Posted: November 4, 2014 | Author: bostonboomer | Filed under: U.S. Politics | Tags: 2014 midterm elections, live blog |
The map above posted by Vox shows time times polls close in different states. That will help us know when to start looking for election results in our home states and in the key Senate races.
Vox is providing live election updates. They’ve had quite a bit of interesting stuff throughout the day. The New York Times also has a live update page, but so far I like Vox’s better. Plenty of other websites will also be doing this, so if you are following a particularly interesting media live blog, please share the link in the comment thread to this post.
The polls close early in Kentucky–at 6 or 7pm, depending on what part of the state you live in. Of course Kentucky’s Senate race between Alison Grimes and Mitch McConnell is huge. If McConnell wins and Republicans take control of the Senate, he will be the new Majority Leader. What a dreadful prospect! But Kentucky is seeing heavy voter turnout in the cities, which is a good sign for Grimes.
From the Courier-Journal, Senate race boosts turnout in Ky. urban areas.
High turnout in Kentucky’s urban areas is buoying Alison Lundergan Grimes’ hopes for a stunning upset over U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
At midday, Lynn Zellen, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of State’s office, said turnout has been steady statewide but that it has been high in Louisville and in the Northern Kentucky community of Fort Thomas.
Big turnout in Louisville would appear to help Grimes, said Democratic political consultant Danny Briscoe. “She’s got to come out of here with a huge margin,” he said. “It’s the biggest Democratic area left in Kentucky.”
At about 2:30 p.m., Grimes tweeted “We’re seeing incredible turnout today.”
Also from the Courier-Journal, If McConnell wins, Ted Cruz may not back him.
LOUISVILLE – If Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wins re-election Tuesday, his prize may be a restive Republican caucus with a rebellious would-be presidential candidate who may not support him.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who has worked with other tea-party Republicans to force government crises over spending, budgets and the debt ceiling, said over the weekend in a Washington Post interviewhe is aiming for a GOP-led Senate that is just as confrontational with the White House as the Republican House has been.
Cruz said the Senate under Republicans should begin their work “looking at the abuse of power, the executive abuse, the regulatory abuse, the lawlessness that sadly has pervaded this administration.”
Cruz also told The Post he wanted a Republican Senate to vigorously pursue repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
Significantly, Cruz also would not pledge his support to McConnell as majority leader.
If McConnell does win, he is probably going to learn what it has been like to be John Boehner for the past several years. From the Wall Street Journal, A Change in Senate Control Would Test McConnell’s Clout.
WASHINGTON—In fighting off a tea-party primary challenger and then battling a Democrat who tried to claim the political center, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had a consistent pitch to Kentucky voters: he was the candidate with the clout to get things done.
That is precisely what he will need if, as expected, he survives the toughest re-election fight of his political career and his party wins control of the Senate. Mr. McConnell, a 30-year veteran, is in line to lead the Senate’s first Republican majority in eight years if his party can net the six seats it needs to claim power….
But even his own win wouldn’t guarantee his spot as majority leader, as several close Senate races will determine whether Republicans secure enough seats to take the majority back from Democrats. The drama is compounded by the reality that it could be weeks before Senate control is known, as close races in Louisiana and Georgia could mean runoff elections in those states.
In many ways, the obstacle course of challenges has been a test of the political skills Mr. McConnell would have to tap in a newly constituted Republican Senate, where he would be expected to try to reach deals on taxes and trade in an effort to end legislative gridlock.
To get to those agreements, Mr. McConnell would have to contend with a pocket of restive conservatives, including some, like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz , who are aiming to sharpen their conservative credentials for potential 2016 presidential bids.
High turnout is also expected in New Hampshire, another state with an important and hotly contested Senate race. From WBZ Boston, NH Secretary Of State: Voters Could Break Midterm Turnout Record.
Three Democrats were trying to hold onto their seats in Washington on Tuesday. U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat seeking a second term, faced Republican Scott Brown, who moved to New Hampshire last year after losing his U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts.
In the 1st District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter was facing a challenge from Republican Frank Guinta. Shea-Porter was first elected in 2006, was ousted by Guinta in 2010 and regained the seat in 2012. In the 2nd District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster was seeking a second term against GOP state Rep. Marilinda Garcia.
The governor’s office and the 424-member Legislature also were up for grabs. Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan, hoping to win a second term, faced a challenge from Republican Walt Havenstein.
What are you hearing about turnout in your state? Here in Massachusetts, the Secretary of State’s office predicted 53% turnout, 2.26 million voters, and a number of towns are reporting high numbers of voters showing up at the polls. For Martha Coakley to win, we’ll need voters to show up in urban areas like Boston and Worcester.
Voting problems are being reported in several states. We know about the voter suppression in Texas and other states with voter ID laws, but today there have been other serious problems. Things are pretty bad in Virginia, according to Democratic Rep. Scott Rigell.
VIRGINIA BEACH — Officials with Rep. Scott Rigell’s (R-2nd D.) campaign said Tuesday afternoon that the number of precincts experiencing problems with voting machines in the 2nd District increased to 37 locations, nearly double the number the campaign reported earlier in the day.
The majority of the problems were in Virginia Beach where Rigell is up for re-election.
The Virginia Beach locations are Alanton, Arrowhead, Bayside, Birneck, Bonney, Cape Henry, Centerville, Chimney Hill, Colonial, Colony, Courthouse, Culver, Dahlia, Great Neck, Homestead, Hunt, Kingston, Lake Christoper, Larkspur, Linkhorn, London Bridge, Lynnhaven, Manor, North Beach, Ocean Lakes, Pleasant Hall, Rock lack, Rosement Forest, Seatack, Shelton Park, Sherry Park, Sigma, Stratford Chase, Tallwood, Upton and Witchduck.
Officials said there was also a problem at the Lafayette precinct in Norfolk….
On Twitter Tuesday morning, Rigell said there have been “numerous, credible reports of poll machine irregularity at voting precincts in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District.”
“Every error is going against my campaign and in favor of my challenger,” Rigell said at an 11 a.m. news conference.
Rep. Scott Rigell
Rigell has now gone to court: Rep. Scott Rigell requests court order for paper ballots after reports of voting issues.
The Scott Rigell for Congress campaign has formally demanded that the Virginia Beach Voter Registrar switch to paper ballots after they say several issues have been reported.
They say over 40 precincts in the district have reported that voters who tried to cast a ballot for Rigell were instead counted for his opponent.
“In my more than two decades of being involved in the political process, I have never seen such a systemic failure of our voting machines here in Hampton Roads. Sadly, today marks a first,” says the Rigell campaign.
He is now encouraging voters to check their summary pages on their voting cards before submitting a final vote. They say to make sure that you’re 100% certain that everything you’ve chosen is correct before leaving your polling place.
The VA GOP is also complaining about malfunctioning voting machines in a number of precincts.
Georgia has also had lots of problems. Is anyone surprised? TPM reports: Georgia Flooded With Complaints Over Crashed Election Website.
The Georgia Secretary of State’s office crashed on Tuesday and stayed down for several hours on Tuesday, The New York Times reported.
The site is where people can get information on where their polling site is or register to vote.
The voter protection group, Election Protection, said it received 778 calls before mid day from frustrated voters about the down website.
“It inconvenienced a lot of voters,” Bryan Thomas, the communications director for state Sen. Jason Carter’s (D) gubernatorial campaign told TPM. “We worked really hard to make sure that any voters that reached out to us got proper information about where their polling information is.”
With so many GOP efforts to suppress the vote, every problem like this seems potentially suspicious. Will this hurt Michelle Nunn’s chances?
There have been many problems in Connecticut, where Democratic Gov. Dan Malloy is in a tight reelection race; but a judge has extended some voting hours in Hartford.
A Hartford judge has decided to extend voting hours to 8:30 p.m. at two city polling places hampered by delays and missing registration lists early Tuesday morning.
The extended hours will apply to the Batchelder School at 757 New Britain Avenue and United Methodist Church at 571 Farmington Avenue, according to the judge. Registered voters who are in line at those two polls by 8:30 p.m. will be allowed to vote.
“It was the ruling of electoral officials, either monitors or registrars, that denied people the opportunity to vote in an alternative fashion when the voting lists were not ready at 6 a.m.,” the judge explained, referring to voters who were stalled or turned away while waiting for lists to arrive.
The hearing at Hartford Superior Court began around 2:45 p.m. and dragged on for hours after Gov. Dan Malloy’s campaign filed a complaint seeking to extend voting hours to 9 p.m. at affected polling places in Hartford.
Malloy campaign attorney William Bloss said at least 10 of the city’s 24 polling places opened as late as 7:30 a.m. because voter lists weren’t delivered on time. All Connecticut polls were legally required to open at 6 a.m. Tuesday.
Have you heard of any other voting irregularities?
A few more links:
CBS News, Did Obama’s immigration punt backfire?
Peter Orzag at Bloomberg, A New Do-Nothing Congress.
Bloomberg, With Hours to Go, Both Sides Predict Senate Victories. Joe Biden believe the Democrats will hold 52 seats after all the votes are counted.
Nate Silver, Final Update: Republicans Have A 3 In 4 Chance Of Winning The Senate
Sam Wang at The New Yorker, Does Anyone Know Who Will Win the Senate Tonight?
MSNBC, Problems reported at polls vary from state to state.
Nate Cohn at the NYT, Exit Polls: Why They So Often Mislead.
Jeffrey Rosen at The New Republic, The Supreme Court Will Be a Disaster If a Justice Dies During a Republican Congress.
So . . . . What are you hearing?
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Posted: September 10, 2014 | Author: bostonboomer | Filed under: Barack Obama, Foreign Affairs, Iraq, just because, Syria, U.S. Politics | Tags: Islamic State, live blog |
In this image made through a window of the Oval Office, President Obama speaks on the phone to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah on Wednesday (NPR)
President Obama will give a prime-time speech at 9:00 tonight in which he will lay out a strategy to deal with the Islamic State Militants in Iraq and Syria. Let’s watch the speech together and discuss on what the President says in real time. I’ve gathered some links to articles that report on and react to the leaked content of the speech.
According to The Washington Post, Obama will announce a ‘broad coalition’ to fight the Islamic State terror group.
The United States will lead a “broad coalition” to defeat the Islamic State through air strikes and support for military partners on the ground, President Obama will announce Wednesday night….Obama will tell the country that the offensive against the militant group will not involve combat troops, but rather a “steady, relentless effort” that involves air power and backing for partner forces, according to early excerpts provided by the White House.
“So tonight, with a new Iraqi government in place, and following consultations with allies abroad and Congress at home, I can announce that America will lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat. Our objective is clear: we will degrade, and ultimately destroy ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy,” Obama will say, using an acronym for the Islamic State terrorist group.
Obama will make clear to a war-weary public that the offensive will not resemble the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but rather other, more covert, missions against terrorists.
“I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil,” Obama will tell the nation.
“This counter-terrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground. This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.”
Frankly, I’m very worried about this. I really don’t see how this is going to end well. I hope I’m wrong.
Richard Engel writes at NBC News, What Happens After the U.S. Bombs ISIS?
On one level, bombing ISIS is easy. The U.S. knows where the group operates. There’s no need for a ten-year hunt like the one for Osama bin Laden. The terror group has two capital cities, Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria. Al-Qaeda never had such an obvious home address.
Finding a justification to attack ISIS is also simple. It has threatened to carry out another 9/11, beheaded two American journalists, slaughtered thousands of Iraqis and Syrians and is a danger to U.S. allies in the region. Many in the U.S. military believe ISIS needs to be immediately, and repeatedly, smashed by American drones and warplanes.
But what then happens to the Middle East – this seething cauldron of competing interests, religious passions, ethnic tensions, long memories and oil? The key question now, as before the Iraq invasion, is what happens after the U.S. starts bombing.
ISIS controls a territory roughly the size of Maryland where 8 million people live. If it’s attacked and toppled, who will fill the void? In Iraq, it will be the Kurdish fighters or the Iraqi army. The two don’t trust each other and have different objectives for the territory they control. The Kurds are laying the foundation for a future independent state. The Iraqi army is increasingly an Iranian-guided, Shiite force.
The U.S. spent billions of dollars to build a secular, professional national Iraqi army but failed because, despite all the U.S.-supplied guns, tanks and planes, the Iraqi military fell apart when challenged by a band of terrorists. President Obama wants to reconstitute it now as part of his ISIS strategy. Why would it work this time when it didn’t before, even as U.S. troops were standing next to Iraqi soldiers in Baghdad, shoulder to shoulder?
Good questions. Read more at the link.
From the LA Times, Obama to call for ‘steady, relentless’ effort against Islamic State.
Nearly six years after he was elected on the promise to end America’s decade of wars, Obama planned to detail a military campaign that is broader and more complex than any he has launched during his tenure.
Obama is expected to expand U.S. airstrikes against the militants in Iraq to include targets throughout the country as well as across the rapidly disintegrating border with Syria, where the group harbors its weapons, camps and fighters.
White House officials say Obama also plans to further train and arm Iraqi and Kurdish troops as well as opposition forces battling the Islamic State in Syria. He’ll tout beefed-up partnerships with governments in the Middle East and Western allies, who have been asked to assist in the training, gather intelligence and counter the Islamic State’s appeal in the broader Muslim world.
In his televised remarks, Obama was to describe the effort as a “broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat.”
“Our objective is clear: We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy,” according to prepared remarks released by the White House, referring to the Islamic State by a commonly used abbreviation.
Those article spell out the gist of what the President will say. Here are a few more links to peruse if you want more.
Reuters, Bill to fund U.S. government ensnared in debate about Islamic State.
LA Times, Cheney urges Obama to launch ‘immediate’ assault on Islamic State (Sigh . . . why won’t he go away?)
Foreign Policy, There are already troops in Iraq. Problem is, they’re Iranian.
The New York Times, What Obama Faces in a Campaign Against ISIS.
Please us know what you think of the speech in the comment thread. Watch the live stream at CNN here and at the LA Times with live updating here.
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