From the time I left my house until I got back it was 11 minutes on my phone's stopwatch. A simple ballot and an efficient crew at our neighborhood church polling location.
Addendum:
In Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election, the Democratic-backed candidate sailed to a nearly 20-point landslide victory Tuesday in a battleground Trump carried less than two years ago. Meanwhile, a Georgia Democrat slashed Trump’s margin of victory by two thirds in the state’s reddest district despite losing the election — the most significant overperformance the party has seen across all seven House special elections so far this cycle.The results in the battleground states — home to key Senate, gubernatorial and House races — are the latest repudiation from voters of Trump and his agenda and flashing warning signs for the GOP heading into November.
Wisconsin in last presidential election:
Results from yesterday's state Supreme Court election:
Res ipsa loquitur.
You already voted in the '28 presidential election? Who's running?
ReplyDeleteI suppose with that comment you are trying to be witty. I voted today for a mayor, city council and a state supreme court justice. Local elections are arguably more important that national ones.
DeleteYes, I was trying to be witty.
DeleteWhy does your town have its election now and not in November?
It's a statewide election -
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Wisconsin_elections
Not sure why the spring one supplements the November one. Perhaps to expedite the replacement of the State Supreme Court justice.
Why does your town have its election now and not in November?
DeleteThe generic answer is voter suppression. Virginia (and NJ) hold their state elections on off-years never coinciding with Federal elections. This puts an extra burden on voters and in effect suppresses the vote.
Election officials know that turn-out is highest on Presidential November elections. If they were interested in the most democracy, they could swipe all other elections to those dates. But they don't, because all other elections have significantly lower turn-out. And that benefits some politicians. Them taking advantage of this knowledge makes it voter suppression. It is a disservice to voters who have to show up an extra time. It ads up with other voter suppression techniques such as making sure voters in particular precincts can not be done in 11 minutes flat. Note that particularly in African-American neighborhoods waiting times are much longer because there are simply less voting locations. And in Georgia, they've made it now illegal to give people waiting in hour-long lines water.
You can even argue that holding elections in November, when it can be quite cold in northern states, is a form of voter suppression. Now, the US this date comes from the agricultural calendar when all the farmers/land-owners were done harvesting, but in countries with much less nasty winter weather such as the UK and the Netherlands, winter weather is a serious consideration in the timing of elections. In 2019, UK politicians were quite annoyed at having to campaign late Fall.
Man I love my state's (WA) all-mail-in voting. I don't even have to leave my home for 11 minutes.
ReplyDelete