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US US Politics General - Discussion of President Biden and other politicians
- Thread starter SeniorFuckFace
- Start date
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JabbasAnalFissure
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2021
I promised to not follow this crap today, but I’m seeing things saying that Nevada Republican votes are free falling?
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2020
Well that's a different argument entirely. JD Vance is talking about AGP predators on platforms that get more viewers than all of CNN does in a normal week, so we'll just have to see what happens.
Believe it or not, there are people who fit all the elements for being a political elite that were experienced at trashtalking in old CoD lobbies. Some even regularly use KF. I know that for a fact.
FlappyBat
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
Buy a gun for your gun.
- Joined
- May 25, 2018
In regards to the "To Vote or Not to Vote" debate ...
I think that there are valid reasons to vote ... And also valid reasons not to.
I've always hated the smug saying, "If you didn't vote, you can't complain!" Yeah, well, what if there's a person who didn't vote because they didn't believe that any of the choices they had were any good? Would this person suddenly have the "right" to complain if they had written-in Mickey Mouse or Harambe? lol.
On the flip side, I also think it's stupid for people who don't vote to make fun of people who do vote. "I'm not part of your system, maaaan! You sheeple!"
We have the freedom and the choice to approach voting how we want. End of story.
I think that there are valid reasons to vote ... And also valid reasons not to.
I've always hated the smug saying, "If you didn't vote, you can't complain!" Yeah, well, what if there's a person who didn't vote because they didn't believe that any of the choices they had were any good? Would this person suddenly have the "right" to complain if they had written-in Mickey Mouse or Harambe? lol.
On the flip side, I also think it's stupid for people who don't vote to make fun of people who do vote. "I'm not part of your system, maaaan! You sheeple!"
We have the freedom and the choice to approach voting how we want. End of story.
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2017
Thankyou for your service.
- Joined
- May 17, 2019
Only short lines at my local polling place when I got there today. An older lady complimented my slobbermutt shirt; thankfully she didn’t ask me where I got it. Didn’t trust the “straight ticket voting” option, so I got to relive the SAT experience. Checked and double checked my ballot for any possible signs of weirdness; no weird tiny dots or partial markings in any of the bubbles. The machine said the ballot was counted, so now it’s a matter of whether I believe the ballot tracking system.
Filling in that Donald Trump / JD Vance bubble felt good, bros.
Filling in that Donald Trump / JD Vance bubble felt good, bros.
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2021
After the election, but pre-EC voting for a proper constitutional crisis.
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2020
im gonna go voot in like half an hour and will have an excruciatingly detailed report as to why my particular polling place demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt why my preferred candidate is going to win by 3 gorillion voots
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2024
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2019
I had a relative tell me once that I should do a protest vote for Mickey Mouse if I don't like either option. However, I realize that Trump IS the protest vote in this election.
Why are there only two options, anyway?
Jimjamflimflam
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2020
That's the problem with modern politics in general.
It's no longer "I support A,B, and C so party X best represents me" but now "I'm party X so I must support A, B, and C. And I must not only support but show I'm the supportiest supporter of everyone around!"
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2024
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2022
I'm not mad about him running against Trump, I'm mad about him running when he was still supposed to be governor.
There was natural disasters that post-game went noticeably less-well without him on the scene. Obviously he wasn't going to be bailing out Ft Lauderdale with a bucket and that would solve it, but clearly him and/or staffers on the ground coordinating after disasters did make a real difference. I've also heard a case made that the Disney shit went SO sideways because he (and staffers) weren't paying attention to the last-minute shit Reedy Creek pulled that dragged the court stuff out by a lot.
He could have run a primary against Mitt Romney and both George Bushes, fucker needed to finish being governor.
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2022
US states worried about election unrest take security precautions
Reuters (archive.ph - overloaded)
By Brad Brooks, Gabriella Borter, and Nathan Layne
2024-11-05 09:50:31GMT
Workers erect security fencing near the White House ahead of the U.S. presidential election in Washington, U.S., November 4, 2024. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
LAS VEGAS, Nevada Nov 4 (Reuters) - A security fence rings a Las Vegas building where a Nevada county tabulates votes. An Arizona sheriff has his department on high alert to guard against potential violence with drones and snipers on standby. The National Guard has been or will be activated in 19 states so far to help maintain peace.
As a tense America votes on Tuesday for either Republican Donald Trump or Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president, concerns about potential political violence have prompted officials to take a variety of measures to bolster security during and after Election Day.
Many of the most visible moves can be seen in the battleground states that will decide the presidential election, states like Nevada where protests by Trump supporters broke out after the 2020 election.
This year, a security fence rings the scene of some of those protests - the Las Vegas tabulation center.
A defense official said on Monday that Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oregon, Wisconsin and Washington state have current National Guard missions while Washington DC, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia have troops on standby.
In Arizona, a similar metal fence has been erected at Maricopa County vote tabulation center in downtown Phoenix, a flashpoint in 2020 for rigged election conspiracy theories and threats against election officials.
County Sheriff Russ Skinner said his department will be on "high alert" for threats and violence and he has instructed staff to be available for duty.
"We will have a lot of resources out there, a lot of staff, a lot of equipment," he added, noting deputies will use drones to monitor activity around polling places and snipers and other reinforcements will be on standby for deployment if violence appears likely.
He said "polarization" becomes more intense in the days after the election so law enforcement will remain on heightened alert and "there will be zero tolerance on anything related to criminal activity".
Concerned about the potential for protests or even violence, several Arizona schools and churches that served as voting centers in the past will not serve as polling stations this year, a local election official told Reuters.
CHURCH BUILDINGS
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), which has over 400,000 members in Arizona, has offered several polling locations to fill the gap.
A dozen or so community leaders from across the state and from various political backgrounds and cultures have formed a committee to focus on stemming political violence, according to member Jane Andersen, an LDS church member and Protecting Democracy Specialist for Arizona at Mormon Women for Ethical Government.
The group says it is ready to tap into a broad network, including faith leaders, who can help spread factual information to counter misinformation-fueled unrest.
In the battleground state of Michigan in 2020, Trump supporters descended on the downtown Detroit convention hall and began pounding on windows as the counting of absentee ballots carried into a second day. Yellow bicycle racks this year lined both sides of the boulevard on which it sits.
Visitors must go through metal detectors and about 15 police officers are patrolling the cavernous hall. Daniel Baxter, Detroit's chief operating officer for absentee voting and special projects, said police also are on the roof and surrounding the building. Eight days of early pre-processing of mail-in ballots have passed peacefully, Baxter said.
Peter Simi, a sociology professor at Chapman University in California who has researched threats against public officials, said the worst scenario would be Trump losing and not conceding defeat.
Rather than a repeat of the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, he said conflict could be "dispersed, diffuse events across multiple locations" that would be more difficult for law enforcement to address.
Precautions stretch beyond the battleground states. Oregon and Washington state authorities have said they have activated the National Guard. Some storefront windows in Washington, DC and elsewhere have been covered by plywood.
Back in Las Vegas, Faviola Garibay surveyed the security fence around the linen-colored building where Clark County officials tabulate the votes and where voters such as her can drop election ballots.
"The fencing, the presence of police here, it seems secure," she said. "I feel safe voting."
Reporting by Brad Brooks in Las Vegas, Gabriella Borter and Peter Eisler in Phoenix, Arizona, Nathan Layne in Detroit and Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by David Gregorio and Raju Gopalakrishnan
Harris Makes Final Pitch as Trump Plays Down Fears of Violence
Bloomberg (archive.ph - overloaded)
By Iain Marlow
2024-11-05T17:53:51GMT
After all the talk, Election Day voting is going mostly smoothly
Associated Press (archive.ph - overloaded)
By Christina A. Cassidy and Ali Swenson
2024-11-05 16:43:13GMT
Reuters (archive.ph - overloaded)
By Brad Brooks, Gabriella Borter, and Nathan Layne
2024-11-05 09:50:31GMT
Workers erect security fencing near the White House ahead of the U.S. presidential election in Washington, U.S., November 4, 2024. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
LAS VEGAS, Nevada Nov 4 (Reuters) - A security fence rings a Las Vegas building where a Nevada county tabulates votes. An Arizona sheriff has his department on high alert to guard against potential violence with drones and snipers on standby. The National Guard has been or will be activated in 19 states so far to help maintain peace.
As a tense America votes on Tuesday for either Republican Donald Trump or Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president, concerns about potential political violence have prompted officials to take a variety of measures to bolster security during and after Election Day.
Many of the most visible moves can be seen in the battleground states that will decide the presidential election, states like Nevada where protests by Trump supporters broke out after the 2020 election.
This year, a security fence rings the scene of some of those protests - the Las Vegas tabulation center.
A defense official said on Monday that Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oregon, Wisconsin and Washington state have current National Guard missions while Washington DC, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia have troops on standby.
In Arizona, a similar metal fence has been erected at Maricopa County vote tabulation center in downtown Phoenix, a flashpoint in 2020 for rigged election conspiracy theories and threats against election officials.
County Sheriff Russ Skinner said his department will be on "high alert" for threats and violence and he has instructed staff to be available for duty.
"We will have a lot of resources out there, a lot of staff, a lot of equipment," he added, noting deputies will use drones to monitor activity around polling places and snipers and other reinforcements will be on standby for deployment if violence appears likely.
He said "polarization" becomes more intense in the days after the election so law enforcement will remain on heightened alert and "there will be zero tolerance on anything related to criminal activity".
Concerned about the potential for protests or even violence, several Arizona schools and churches that served as voting centers in the past will not serve as polling stations this year, a local election official told Reuters.
CHURCH BUILDINGS
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), which has over 400,000 members in Arizona, has offered several polling locations to fill the gap.
A dozen or so community leaders from across the state and from various political backgrounds and cultures have formed a committee to focus on stemming political violence, according to member Jane Andersen, an LDS church member and Protecting Democracy Specialist for Arizona at Mormon Women for Ethical Government.
The group says it is ready to tap into a broad network, including faith leaders, who can help spread factual information to counter misinformation-fueled unrest.
In the battleground state of Michigan in 2020, Trump supporters descended on the downtown Detroit convention hall and began pounding on windows as the counting of absentee ballots carried into a second day. Yellow bicycle racks this year lined both sides of the boulevard on which it sits.
Visitors must go through metal detectors and about 15 police officers are patrolling the cavernous hall. Daniel Baxter, Detroit's chief operating officer for absentee voting and special projects, said police also are on the roof and surrounding the building. Eight days of early pre-processing of mail-in ballots have passed peacefully, Baxter said.
Peter Simi, a sociology professor at Chapman University in California who has researched threats against public officials, said the worst scenario would be Trump losing and not conceding defeat.
Rather than a repeat of the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, he said conflict could be "dispersed, diffuse events across multiple locations" that would be more difficult for law enforcement to address.
Precautions stretch beyond the battleground states. Oregon and Washington state authorities have said they have activated the National Guard. Some storefront windows in Washington, DC and elsewhere have been covered by plywood.
Back in Las Vegas, Faviola Garibay surveyed the security fence around the linen-colored building where Clark County officials tabulate the votes and where voters such as her can drop election ballots.
"The fencing, the presence of police here, it seems secure," she said. "I feel safe voting."
Reporting by Brad Brooks in Las Vegas, Gabriella Borter and Peter Eisler in Phoenix, Arizona, Nathan Layne in Detroit and Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by David Gregorio and Raju Gopalakrishnan
Bloomberg (archive.ph - overloaded)
By Iain Marlow
2024-11-05T17:53:51GMT
Vice President Kamala Harris made an Election Day push to win over Black voters while former President Donald Trump said there would be no violence from his supporters, as Americans streamed to the polls to cast their ballots in one of the tightest races in modern US history.
Anxiety about the outcome of the race — and when the winner will be known — hung over Election Day with at least 83 million people having voted early. Long lines were reported at polling stations in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania but otherwise voting appeared to be going smoothly so far.
Harris, who is looking to become the first woman to lead the US, sought to shore up support among Black voters given polling that indicates Trump has chipped away at a crucial voting bloc. Her focus for Black men “ranges from access to capital to what we need to do for health care, what we need to do for our fathers and our young fathers,” she told an Atlanta radio station in one of a blitz of interviews she had planned. “It’s a full picture.”
In earlier speeches, the vice president branded Trump a threat to democracy and pledged to protect reproductive freedoms and lower prices for housing and health care. Yet she struggled to define herself in one of the shortest presidential campaigns, after Joe Biden stepped aside in July.
Trump is hoping to capitalize on surveys that widely show Americans trust his ability to steward the economy. He’s vowed to crack down on immigration, promising to deport millions of undocumented migrants and slash taxes. He’s also cast his political opponents as the “enemy from within” — a dark vision that was fueled by a sense of threat after a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed his right ear at a July rally.
A victory would mark an extraordinary political comeback for Trump, who left office in 2021 weeks after a mob of his supporters attacked the US Capitol to reverse his electoral loss. He regained the support of Republicans, some of whom had abandoned him after the Jan. 6 Capitol assault. He was found guilty earlier this year on 34 felony counts linked to a payment to an adult film actress before the 2016 election.
“I may regret that statement, but I’m hearing we’re doing very well,” Trump told reporters after he voted in Palm Beach, Florida. Addressing concerns of civil unrest once the results are known, Trump said there would be no violence.
‘My supporters are not violent people,” he said. “I certainly don’t want any violence.”
After refusing to concede the 2020 election and earlier accusing Democrats of trying to steal this year’s vote, Trump struck a more slightly more conciliatory tone Tuesday. “If I lose an election — a fair election — I’ll be the first one to acknowledge it,” he said.
US stocks stayed higher Tuesday as Treasuries fell. The S&P 500 rose 1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 was buoyed by gains in Nvidia Corp. and Tesla Inc. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists said there’s a possibility of a burst of volatility in the aftermath of the election, but also suggested the resilient US economic backdrop would support equities.
Trump planned to hold his election night rally at the convention center in Palm Beach. Harris, who is registered to vote in California, cast her ballot by mail. Her rally was planned for Washington’s Howard University, her alma mater.
Turnout is “very good and very young” in Germantown, a majority Black neighborhood in northwest Philadelphia, according to Veatrice Johnson, a poll worker. “They were coming out the doors this morning, and that was before the place was even open,” Johnson said.
The two candidates offered opposite visions of how to lead in what’s set to become the costliest campaign in US history. Trump promised an amplified version of his playbook-shredding first term, with its emphasis on “America First.” Some of his former White House aides have questioned his fitness for a second term, including his one-time chief of staff John Kelly, who said in the final weeks of the campaign that Trump was a “fascist.”
Harris ran a cautious campaign that saw her reintroduce herself to voters after her 2020 election run. She sought to distinguish herself from Biden without criticizing the president who endorsed her to replace him. Harris has espoused a similar foreign policy doctrine to Biden, who corralled support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia. She’s also navigated intra-party angst over Israel’s war against Hamas.
“She has the better plan for the future,” said Tyler Scherrer, 29, a student at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. “I think she’s more qualified for the position and she has more empathy for the people she’s working for.”
While Biden emphasized democracy in his campaign against Trump, Harris leaned on freedom as a way to encompass democracy, women’s reproductive rights and civil rights. She’s promised to expand the child tax credit and make housing more affordable.
With the Republican ticket still refusing to concede Biden won last time, anxiety is running high over the potential for a drawn-out battle and when the next president will be known. Trump made little secret of his party’s plan for legal challenges should Harris win.
“He’s the best person to lead our country right now, and our country really really needs a lot of good strong leadership,” Robert Andrews, 89, said after voting for Trump in Roswell, Georgia. “I don’t think it’s had it in the last four years.”
There are also 67.2 million voters who requested mail-in ballots that they haven’t yet returned. In most states, voters need to return those ballots by the time polls close or cast a vote in person — although 18 states will count mail-in ballots as long as they’re postmarked by Election Day.
The stakes couldn’t be higher globally. The election winner will inherit the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and must face down an increasingly assertive China. The night before Election Day, US intelligence agencies issued an unprecedented statement saying adversaries — with Russia as the “most active threat” — were stepping up a push to undermine confidence in the elections.
There were worrying developments in the waning days of the race when early-voting boxes in Oregon and Washington were set on fire, destroying hundreds of ballots. Recent polling reflected the national mood, with about half of swing-state voters worried about violence surrounding the election, according to a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll from earlier this year.
Voters also voiced fears about misinformation — which were borne out by recent deep-fakes of Harris’ running mate Tim Walz.
It was a campaign of unprecedented vitriol. The candidates — and their vice presidential picks, Walz and Republican JD Vance — spurred supporters on with dark warnings about their rivals winning control of the White House.
Trump cast America as a “garbage can for the world,” a weak nation unable to outfox its rivals and buckling under the weight of illegal immigrants. At a rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden, a comedian opening for the former president called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” while another speaker referred to Harris’ “pimp handlers.”
Yet Vance made a plea for unity after he voted in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“The best way to heal the rift in the country is to try to govern the country as well as we can create as much prosperity as we can for the American people, and remind our fellow Americans that we are all fundamentally on the same team,” Vance said.
— With assistance from Gregory Korte, Stephanie Lai, Ted Mann, Michael Sasso, and Mark Niquette
(Updates with comments from Harris and Trump, additional details.)
Anxiety about the outcome of the race — and when the winner will be known — hung over Election Day with at least 83 million people having voted early. Long lines were reported at polling stations in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania but otherwise voting appeared to be going smoothly so far.
Harris, who is looking to become the first woman to lead the US, sought to shore up support among Black voters given polling that indicates Trump has chipped away at a crucial voting bloc. Her focus for Black men “ranges from access to capital to what we need to do for health care, what we need to do for our fathers and our young fathers,” she told an Atlanta radio station in one of a blitz of interviews she had planned. “It’s a full picture.”
In earlier speeches, the vice president branded Trump a threat to democracy and pledged to protect reproductive freedoms and lower prices for housing and health care. Yet she struggled to define herself in one of the shortest presidential campaigns, after Joe Biden stepped aside in July.
Trump is hoping to capitalize on surveys that widely show Americans trust his ability to steward the economy. He’s vowed to crack down on immigration, promising to deport millions of undocumented migrants and slash taxes. He’s also cast his political opponents as the “enemy from within” — a dark vision that was fueled by a sense of threat after a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed his right ear at a July rally.
A victory would mark an extraordinary political comeback for Trump, who left office in 2021 weeks after a mob of his supporters attacked the US Capitol to reverse his electoral loss. He regained the support of Republicans, some of whom had abandoned him after the Jan. 6 Capitol assault. He was found guilty earlier this year on 34 felony counts linked to a payment to an adult film actress before the 2016 election.
“I may regret that statement, but I’m hearing we’re doing very well,” Trump told reporters after he voted in Palm Beach, Florida. Addressing concerns of civil unrest once the results are known, Trump said there would be no violence.
‘My supporters are not violent people,” he said. “I certainly don’t want any violence.”
After refusing to concede the 2020 election and earlier accusing Democrats of trying to steal this year’s vote, Trump struck a more slightly more conciliatory tone Tuesday. “If I lose an election — a fair election — I’ll be the first one to acknowledge it,” he said.
US stocks stayed higher Tuesday as Treasuries fell. The S&P 500 rose 1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 was buoyed by gains in Nvidia Corp. and Tesla Inc. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists said there’s a possibility of a burst of volatility in the aftermath of the election, but also suggested the resilient US economic backdrop would support equities.
Trump planned to hold his election night rally at the convention center in Palm Beach. Harris, who is registered to vote in California, cast her ballot by mail. Her rally was planned for Washington’s Howard University, her alma mater.
Turnout is “very good and very young” in Germantown, a majority Black neighborhood in northwest Philadelphia, according to Veatrice Johnson, a poll worker. “They were coming out the doors this morning, and that was before the place was even open,” Johnson said.
The two candidates offered opposite visions of how to lead in what’s set to become the costliest campaign in US history. Trump promised an amplified version of his playbook-shredding first term, with its emphasis on “America First.” Some of his former White House aides have questioned his fitness for a second term, including his one-time chief of staff John Kelly, who said in the final weeks of the campaign that Trump was a “fascist.”
Harris ran a cautious campaign that saw her reintroduce herself to voters after her 2020 election run. She sought to distinguish herself from Biden without criticizing the president who endorsed her to replace him. Harris has espoused a similar foreign policy doctrine to Biden, who corralled support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia. She’s also navigated intra-party angst over Israel’s war against Hamas.
“She has the better plan for the future,” said Tyler Scherrer, 29, a student at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. “I think she’s more qualified for the position and she has more empathy for the people she’s working for.”
While Biden emphasized democracy in his campaign against Trump, Harris leaned on freedom as a way to encompass democracy, women’s reproductive rights and civil rights. She’s promised to expand the child tax credit and make housing more affordable.
With the Republican ticket still refusing to concede Biden won last time, anxiety is running high over the potential for a drawn-out battle and when the next president will be known. Trump made little secret of his party’s plan for legal challenges should Harris win.
“He’s the best person to lead our country right now, and our country really really needs a lot of good strong leadership,” Robert Andrews, 89, said after voting for Trump in Roswell, Georgia. “I don’t think it’s had it in the last four years.”
There are also 67.2 million voters who requested mail-in ballots that they haven’t yet returned. In most states, voters need to return those ballots by the time polls close or cast a vote in person — although 18 states will count mail-in ballots as long as they’re postmarked by Election Day.
The stakes couldn’t be higher globally. The election winner will inherit the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and must face down an increasingly assertive China. The night before Election Day, US intelligence agencies issued an unprecedented statement saying adversaries — with Russia as the “most active threat” — were stepping up a push to undermine confidence in the elections.
There were worrying developments in the waning days of the race when early-voting boxes in Oregon and Washington were set on fire, destroying hundreds of ballots. Recent polling reflected the national mood, with about half of swing-state voters worried about violence surrounding the election, according to a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll from earlier this year.
Voters also voiced fears about misinformation — which were borne out by recent deep-fakes of Harris’ running mate Tim Walz.
It was a campaign of unprecedented vitriol. The candidates — and their vice presidential picks, Walz and Republican JD Vance — spurred supporters on with dark warnings about their rivals winning control of the White House.
Trump cast America as a “garbage can for the world,” a weak nation unable to outfox its rivals and buckling under the weight of illegal immigrants. At a rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden, a comedian opening for the former president called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” while another speaker referred to Harris’ “pimp handlers.”
Yet Vance made a plea for unity after he voted in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“The best way to heal the rift in the country is to try to govern the country as well as we can create as much prosperity as we can for the American people, and remind our fellow Americans that we are all fundamentally on the same team,” Vance said.
— With assistance from Gregory Korte, Stephanie Lai, Ted Mann, Michael Sasso, and Mark Niquette
(Updates with comments from Harris and Trump, additional details.)
Associated Press (archive.ph - overloaded)
By Christina A. Cassidy and Ali Swenson
2024-11-05 16:43:13GMT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Election Day voting unfolded largely smoothly across the nation Tuesday but with scattered reports of extreme weather, ballot printing errors and technical problems causing delays.
Most of the hiccups occurring by mid-day were “largely expected routine and planned-for events,” said Cait Conley, senior adviser to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in a press briefing. She said the agency was not currently tracking any national, significant incidents impacting election security.
In swing-state Pennsylvania, early reports that Republican poll watchers were not allowed into some polling sites were soon resolved. A software malfunction was affecting ballot scanning machines in the state’s Cambria County, but no one was being turned away from the polls and all ballots would be counted, county and state officials said.
A technical malfunction in Champaign County, Illinois, and challenges with e-pollbooks in Louisville, Kentucky, also delayed voting, but those issues were soon fixed and voting was back up and running.
In Missouri, flooding made one St. Louis area polling site hard to reach and knocked out power to another, requiring poll workers to turn to a generator to continue election operations. Still, in various states affected by rain, voters were enthusiastically huddling under umbrellas as they lined up to cast their ballots.
“We’ll be like post office workers: in rain or snow or sleet,” voter Mary Roszkowski said after she cast her ballot in windy Racine, Wisconsin, wiping raindrops off her face.
In Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said there were some reported bomb threats to polling places, but all were deemed non-credible and authorities were investigating.
Helping voting run relatively smoothly on Election Day was the fact that tens of millions of Americans had already cast their ballots. Those included record numbers of voters in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states that could decide the winner.
As of Monday, Associated Press tracking of advance voting nationwide showed roughly 82 million ballots already cast — slightly more than half the total number of votes in the presidential election four years earlier. That’s driven partly by Republican voters, who were casting early ballots at a higher rate than in recent previous elections after a campaign by former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee to counter the Democrats’ longstanding advantage in the early vote.
Despite long lines in some places and a few typical glitches, early in-person and mail voting also proceeded without any major problems.
That included in the parts of western North Carolina hammered last month by Hurricane Helene. State and local election officials, benefiting from changes made by the Republican-controlled legislature, pulled off a herculean effort to ensure residents could cast their ballots as they dealt with power outages, lack of water and washed out roads.
By the time early voting in North Carolina had ended on Saturday, over 4.4 million voters — or nearly 57% of all registered voters in the state — had cast their ballots. As of Monday, turnout in the 25 western counties affected by the hurricane was even stronger at 59% of registered voters, state election board Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said.
Brinson Bell called the voters and election workers in the hurricane-hit counties “an inspiration to us all.”
Besides the hurricanes in North Carolina and Florida, the most worrisome disruptions to the election season so far were arson attacks that damaged ballots in two drop boxes near the Oregon-Washington border. Authorities there were searching for the person responsible.
The absence of any significant, widespread problems has not stopped Trump, the Republican nominee, or the RNC, which is now under his sway, from making numerous claims of fraud or election interference during the early voting period, a possible prelude to challenges after Election Day.
Trump and Republicans also have warned about the possibility that Democrats are recruiting masses of noncitizens to vote, a claim they have made without evidence and that runs counter to the data, including from Republican secretaries of state. Research has consistently shown that noncitizens registering to vote is rare. Any noncitizen who does faces the potential of felony charges and deportation, a significant disincentive.
One case of noncitizen voting was caught during early voting last month and resulted in felony charges in Michigan after a student from China cast an illegal early ballot.
This is the first presidential vote since Trump lost to Joe Biden four years ago and began various attempts to circumvent the outcome and remain in power. That climaxed with the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol to halt certification of the results after Trump told his supporters to “fight like hell.”
Even now, a solid majority of Republicans believe Trump’s lie that Biden was not legitimately elected, despite reviews, audits and recounts in the battleground states that all affirmed Biden’s win. A survey last month from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed Republicans remain much more skeptical than Democrats that their ballots will be counted accurately this year.
Seeking to rebuild voter confidence in a system targeted with false claims of widespread fraud, Republican lawmakers in more than a dozen states since 2020 have passed new voting restrictions. Those rules include shortening the window to apply or return a mail ballot, reducing the availability of ballot drop boxes and adding ID requirements.
On the last weekend before Election Day, Trump continued to falsely claim the election was being rigged against him and said a presidential winner should be declared on election night, before all the ballots are counted.
Vice President Kamala Harris urged voters not to fall for Trump’s tactic of casting doubt on elections. The Democratic nominee told supporters at a weekend rally in Michigan that the tactic was intended to suggest to people “that if they vote, their vote won’t matter.” Instead, she urged people who had already cast ballots to encourage their friends to do the same.
Through four years of election lies and voting-related conspiracy theories, local election officials have faced harassment and even death threats. That has prompted high turnover and led to heightened security for election offices and polling sites that includes panic buttons and bullet-proof glass.
While there have been no major reports of any malicious cyberactivity affecting election offices, foreign actors have been active in using fake social media profiles and websites to drum up partisan vitriol and disinformation. In the final weeks, U.S. intelligence officials have attributed to Russia multiple fake videos alleging election fraud in presidential swing states.
On the eve of Election Day, they issued a joint statement with federal law enforcement agencies warning that Russia in particular was ramping up its influence operations, including in ways that could incite violence, and likely would continue those efforts well after the votes have been cast.
Jen Easterly, the nation’s top election security official, urged Americans to rely on state and local election officials for information about elections.
“This is especially important as we are in an election cycle with an unprecedented amount of disinformation, including disinformation being aggressively peddled and amplified by our foreign adversaries at a greater scale than ever before,” she said. “We cannot allow our foreign adversaries to have a vote in our democracy.”
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The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Most of the hiccups occurring by mid-day were “largely expected routine and planned-for events,” said Cait Conley, senior adviser to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in a press briefing. She said the agency was not currently tracking any national, significant incidents impacting election security.
In swing-state Pennsylvania, early reports that Republican poll watchers were not allowed into some polling sites were soon resolved. A software malfunction was affecting ballot scanning machines in the state’s Cambria County, but no one was being turned away from the polls and all ballots would be counted, county and state officials said.
A technical malfunction in Champaign County, Illinois, and challenges with e-pollbooks in Louisville, Kentucky, also delayed voting, but those issues were soon fixed and voting was back up and running.
In Missouri, flooding made one St. Louis area polling site hard to reach and knocked out power to another, requiring poll workers to turn to a generator to continue election operations. Still, in various states affected by rain, voters were enthusiastically huddling under umbrellas as they lined up to cast their ballots.
“We’ll be like post office workers: in rain or snow or sleet,” voter Mary Roszkowski said after she cast her ballot in windy Racine, Wisconsin, wiping raindrops off her face.
In Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said there were some reported bomb threats to polling places, but all were deemed non-credible and authorities were investigating.
Helping voting run relatively smoothly on Election Day was the fact that tens of millions of Americans had already cast their ballots. Those included record numbers of voters in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states that could decide the winner.
As of Monday, Associated Press tracking of advance voting nationwide showed roughly 82 million ballots already cast — slightly more than half the total number of votes in the presidential election four years earlier. That’s driven partly by Republican voters, who were casting early ballots at a higher rate than in recent previous elections after a campaign by former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee to counter the Democrats’ longstanding advantage in the early vote.
Despite long lines in some places and a few typical glitches, early in-person and mail voting also proceeded without any major problems.
That included in the parts of western North Carolina hammered last month by Hurricane Helene. State and local election officials, benefiting from changes made by the Republican-controlled legislature, pulled off a herculean effort to ensure residents could cast their ballots as they dealt with power outages, lack of water and washed out roads.
By the time early voting in North Carolina had ended on Saturday, over 4.4 million voters — or nearly 57% of all registered voters in the state — had cast their ballots. As of Monday, turnout in the 25 western counties affected by the hurricane was even stronger at 59% of registered voters, state election board Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said.
Brinson Bell called the voters and election workers in the hurricane-hit counties “an inspiration to us all.”
Besides the hurricanes in North Carolina and Florida, the most worrisome disruptions to the election season so far were arson attacks that damaged ballots in two drop boxes near the Oregon-Washington border. Authorities there were searching for the person responsible.
The absence of any significant, widespread problems has not stopped Trump, the Republican nominee, or the RNC, which is now under his sway, from making numerous claims of fraud or election interference during the early voting period, a possible prelude to challenges after Election Day.
Trump and Republicans also have warned about the possibility that Democrats are recruiting masses of noncitizens to vote, a claim they have made without evidence and that runs counter to the data, including from Republican secretaries of state. Research has consistently shown that noncitizens registering to vote is rare. Any noncitizen who does faces the potential of felony charges and deportation, a significant disincentive.
One case of noncitizen voting was caught during early voting last month and resulted in felony charges in Michigan after a student from China cast an illegal early ballot.
This is the first presidential vote since Trump lost to Joe Biden four years ago and began various attempts to circumvent the outcome and remain in power. That climaxed with the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol to halt certification of the results after Trump told his supporters to “fight like hell.”
Even now, a solid majority of Republicans believe Trump’s lie that Biden was not legitimately elected, despite reviews, audits and recounts in the battleground states that all affirmed Biden’s win. A survey last month from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed Republicans remain much more skeptical than Democrats that their ballots will be counted accurately this year.
Seeking to rebuild voter confidence in a system targeted with false claims of widespread fraud, Republican lawmakers in more than a dozen states since 2020 have passed new voting restrictions. Those rules include shortening the window to apply or return a mail ballot, reducing the availability of ballot drop boxes and adding ID requirements.
On the last weekend before Election Day, Trump continued to falsely claim the election was being rigged against him and said a presidential winner should be declared on election night, before all the ballots are counted.
Vice President Kamala Harris urged voters not to fall for Trump’s tactic of casting doubt on elections. The Democratic nominee told supporters at a weekend rally in Michigan that the tactic was intended to suggest to people “that if they vote, their vote won’t matter.” Instead, she urged people who had already cast ballots to encourage their friends to do the same.
Through four years of election lies and voting-related conspiracy theories, local election officials have faced harassment and even death threats. That has prompted high turnover and led to heightened security for election offices and polling sites that includes panic buttons and bullet-proof glass.
While there have been no major reports of any malicious cyberactivity affecting election offices, foreign actors have been active in using fake social media profiles and websites to drum up partisan vitriol and disinformation. In the final weeks, U.S. intelligence officials have attributed to Russia multiple fake videos alleging election fraud in presidential swing states.
On the eve of Election Day, they issued a joint statement with federal law enforcement agencies warning that Russia in particular was ramping up its influence operations, including in ways that could incite violence, and likely would continue those efforts well after the votes have been cast.
Jen Easterly, the nation’s top election security official, urged Americans to rely on state and local election officials for information about elections.
“This is especially important as we are in an election cycle with an unprecedented amount of disinformation, including disinformation being aggressively peddled and amplified by our foreign adversaries at a greater scale than ever before,” she said. “We cannot allow our foreign adversaries to have a vote in our democracy.”
___
The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2024
Nevada was the one swing I had doubts Trump would win given the fact that Vegas's population basically runs the state and those in Northern Nevada basically have no say, I don't think it will affect him at the end of the day, every other swing state will probably go Red easily assuming Republicans can counter cheating/ballot stuffing
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2022
Maori Kiwifruit Growers
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2022
Not to the level Trump did. A president sets policy and appoints people to execute it. Trump despite all his "based" rhetoric did jack fucking shit. He would overturn international regional policy based off a single phone call. The man acted like your boomer uncle has all these great ideas but wouldn't be able to do shit if he was in power
I disagree. I think he's being fucked over by people in his own party and his staffers. If he fired a few people and acted like the man he was in his younger years we wouldn't be in this situation.
there's being hampered and then their is doing nothing. I'm not saying the alternative is better but someone out there has to be better than Trump, especially in the Republicans.
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2023
Why? They flew across the country to swamp the vote, like a true patriot
- Joined
- May 4, 2023
In this one instance, I will agree with Null that vooting does nothing. Make Californians uncomfortable. Exclude Californians from social gatherings. Give Californians the side-eye. Do not get on first-name basis with Californians. Cancel appointments with Californians. Refuse small talk with Californians. Double park in front of a Californian's car. Ignore a Californian's "howdy neighbor!". Close open houses to Californians. Cough in a weed-smoking Californian's face. Find cultural differences with a Californian while conducting a job interview. Serve nothing but foam in a Californian's beer. Misplace a Californian's mail accidentally delivered to you. Offer no friendly discount to Californian customers. Drive 5 MPH under the speed limit in front of a Californian's car.
the aging locust.
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2024
- Status