to tell why certain voters didn't cast a ballot.
Voter advocacy groups promoted voter education campaigns and modified voting strategies as a way to reduce confusion and get as many voters to cast a ballot as possible.
“We in the voting rights community in Texas were fearing the worst,” said Anthony Gutierrez, director of Common Cause Texas, on Wednesday. “For the most part, it didn’t happen.”
False claims that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump undermined public confidence in elections and prompted Republican officials to pass new voting laws. The restrictions included tougher ID requirements for mail voting, shortening the period for applying for and returning a mailed ballot, and limiting early voting days and access to ballot drop boxes.
There is no evidence there was widespread fraud or other wrongdoing in the 2020 election.
An estimated 33 restrictive voting laws in 20 states were in effect for this year’s midterms, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The most high-profile and sweeping laws were passed in Georgia, Florida, Iowa and Texas. Arizona also passed new voting rules, but those were largely put on hold this year or will take effect later.
Of the four states with major voting law changes in effect, a preliminary analysis shows a decline in turnout among registered voters in Florida, Iowa and Texas, while Georgia turnout declined slightly. Several factors can affect turnout, including voter enthusiasm and bad weather.
In Texas, the bumbling rollout of new voting restrictions in the state’s March primary resulted in officials throwing out nearly 23,000 mailed ballots as confused voters struggled to navigate new ID requirements.
But preliminary reports after Tuesday’s election showed rejection rates reverting to closer to more normal levels, which election officials attributed to outreach and mail voters figuring out the new rules. In San Antonio, county officials put the preliminary rejection rate at less than 2% — a sharp reversal from the 23% of mailed ballots they threw out in March.
Groups such as the Texas Civil Rights Project, working through churches and other organizations, focused on ensuring voters knew how to properly complete their mail ballots under the law known as Senate Bill 1.
“As a Texas community we’ve worked very hard to prepare for SB1,” said Emily Eby, the group’s senior election protection attorney.
Florida last year added a host of new rules around mail and early voting. They included new ID requirements, changes to how many ballots a person can turn in on behalf of someone else and limiting after-hours access to drop boxes. This year, lawmakers created a controversial new office dedicated to investigating fraud and other election crimes.
Still, voting appeared to be relatively smooth this year, before and on Election Day. Election officials reported no major problems.
Mark Earley, president of the Florida Supervisors of Elections, said the new laws did not greatly affect voter turnout or access this year, but said the rules, taken together, posed a challenge.
“When you put all of these together — the cumulative effect — it becomes confusing, difficult to communicate and educate the public about, difficult for the public to understand,” said Earley, who oversees elections in Tallahassee’s Leon County. “It becomes a big logistical and educational burden, and more hurdles for people to be able to jump over before they can get their ballots together.”
Iowa’s new law shortened the period for voters to return their mailed ballots, reduced polling place hours and early voting days, and prohibited anyone but close relatives, a household member or caregiver from dropping off someone else’s ballot.
More than 1.2 million voters cast ballots in the Nov. 8 election. State officials said it was the second highest in state history for a midterm, but voting groups expressed concern that Latino participation may have declined due to the changes.
“We historically have had a fair amount of Latino voters who did the absentee ballot, which allowed LULAC volunteers to pick up those early ballots and return them to the county election offices,” said Joe Henry, a board member of the Iowa chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
In Georgia, more votes were cast in this general election than in any prior midterm election — although with more voters on the rolls than four years ago, the actual turnout rate was lower.
Gabriel Sterling, interim deputy secretary of state, noted that most of the changes in the election law, known as Senate Bill 202, affected pre-Election Day voting — "and they blew away every record in that.”
He said more votes were cast early — both in person and by mail — than in any previous midterm election in the state. It was Election Day turnout that was lower than expected.
After Democrats won the 2020 presidential contest and two U.S. Senate runoff elections, the Republican-controlled Georgia Legislature passed a sweeping overhaul of the state’s election laws in 2021.
The law shortened the time period to request an absentee ballot and required voters to sign absentee ballot applications by hand, meaning they needed access to a printer. It also reduced the number of ballot drop boxes in the state’s most populous counties and limited the hours they were accessible.
Critics said the changes made it more difficult to cast mail ballots. Democrats urged people to vote early and in-person this year instead. Kendra Cotton, CEO of the New Georgia Project Action Fund, said she believes the election law did have a negative effect in a state where key races have been decided by narrow margins in recent elections.
“The narrative that’s out there is that SB202 was trying to depress the vote writ large, and we submit that that was not, in fact, the case,” she said. “It was trying to stop just enough people from voting that the electoral outcome here in Georgia would shift.”
This year, Republicans swept the statewide constitutional offices, and a Dec. 6 runoff will be held to decide the winner in the U.S. Senate race.
While she acknowledged there weren’t many problems on Election Day, Cotton said the law created a lot of “noise” that drained energy and resources from organizations such as hers.
“We’re having to go out and help voters fight to remain on the rolls,” Cotton said.
Voter advocacy groups already are mobilizing to support Georgia voters heading into the Dec. 6 Senate runoff. Previously, runoffs were held nine weeks after an election. The new law shortened that to just four weeks, a period that also leaves too little time for new voter registrations.
“These types of tactics aim to suppress votes," Andrea Hailey, CEO of Vote.org, said in a statement. “But Georgians have shown that they are ready and willing to navigate tough voting environments in order to make their voices heard.”
___
Associated Press data journalist Aaron Kessler in Washington, D.C., and writers Kate Brumback in Atlanta; Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida; Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey; David Pitt in Des Moines, Iowa; and Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
That's a needed wake up call for New Yorkers. Especially the districts in the southern portion. It's been so consistently blue that people have become complacent. I'm from there, and I've been guilty of that in the past. Not anymore.
That's a needed wake up call for New Yorkers. Especially the districts in the southern portion. It's been so consistently blue that people have become complacent. I'm from there, and I've been guilty of that in the past. Not anymore.
No doubt particularly the minorities & younger generations here on Long Island!
That's a needed wake up call for New Yorkers. Especially the districts in the southern portion. It's been so consistently blue that people have become complacent. I'm from there, and I've been guilty of that in the past. Not anymore.
No doubt particularly the minorities & younger generations here on Long Island!
Not sure a wake up call would have helped democrats, turnout was high on LI and it was +15 R. I can not recall he last time there was an R rep in my CD.
Dems have been slipping here the last couple elections. Maybe they’ll figure out a way to make NY a solid red state.
That's a needed wake up call for New Yorkers. Especially the districts in the southern portion. It's been so consistently blue that people have become complacent. I'm from there, and I've been guilty of that in the past. Not anymore.
No doubt particularly the minorities & younger generations here on Long Island!
Not sure a wake up call would have helped democrats, turnout was high on LI and it was +15 R. I can not recall he last time there was an R rep in my CD.
Dems have been slipping here the last couple elections. Maybe they’ll figure out a way to make NY a solid red state.
That's a needed wake up call for New Yorkers. Especially the districts in the southern portion. It's been so consistently blue that people have become complacent. I'm from there, and I've been guilty of that in the past. Not anymore.
No doubt particularly the minorities & younger generations here on Long Island!
Not sure a wake up call would have helped democrats, turnout was high on LI and it was +15 R. I can not recall he last time there was an R rep in my CD.
Dems have been slipping here the last couple elections. Maybe they’ll figure out a way to make NY a solid red state.
Maybe it’s more POOTWHY type folks moving to LI and not just dem policies turning folks off? What are the age and race demographics of the districts that went red versus 20 or 30 years ago? A substantial % of non-white hispanics lean repub and coupled with old(er) whites, particularly 65+, and typically blue collar, lean right, think Ronny Raygun dems, and it might explain it. No dem candidate or policy will sway them as they’re bleed red repubs regardless. My guess is that LI skews older and the younger demographics are blue collar and NYPD/FD. Just a guess though.
That's a needed wake up call for New Yorkers. Especially the districts in the southern portion. It's been so consistently blue that people have become complacent. I'm from there, and I've been guilty of that in the past. Not anymore.
No doubt particularly the minorities & younger generations here on Long Island!
Not sure a wake up call would have helped democrats, turnout was high on LI and it was +15 R. I can not recall he last time there was an R rep in my CD.
Dems have been slipping here the last couple elections. Maybe they’ll figure out a way to make NY a solid red state.
Maybe it’s more POOTWHY type folks moving to LI and not just dem policies turning folks off? What are the age and race demographics of the districts that went red versus 20 or 30 years ago? A substantial % of non-white hispanics lean repub and coupled with old(er) whites, particularly 65+, and typically blue collar, lean right, think Ronny Raygun dems, and it might explain it. No dem candidate or policy will sway them as they’re bleed red repubs regardless. My guess is that LI skews older and the younger demographics are blue collar and NYPD/FD. Just a guess though.
Yes its alot of NYPD & FDNY, but dems lost alot of support amongst traditional groups like the teachers due to the covid shutdowns. And the new bail laws hurt with the soccer mommies
Dems should stop celebrating so much and figure out what's gone wrong in NY the last 2 elections before this gop virus spreads
Seems everyone forgot all the ice cream trucks they brought into the city spring of 2020, that weren't here to sell ice cream.
Edit, has to do with trump losing. When I Googled back then the only results were to some dark web corner something about a lib rock band community or something dark like that
Post edited by Lerxst1992 on
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,320
Edit, has to do with trump losing. When I Googled back then the only results were to some dark web corner something about a lib rock band community or something dark like that
Previous occupant of the White House... yesterday? Y'all? Yowsa yowsa yowsa?
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
"Try to not spook the horse."
-Neil Young
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,320
‘I never doubted it’: why film-maker Michael Moore forecast ‘blue tsunami’ in midterms
Film-maker
says the salient lesson from the midterms for Democrats is to stop
depressing their own vote with pessimism, fear and conventional thinking
In the lead-up to last week’s midterm elections in
America, the punditocracy of commentators, pollsters and
political-types were almost united: a “red wave” of Republican gains was
on the cards.
But one dissenting voice stood
out: that of leftist filmmaker Michael Moore. Against all the
commonplace predictions, he had forecast Democrats would do well. He called it a “blue tsunami”.
That proved to be true in his home state of Michigan, where Democrats
won governor, house and senate for the first time in 40 years, often by
large margins. It’s been more of a blue wall across the rest of the
country, where Republican gains mostly failed to materialize, with the
exception of Florida. But even so, the strong Democrat performance has
stunned people on both sides of the US political divide, delighting the
left and sparking hand-wringing on the right.
With
the Democrats retaining power in the Senate, and a chance that even the
House could remain in their control, suddenly Moore is looking like a
prognosticator par excellence.
“I never doubted it – there was no way the Republicans were going to have some kind of landslide,” Moore said in an interview.
But,
he added: “I don’t have any special powers, I’m not related to
Nostradamus or Cassandra, but I was stunned once again that nobody was
willing to stick their neck out. I was just trying to say that common
sense, and data – and if you’re not living in a bubble – should bring
you to the same conclusion that there are more of us than them.”
“We’ve won seven of the last eight elections in the popular vote, we’ve
got more registered, we have a new crop of young people every year, plus
the fact that 70% of eligible voters are either women, people of color,
or 18 to 25 year olds, or a combination of the three,” he said. “That’s
the Democratic party’s base”.
(More at link)
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
'Too hyperbolic'? School board parental rights push falters
By COLLIN BINKLEY
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative groups that sought to get hundreds of “parents’ rights” activists elected to local school boards largely fell short in last week's midterm elections, notching notable wins in some Republican strongholds but failing to gain a groundswell of support among moderate voters.
Traditionally nonpartisan, local school boards have become fiercely political amid entrenched battles over the teaching of race, history and sexuality. Candidates opposing what they see as “woke” ideology in public schools have sought to gain control of school boards across the U.S. and overturn policies deemed too liberal.
The push has been boosted by Republican groups including the 1776 Project PAC, which steered millions of dollars into local school races this year amid predictions of a red wave. But on Tuesday, just a third of its roughly 50 candidates won.
Moms for Liberty, another conservative political group, endorsed more than 250 candidates, with about half winning so far. And despite resounding victories for Republicans including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, several gubernatorial candidates who leaned heavily on parents' rights fell short, including in Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas and Maine.
The results raise doubts about the movement's widespread political strength and pose a potential obstacle for Republican lawmakers hoping to rally behind proposed legislation on the issue. With the GOP poised to take a narrow majority in the U.S. House, Leader Kevin McCarthy has already issued plans for a “Parents Bill of Rights," though its details are vague.
Teachers unions and liberal grassroots groups also have been pushing back with money and messaging of their own, casting conservative activists as fearmongers intent on turning parents against public schools.
The parents' rights movement demands transparency around teaching but also includes a wide range of cultural stances, calling for schools to remove certain books dealing with race or sexuality, for example, and an end to history lessons that aren't “patriotic.”
In hindsight, activists this election should have had a stronger emphasis on academic issues, said Ryan Girdusky, founder of the 1776 Project PAC.
“The messaging needs to be more positive,” he said. “Sometimes you lose moderate voters because you’re too hyperbolic and you’re not speaking truth to something very local to them.”
The midterms marked a reversal from previous elections that saw parents’ rights proponents land major victories. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, hammered the importance of parents’ rights in his successful campaign last year, winning crucial support from suburban voters — one year after the state voted for Democratic President Joe Biden.
Before Tuesday, the 1776 PAC had won roughly 75% of its races in the two previous years, putting dozens of school boards across the nation in control of conservative candidates.
Those victories have been attributed largely to parents' anger over schools' handling of the pandemic, including long closures and mask mandates. This year, the message pivoted to the cultural divides that have sparked battles around transgender rights, racism and sexuality.
In New Buffalo, Michigan, in the state’s purple southwest corner, four candidates supported by the 1776 PAC took on four candidates favored by a teachers union. The conservatives took out full-page ads in two local newspapers accusing their opponents of supporting a school program that promotes critical race theory, sexually inappropriate material and “anti-parent content.”
“NO Critical Race Theory," the ad read. “NO biological boys in girls sports.”
Later, local residents began to raise worries about “furries” — a baseless myth spread by some conservatives alleging that students at some U.S. schools have been allowed to use litter boxes and given other special treatment if they identify as animals.
The level of misinformation was startling to Denise Churchill, one of the candidates endorsed by the teachers union. But on Tuesday, she and her three running mates won by wide margins, with the city also voting for Democrats at the state level.
“Truth prevails, and hate loses,” said Churchill, who has two children in the district. She said the district has always invited parent involvement. “But parental rights does not mean that you get to cherrypick what’s taught in the schools."
The county that houses New Buffalo was a prized target for the 1776 group, having voted for Republican candidates for president and governor in recent elections. The group campaigned for 20 candidates across eight districts, but just four were elected. Many were defeated by union-backed candidates.
The group also fell short in its attempt to win majorities on boards in conservative Bentonville, Arkansas, and purple Round Rock, Texas. Its biggest victory was in right-leaning Carroll County, Maryland, where its candidates won three seats. All four of its candidates won in Florida, which has become a stronghold for the movement.
Despite the losses, some conservatives saw hopeful signs in DeSantis and Abbott's high-profile victories. And even picking up scattered school board seats across the country should be viewed as progress for a Republican Party that has long neglected education as a priority, said Rory Cooper, a GOP strategist and former congressional staffer.
“We’re not seeing Democratic opponents go unopposed like they used to,” he said. “I’m counting this year as a victory.”
Democrats see the losses as proof that rhetoric around critical race theory and gender issues may play well in Republican primaries, but it has limited appeal for moderate Americans.
“In general elections, voters don’t want to hear about it,” said Stephanie Cutter, a Democratic strategist and former senior adviser to President Barack Obama. “The overwhelming majority of parents support their kids’ teachers, believe in their public schools and want accurate history being taught in their classrooms.”
As conservative groups increasingly inject themselves into local school board races, Democrats have responded in kind. State teachers unions have increased spending on their candidates, and grassroots groups including Red Wine and Blue have rallied liberal suburban parents.
But in many areas, school board members facing conservative challengers have aimed to distance themselves from any political affiliation.
In Coloma, Michigan, a town near New Buffalo, four incumbents opted not to accept outside money as they ran against three challengers supported by the 1776 PAC. All four incumbents won.
“We did not speak about them. We spoke about us,” said Heidi Ishmael, president of the school board. “I am a firm believer the school board is nonpartisan. We are there to listen to and represent our entire community.”
Democratic strategists have held up that approach — de-escalating the role of politics in education — as a winning tactic. Candidates who draw attention to any perceived bias run the risk of looking like they're the ones looking for political fights, said Guy Molyneux of Hart Research, a Democratic polling firm.
“I don’t think people want either the left or the right to triumph here,” Molyneux said. “They really want politics out of their schools.”
___
The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Arizona county quick to bat down election misinformation
By BOB CHRISTIE
2 hours ago
PHOENIX (AP) — When the Republican candidate for Arizona governor accused the state’s most populous county of “slow-rolling” the vote count to skew early election results, a local official fired back.
“Quite frankly, it is offensive for Kari Lake to say that these people behind me are slow-rolling this, when they’re working 14 to 18 hours” every day, said Bill Gates, the Republican chairman of the Maricopa County board of supervisors.
Gates and other Maricopa County election officials have aggressively batted down rumors and slanted and false claims as vote counting has come under intense scrutiny in the battleground state. The accusations have come in all types and at all hours from former President Donald Trump and his supporters, Republican candidates and voters.
"Sadly, there continues to be a lot of misinformation from all different sources that are out on social media right now,” Gates said. “So that’s why we have to continue to do this.”
Election officials have had two years to hone their game.
In 2020, Maricopa County landed in the national spotlight while certifying results amid false claims that the election was stolen from Trump. The following year, it underwent an “audit” pushed by Republicans in the state Senate, which ended with a report validating Biden’s win.
“That was just a constant flow of misinformation that we became adept at responding to," Gates said. "We began to understand the importance of responding to that misinformation.”
In May, county officials began talking publicly about what to expect in the upcoming midterm elections. They have held regular news conferences since early October, and since Election Day officials have briefings nearly every day. They also have a large public affairs team that can quickly respond to new or renewed claims of fraud or mismanagement.
One persistent claim started when Lake, who is trailing Democrat Katie Hobbs by a percentage point with less than 200,000 votes left to count, accused the county of “slow-rolling” the count.
Lake and other Republicans say the county has timed vote releases so Democratic areas of the metro Phoenix area are released first. Gates has spent days explaining how that’s not happening and is not possible. In truth, the county processes ballots using a first-in, first out system.
That means mail-in ballots that are dropped off at the polls on Election Day are processed in the order they are received at the county’s election headquarters.
“That’s how we do this,” Gates said Saturday. “We’re not picking them from certain parts of town. In fact, we can’t do that, because we have a vote center model.”
Vote centers mean any voter can walk into any polling place across the metro area to cast a ballot in-person or drop off their early ballots. And because ballots dropped off at vote centers are kept together for processing, the votes could be from anywhere. He called the allegations “irrelevant” and an “incredible distraction.”
“So let’s say we have someone who lives in Gilbert, but they work in Surprise,” Gates explained on Saturday. “They go to the vote center in Surprise on their lunch hour. Where’s that from?”
A record 290,000 of those ballots were dropped off at the county’s 223 vote centers on Election Day and are now being processed. As of Monday morning, the county had between 185,000 and 195,000 ballots to count, while nearly 1.4 million in-person and early ballots had been tabulated.
Gates said the audit taught the board and other county leaders the importance of battling misinformation quickly and accurately.
He and county Recorder Stephen Richer have taken the lead, with Democratic Sheriff Paul Penzone also taking the podium at times. Gates is a lawyer who for years represented the GOP during county elections. Penzone said the constant unfounded claims have forced Gates and Richer to spend an inordinate amount of time explaining why they are wrong.
“You know, what’s the saying, a lie travels around the world … 10,000 times before the truth even gets started?” Penzone said Saturday. “That’s what we’re seeing here. We’re seeing people empowered by saying things that make them feel good and they’re not accountable for it and they lie.”
David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department lawyer who now runs the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research, praised county election officials and Gates in particular for their rapid and consistent responses.
“They’re not doing a good job, they’re doing an outstanding job,” Becker said. “I’ll tell you, I think Bill Gates and his colleagues have been the best of American governance, not just in the last week, but over the course of the past several years while they’ve been running elections in Maricopa County.”
The Republican Party of Arizona has complained about Election Day issues and the prolonged vote count, which is normal in Arizona. Party Chair Kelli Ward complained about ballot-counting machines that could not always read the ballots. The 17,000 affected ballots were instead taken to the county's central facility. Black bags of those ballots were stacked for processing Monday.
Not every claim is a lie, but the accusations have answers that make sense. On Friday night, losing Republican U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters accused the county of mixing up counted ballots with those that could not be tabulated by the vote center machines at least twice. He demanded that the more than 1.4 million ballots that had already been tabulated be recounted, calling it “a giant disaster.”
Megan Gilbertson, the spokeswoman for the county elections department, told The Associated Press that election workers at two vote centers did combine voted ballots with a batch that could not be read by the on-site tabulators, but that the mix-up did not lead to double-counted or uncounted ballots because the department has systems in place to deal with such occurrences.
“Because ballots are tabulated by batch, we are able to isolate the results from those specific locations and reconcile the total ballots against check-ins to ensure it matches,” she wrote less than two hours after Masters made the statement. “This is done with political party observers present and is a practice that has been in place for decades.”
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Comments
Been going to the office twice a week lately (many have transitioned to 100% WFH). In office they’ve been yammering about this bail reform crap for months, and never provide any proof that’s the reason crime is supposedly up. Knowing my coworkers bought into the GOP BS is brutal. I am on an island here, not sure I see this why Dems are ignoring the reason why they lost the house. Without Long Island and the crime issue, the Dems would have won the house.
edit, rereconsidering your comment, it looks like bail reform, not locking up poor nonviolent kids for two years awaiting trial, who can’t afford bail, is too extreme a position to take for Dems. If they don’t learn that lesson fast, the Rs can sweep DC next time
Democrats appeared on the cusp of securing control of the Senate over the weekend, as the counting of mail ballots in Nevada brought Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democratic incumbent, within 1,000 votes of overtaking her Republican opponent, Adam Laxalt, for the final seat the party needs to maintain its 50-50 Senate majority.
All eyes will be on Clark County, home to Las Vegas, which is a Democratic stronghold. Ms. Cortez Masto has led mail ballots tabulated after Election Day there by nearly two to one, a margin that would be more than enough to overtake Mr. Laxalt if the trend continues among the approximately 25,000 mail ballots that remain to be counted.
The bulk of the remaining mail ballots in Clark County are expected to be reported on Saturday (though the deadline to have all ballots counted is not until Tuesday). That could be enough to allow news organizations to project a winner, depending on the number of ballots counted and the size of Ms. Cortez Masto’s lead.
Most news organizations, including The Associated Press, are reluctant to call races when the leading candidate is ahead by less than half a percentage point, or about 5,000 votes in this case.
Even so, Ms. Cortez Masto would build a lead of more than 5,000 votes if she fares as well in the final Clark mail ballots as she has in those counted so far. She is also expected to have an advantage in the remaining mail ballots from Washoe County, as well as the more than 10,000 mail ballots that voters can “cure” after being initially rejected for a bad signature match.
Only a few thousand mail votes remain from the state’s rural, Republican counties.
Fingers crossed!
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
WASHINGTON (AP) — Heading into this year’s midterms, voting rights groups were concerned that restrictions in Republican-leaning states triggered by false claims surrounding the 2020 election might jeopardize access to the ballot box for scores of voters.
Those worries did not appear to come true. There have been no widespread reports of voters being turned away at the polls, and turnout, while down from the last midterm cycle four years ago, appeared robust in Georgia, a state with hotly competitive contests for governor and U.S. Senate.
The lack of broad disenfranchisement isn't necessarily a sign that everyone who wanted to vote could; there's no good way to tell why certain voters didn't cast a ballot.
Voter advocacy groups promoted voter education campaigns and modified voting strategies as a way to reduce confusion and get as many voters to cast a ballot as possible.
“We in the voting rights community in Texas were fearing the worst,” said Anthony Gutierrez, director of Common Cause Texas, on Wednesday. “For the most part, it didn’t happen.”
False claims that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump undermined public confidence in elections and prompted Republican officials to pass new voting laws. The restrictions included tougher ID requirements for mail voting, shortening the period for applying for and returning a mailed ballot, and limiting early voting days and access to ballot drop boxes.
VOTING RIGHTS
More than a dozen arrested as protesters demand vote count
Long wait for Hawaii vote spurs call for more voter centers
FACT FOCUS: Did late night Michigan voting lines show fraud?
Justices cheered at conservative group's anniversary dinner
There is no evidence there was widespread fraud or other wrongdoing in the 2020 election.
An estimated 33 restrictive voting laws in 20 states were in effect for this year’s midterms, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The most high-profile and sweeping laws were passed in Georgia, Florida, Iowa and Texas. Arizona also passed new voting rules, but those were largely put on hold this year or will take effect later.
Of the four states with major voting law changes in effect, a preliminary analysis shows a decline in turnout among registered voters in Florida, Iowa and Texas, while Georgia turnout declined slightly. Several factors can affect turnout, including voter enthusiasm and bad weather.
In Texas, the bumbling rollout of new voting restrictions in the state’s March primary resulted in officials throwing out nearly 23,000 mailed ballots as confused voters struggled to navigate new ID requirements.
But preliminary reports after Tuesday’s election showed rejection rates reverting to closer to more normal levels, which election officials attributed to outreach and mail voters figuring out the new rules. In San Antonio, county officials put the preliminary rejection rate at less than 2% — a sharp reversal from the 23% of mailed ballots they threw out in March.
Groups such as the Texas Civil Rights Project, working through churches and other organizations, focused on ensuring voters knew how to properly complete their mail ballots under the law known as Senate Bill 1.
“As a Texas community we’ve worked very hard to prepare for SB1,” said Emily Eby, the group’s senior election protection attorney.
Florida last year added a host of new rules around mail and early voting. They included new ID requirements, changes to how many ballots a person can turn in on behalf of someone else and limiting after-hours access to drop boxes. This year, lawmakers created a controversial new office dedicated to investigating fraud and other election crimes.
Still, voting appeared to be relatively smooth this year, before and on Election Day. Election officials reported no major problems.
Mark Earley, president of the Florida Supervisors of Elections, said the new laws did not greatly affect voter turnout or access this year, but said the rules, taken together, posed a challenge.
“When you put all of these together — the cumulative effect — it becomes confusing, difficult to communicate and educate the public about, difficult for the public to understand,” said Earley, who oversees elections in Tallahassee’s Leon County. “It becomes a big logistical and educational burden, and more hurdles for people to be able to jump over before they can get their ballots together.”
Iowa’s new law shortened the period for voters to return their mailed ballots, reduced polling place hours and early voting days, and prohibited anyone but close relatives, a household member or caregiver from dropping off someone else’s ballot.
More than 1.2 million voters cast ballots in the Nov. 8 election. State officials said it was the second highest in state history for a midterm, but voting groups expressed concern that Latino participation may have declined due to the changes.
“We historically have had a fair amount of Latino voters who did the absentee ballot, which allowed LULAC volunteers to pick up those early ballots and return them to the county election offices,” said Joe Henry, a board member of the Iowa chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
In Georgia, more votes were cast in this general election than in any prior midterm election — although with more voters on the rolls than four years ago, the actual turnout rate was lower.
Gabriel Sterling, interim deputy secretary of state, noted that most of the changes in the election law, known as Senate Bill 202, affected pre-Election Day voting — "and they blew away every record in that.”
He said more votes were cast early — both in person and by mail — than in any previous midterm election in the state. It was Election Day turnout that was lower than expected.
After Democrats won the 2020 presidential contest and two U.S. Senate runoff elections, the Republican-controlled Georgia Legislature passed a sweeping overhaul of the state’s election laws in 2021.
The law shortened the time period to request an absentee ballot and required voters to sign absentee ballot applications by hand, meaning they needed access to a printer. It also reduced the number of ballot drop boxes in the state’s most populous counties and limited the hours they were accessible.
Critics said the changes made it more difficult to cast mail ballots. Democrats urged people to vote early and in-person this year instead. Kendra Cotton, CEO of the New Georgia Project Action Fund, said she believes the election law did have a negative effect in a state where key races have been decided by narrow margins in recent elections.
“The narrative that’s out there is that SB202 was trying to depress the vote writ large, and we submit that that was not, in fact, the case,” she said. “It was trying to stop just enough people from voting that the electoral outcome here in Georgia would shift.”
This year, Republicans swept the statewide constitutional offices, and a Dec. 6 runoff will be held to decide the winner in the U.S. Senate race.
While she acknowledged there weren’t many problems on Election Day, Cotton said the law created a lot of “noise” that drained energy and resources from organizations such as hers.
“We’re having to go out and help voters fight to remain on the rolls,” Cotton said.
Voter advocacy groups already are mobilizing to support Georgia voters heading into the Dec. 6 Senate runoff. Previously, runoffs were held nine weeks after an election. The new law shortened that to just four weeks, a period that also leaves too little time for new voter registrations.
“These types of tactics aim to suppress votes," Andrea Hailey, CEO of Vote.org, said in a statement. “But Georgians have shown that they are ready and willing to navigate tough voting environments in order to make their voices heard.”
___
Associated Press data journalist Aaron Kessler in Washington, D.C., and writers Kate Brumback in Atlanta; Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida; Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey; David Pitt in Des Moines, Iowa; and Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
It's been so consistently blue that people have become complacent. I'm from there, and I've been guilty of that in the past. Not anymore.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
POOT-WAH-EEE
POOTWHY
POOTWH-Y
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Yes its alot of NYPD & FDNY, but dems lost alot of support amongst traditional groups like the teachers due to the covid shutdowns. And the new bail laws hurt with the soccer mommies
Dems should stop celebrating so much and figure out what's gone wrong in NY the last 2 elections before this gop virus spreads
Seems everyone forgot all the ice cream trucks they brought into the city spring of 2020, that weren't here to sell ice cream.
Edit, has to do with trump losing. When I Googled back then the only results were to some dark web corner something about a lib rock band community or something dark like that
Previous occupant of the White House... yesterday? Y'all? Yowsa yowsa yowsa?
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
‘I never doubted it’: why film-maker Michael Moore forecast ‘blue tsunami’ in midterms
Film-maker says the salient lesson from the midterms for Democrats is to stop depressing their own vote with pessimism, fear and conventional thinking
In the lead-up to last week’s midterm elections in America, the punditocracy of commentators, pollsters and political-types were almost united: a “red wave” of Republican gains was on the cards.
But one dissenting voice stood out: that of leftist filmmaker Michael Moore. Against all the commonplace predictions, he had forecast Democrats would do well. He called it a “blue tsunami”.
That proved to be true in his home state of Michigan, where Democrats won governor, house and senate for the first time in 40 years, often by large margins. It’s been more of a blue wall across the rest of the country, where Republican gains mostly failed to materialize, with the exception of Florida. But even so, the strong Democrat performance has stunned people on both sides of the US political divide, delighting the left and sparking hand-wringing on the right.
With the Democrats retaining power in the Senate, and a chance that even the House could remain in their control, suddenly Moore is looking like a prognosticator par excellence.
“I never doubted it – there was no way the Republicans were going to have some kind of landslide,” Moore said in an interview.
But, he added: “I don’t have any special powers, I’m not related to Nostradamus or Cassandra, but I was stunned once again that nobody was willing to stick their neck out. I was just trying to say that common sense, and data – and if you’re not living in a bubble – should bring you to the same conclusion that there are more of us than them.”
“We’ve won seven of the last eight elections in the popular vote, we’ve got more registered, we have a new crop of young people every year, plus the fact that 70% of eligible voters are either women, people of color, or 18 to 25 year olds, or a combination of the three,” he said. “That’s the Democratic party’s base”.
(More at link)
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative groups that sought to get hundreds of “parents’ rights” activists elected to local school boards largely fell short in last week's midterm elections, notching notable wins in some Republican strongholds but failing to gain a groundswell of support among moderate voters.
Traditionally nonpartisan, local school boards have become fiercely political amid entrenched battles over the teaching of race, history and sexuality. Candidates opposing what they see as “woke” ideology in public schools have sought to gain control of school boards across the U.S. and overturn policies deemed too liberal.
The push has been boosted by Republican groups including the 1776 Project PAC, which steered millions of dollars into local school races this year amid predictions of a red wave. But on Tuesday, just a third of its roughly 50 candidates won.
Moms for Liberty, another conservative political group, endorsed more than 250 candidates, with about half winning so far. And despite resounding victories for Republicans including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, several gubernatorial candidates who leaned heavily on parents' rights fell short, including in Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas and Maine.
EDUCATION
Appeals court ruling keeps Biden student debt plan on hold
EXPLAINER: Where does student loan forgiveness stand?
48,000 University of California academic workers on strike
District to revive student newspaper axed after LGBTQ issue
The results raise doubts about the movement's widespread political strength and pose a potential obstacle for Republican lawmakers hoping to rally behind proposed legislation on the issue. With the GOP poised to take a narrow majority in the U.S. House, Leader Kevin McCarthy has already issued plans for a “Parents Bill of Rights," though its details are vague.
Teachers unions and liberal grassroots groups also have been pushing back with money and messaging of their own, casting conservative activists as fearmongers intent on turning parents against public schools.
The parents' rights movement demands transparency around teaching but also includes a wide range of cultural stances, calling for schools to remove certain books dealing with race or sexuality, for example, and an end to history lessons that aren't “patriotic.”
In hindsight, activists this election should have had a stronger emphasis on academic issues, said Ryan Girdusky, founder of the 1776 Project PAC.
“The messaging needs to be more positive,” he said. “Sometimes you lose moderate voters because you’re too hyperbolic and you’re not speaking truth to something very local to them.”
The midterms marked a reversal from previous elections that saw parents’ rights proponents land major victories. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, hammered the importance of parents’ rights in his successful campaign last year, winning crucial support from suburban voters — one year after the state voted for Democratic President Joe Biden.
Before Tuesday, the 1776 PAC had won roughly 75% of its races in the two previous years, putting dozens of school boards across the nation in control of conservative candidates.
Those victories have been attributed largely to parents' anger over schools' handling of the pandemic, including long closures and mask mandates. This year, the message pivoted to the cultural divides that have sparked battles around transgender rights, racism and sexuality.
In New Buffalo, Michigan, in the state’s purple southwest corner, four candidates supported by the 1776 PAC took on four candidates favored by a teachers union. The conservatives took out full-page ads in two local newspapers accusing their opponents of supporting a school program that promotes critical race theory, sexually inappropriate material and “anti-parent content.”
“NO Critical Race Theory," the ad read. “NO biological boys in girls sports.”
Later, local residents began to raise worries about “furries” — a baseless myth spread by some conservatives alleging that students at some U.S. schools have been allowed to use litter boxes and given other special treatment if they identify as animals.
The level of misinformation was startling to Denise Churchill, one of the candidates endorsed by the teachers union. But on Tuesday, she and her three running mates won by wide margins, with the city also voting for Democrats at the state level.
“Truth prevails, and hate loses,” said Churchill, who has two children in the district. She said the district has always invited parent involvement. “But parental rights does not mean that you get to cherrypick what’s taught in the schools."
The county that houses New Buffalo was a prized target for the 1776 group, having voted for Republican candidates for president and governor in recent elections. The group campaigned for 20 candidates across eight districts, but just four were elected. Many were defeated by union-backed candidates.
The group also fell short in its attempt to win majorities on boards in conservative Bentonville, Arkansas, and purple Round Rock, Texas. Its biggest victory was in right-leaning Carroll County, Maryland, where its candidates won three seats. All four of its candidates won in Florida, which has become a stronghold for the movement.
Despite the losses, some conservatives saw hopeful signs in DeSantis and Abbott's high-profile victories. And even picking up scattered school board seats across the country should be viewed as progress for a Republican Party that has long neglected education as a priority, said Rory Cooper, a GOP strategist and former congressional staffer.
“We’re not seeing Democratic opponents go unopposed like they used to,” he said. “I’m counting this year as a victory.”
Democrats see the losses as proof that rhetoric around critical race theory and gender issues may play well in Republican primaries, but it has limited appeal for moderate Americans.
“In general elections, voters don’t want to hear about it,” said Stephanie Cutter, a Democratic strategist and former senior adviser to President Barack Obama. “The overwhelming majority of parents support their kids’ teachers, believe in their public schools and want accurate history being taught in their classrooms.”
As conservative groups increasingly inject themselves into local school board races, Democrats have responded in kind. State teachers unions have increased spending on their candidates, and grassroots groups including Red Wine and Blue have rallied liberal suburban parents.
But in many areas, school board members facing conservative challengers have aimed to distance themselves from any political affiliation.
In Coloma, Michigan, a town near New Buffalo, four incumbents opted not to accept outside money as they ran against three challengers supported by the 1776 PAC. All four incumbents won.
“We did not speak about them. We spoke about us,” said Heidi Ishmael, president of the school board. “I am a firm believer the school board is nonpartisan. We are there to listen to and represent our entire community.”
Democratic strategists have held up that approach — de-escalating the role of politics in education — as a winning tactic. Candidates who draw attention to any perceived bias run the risk of looking like they're the ones looking for political fights, said Guy Molyneux of Hart Research, a Democratic polling firm.
“I don’t think people want either the left or the right to triumph here,” Molyneux said. “They really want politics out of their schools.”
___
The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
PHOENIX (AP) — When the Republican candidate for Arizona governor accused the state’s most populous county of “slow-rolling” the vote count to skew early election results, a local official fired back.
“Quite frankly, it is offensive for Kari Lake to say that these people behind me are slow-rolling this, when they’re working 14 to 18 hours” every day, said Bill Gates, the Republican chairman of the Maricopa County board of supervisors.
Gates and other Maricopa County election officials have aggressively batted down rumors and slanted and false claims as vote counting has come under intense scrutiny in the battleground state. The accusations have come in all types and at all hours from former President Donald Trump and his supporters, Republican candidates and voters.
"Sadly, there continues to be a lot of misinformation from all different sources that are out on social media right now,” Gates said. “So that’s why we have to continue to do this.”
Election officials have had two years to hone their game.
In 2020, Maricopa County landed in the national spotlight while certifying results amid false claims that the election was stolen from Trump. The following year, it underwent an “audit” pushed by Republicans in the state Senate, which ended with a report validating Biden’s win.
EXPLAINING THE ELECTIONS
Why the AP hasn't called the Arizona governor's race
Why the AP hasn't called control of the House yet
Why AP called Nevada Senate race for Catherine Cortez Masto
Why the AP called control of the US Senate for the Democrats
“That was just a constant flow of misinformation that we became adept at responding to," Gates said. "We began to understand the importance of responding to that misinformation.”
In May, county officials began talking publicly about what to expect in the upcoming midterm elections. They have held regular news conferences since early October, and since Election Day officials have briefings nearly every day. They also have a large public affairs team that can quickly respond to new or renewed claims of fraud or mismanagement.
One persistent claim started when Lake, who is trailing Democrat Katie Hobbs by a percentage point with less than 200,000 votes left to count, accused the county of “slow-rolling” the count.
Lake and other Republicans say the county has timed vote releases so Democratic areas of the metro Phoenix area are released first. Gates has spent days explaining how that’s not happening and is not possible. In truth, the county processes ballots using a first-in, first out system.
That means mail-in ballots that are dropped off at the polls on Election Day are processed in the order they are received at the county’s election headquarters.
“That’s how we do this,” Gates said Saturday. “We’re not picking them from certain parts of town. In fact, we can’t do that, because we have a vote center model.”
Vote centers mean any voter can walk into any polling place across the metro area to cast a ballot in-person or drop off their early ballots. And because ballots dropped off at vote centers are kept together for processing, the votes could be from anywhere. He called the allegations “irrelevant” and an “incredible distraction.”
“So let’s say we have someone who lives in Gilbert, but they work in Surprise,” Gates explained on Saturday. “They go to the vote center in Surprise on their lunch hour. Where’s that from?”
A record 290,000 of those ballots were dropped off at the county’s 223 vote centers on Election Day and are now being processed. As of Monday morning, the county had between 185,000 and 195,000 ballots to count, while nearly 1.4 million in-person and early ballots had been tabulated.
Gates said the audit taught the board and other county leaders the importance of battling misinformation quickly and accurately.
He and county Recorder Stephen Richer have taken the lead, with Democratic Sheriff Paul Penzone also taking the podium at times. Gates is a lawyer who for years represented the GOP during county elections. Penzone said the constant unfounded claims have forced Gates and Richer to spend an inordinate amount of time explaining why they are wrong.
“You know, what’s the saying, a lie travels around the world … 10,000 times before the truth even gets started?” Penzone said Saturday. “That’s what we’re seeing here. We’re seeing people empowered by saying things that make them feel good and they’re not accountable for it and they lie.”
David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department lawyer who now runs the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research, praised county election officials and Gates in particular for their rapid and consistent responses.
“They’re not doing a good job, they’re doing an outstanding job,” Becker said. “I’ll tell you, I think Bill Gates and his colleagues have been the best of American governance, not just in the last week, but over the course of the past several years while they’ve been running elections in Maricopa County.”
The Republican Party of Arizona has complained about Election Day issues and the prolonged vote count, which is normal in Arizona. Party Chair Kelli Ward complained about ballot-counting machines that could not always read the ballots. The 17,000 affected ballots were instead taken to the county's central facility. Black bags of those ballots were stacked for processing Monday.
Not every claim is a lie, but the accusations have answers that make sense. On Friday night, losing Republican U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters accused the county of mixing up counted ballots with those that could not be tabulated by the vote center machines at least twice. He demanded that the more than 1.4 million ballots that had already been tabulated be recounted, calling it “a giant disaster.”
Megan Gilbertson, the spokeswoman for the county elections department, told The Associated Press that election workers at two vote centers did combine voted ballots with a batch that could not be read by the on-site tabulators, but that the mix-up did not lead to double-counted or uncounted ballots because the department has systems in place to deal with such occurrences.
“Because ballots are tabulated by batch, we are able to isolate the results from those specific locations and reconcile the total ballots against check-ins to ensure it matches,” she wrote less than two hours after Masters made the statement. “This is done with political party observers present and is a practice that has been in place for decades.”
___
Learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14