US Midterms 2022 - Read OP before posting

Is the voting swing (as far as I understand it) in places like Miami and New York (even if they win/won New York in the end) be a big worry and something to be a concern for the Presidential elections? if Reps make up any more significant ground in NY that would be a huge congressional numbers loss for Democrats. Or am I just seeing bias Rep retweets on Twitter?

Just imagine you're a dick of a husband living in a household of 4 adults, yourself, your wife, and 2 adult chldren.

You're a staunch supporter of 1 of the 2 parties, You then insist your wife and kids vote for that party regardless of their own preference

In a polling station, the Father/Husband is not allowed into the booth and there is no way of him knowing who they actually voted for

Similarly, you're a Pastor in some cult like church. You have a 'voting event' where all your congregation bring in their mail in ballots to be completed where the pastor can check who they voted for. Refusing to participate results in some kind of punishment

Or you work for a horrible employer who thinks party x will be bad for his business, so he puts pressure on his staff to prove that they voted for the 'correct' party. They have to take a photograph of their ballot before sending it in or they risk losing out on a promotion or suffering some other punishment.

These are the reasons why secret ballots in a polling station were brought in in the first place, because assholes did actually try to bully people into voting for their preferred candidate under threat of some kind of sanction if they don't comply.

I know it’s going to a run off in Georgia but according to nbc news Warnock is at 49.6 % with an estimated 44,000 votes left and bits to come in in democratic counties. I’m sure the Georgia officials have exact numbers and are sure but it looks very close.

You can still go to the polls. You can still drop off your ballot in a box or request another one your spouse doesn't have. You can also (chiefly) report domestic or spousal abuse in voting to the state elections board, and let them know your vote/votes need to be nullified because it was given under duress.

Not seen any evidence there is any issue in these vote by mail states with domestic capture.

I get that America is a big population, but that doesn't matter, you have a bigger population, so there are more people to man the additional polling centers that you need to provide the service

Voting in America does look like an enormous PITA from observing from afar, but it's not a problem at all in Ireland. If you're near to a school, you're near a polling station and pretty much everywhere has a school within a short distance. (community centers, sports facilities are also used)

I have never queued for more than a minute to vote, ever, and the staff are well trained and know what they're doing.

In America, the 'home of democracy' they make voting more difficult in a lot of places, on purpose because the incumbent party often knows that lower turnouts benefit them.

I did also say that given how poorly a lot of elections are run, voting by mail is likely the lesser of two evils. The number of people who may be disenfranchised because of coersion is likely smaller than those who would be disenfranchised because of voter suppression or underfunded services making it too difficult for them to vote.

A recount.

How so? People don't have to use it you know.

You're right about oppression when it comes to voting though, it does exist. Have long seen it with oppressive voter id regulations impinging people from particular communities and gerrymandering. We saw it over the last few weeks with unidentified people with guns stalking drop boxes, saw it on Tuesday with a poll worker wearing a MAGA hat, and in other cases where there was no screen around the table where people filled out their ballot paper.

I seem to recall that this is a problem in some British Asian communities.

Here's an article from 2015 about the issue:

That's a shocker , Lake is dire but outside the echo chambers it was felt that Hobbs was a weak enough candidate, so in this environment Lake really should be winning.

Blake Masters looks doomed also but he was a dismal choice. Initial impressions count and the dude looks like a serial killer ffs.

Here's where that Boebert jump came from:

The Arizona Republican party is one of the most extreme iterations of that brand in the country. I'd be delighted if they lost the Governor, Senate and Secretary of State races, especially with it likely to be pivotal again in 2024.

This also factored in NY State

John Oliver's most recent in his Bail Reform series was a few 'tonights ago BTW, covering the Midterm coverage of bail reform:

Sinema is up in 2024 so she'll likely need to play somewhat nice with Biden or else increase the risk of being taken out in a primary (likely to face a challenge either way).