dougfir

Judges order new North Carolina legislative maps, special election for 2017

Can the Democratic Party rise again? Yes — and here’s the first big thing to watch.

Glad I'm not the only one who sees the parallels between DT and Ventura. In other news: Judges say Wisconsin legislative boundaries unconstitutional

Democrats won the most votes in the election. They should act like it.

Even if it doesn't change the outcome of the election, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to push for an audit/recount. Otherwise, our right to vote isn't worth the paper the ballots are printed on (in places that use paper ballots, that is). I'm not a big Jill Stein fan but I'm glad she's calling for a recount and hope she doesn't back down.

http://www.npr.org/2016/11/15/502041497/was-clinton-loss-the-worst-case-scenario-for-democrats-no-probably-not (bolding mine)

I hope McMullin stays in the public eye, because it would be great to see conservatives as well as moderates and liberals continue to hold DT's feet to the fire.

The above posts about ballot formats got me thinking about expanded opportunities for voting by mail. In 1998, my home state of Oregon became the first state to have elections conducted exclusively by mail, which has been a key factor in pushing the state's voter turnout well above the national average (participation here in the last two presidential elections has been in the 80% range). And if a voter misses the deadline to mail in the ballot, there are still plenty of convenient official drop-off sites (businesses, libraries, elections offices, etc.) This article discusses how all-mail voting can indeed increase turnout - with several strong caveats, including the need for the elections office to send out reminders after voters receive their ballots. Like any other system of voting, there are pros and cons, but one major advantage to vote-by-mail beyond the potential for increased turnout is that polling place intimidation and voting machine tampering/malfunctioning are no longer a threat. Research varies on whether increased turnout actually benefits Democrats, but even a small uptick in voter participation very well could've made a difference last week - and I can see it making a helluva lot of difference in 2018. I know people are reeling after last week's elections and are wondering how to effect some sort of change, but anyone living in a state where the option to vote by mail is limited or non-existent might want to grab the ear of their state legislator. Even more people just talking about it might be the tipping point.

From the Post-Election Support thread: Interesting theory. It reminds me of the ever-wise Jimmy Carter contrasting Trump with Ted Cruz during the GOP primaries, describing Trump as "completely malleable" while painting Cruz as scary and completely rigid. And, as much of a scary loose cannon Trump is who never should have gotten this far, I always found Cruz to be phenomenally creepy. If Obama could work some of his charm on Trump's bottomless ego, so much the better.

In a post-election column, George Will writes how the GOP is alienating minority voters at its own peril, pointing out that Hillary performed better in Arizona, California, Georgia and Texas than Obama did in 2012.

Hey Joe Walsh? Thanks for admitting the only way your side can win anymore is if voting opportunities are severely restricted. And you don't deserve to share the same moniker with the former Eagle who gave us "Life's Been Good" and "Rocky Mountain Way".

If the Facebook posts by my registered Republican and Republican-leaning friends/relatives are an indication of a larger trend Coral Caligula (love it!) doesn't have the widespread GOP voter support he'd like us to think. A few are strongly pro-Johnson, while another is talking up McMullin, but I've seen very few pro-Trump posts on my news feed.

Oregon (pretty reliably blue - and first state to vote totally by mail)

I lost whatever respect I had left for McCain when he just rolled over and took Cheeto's horrible remarks about POWs. I'd love to see him lose his Senate race but the polls are indicating otherwise :P

Opinion piece by David Brooks extolling Hillary's skills at governing and getting things done. Brooks is a conservative, but he's a conservative who "gets it" and hasn't chugged the Orange Kool-Aid. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/04/opinion/the-banality-of-change.html?_r=0