Wisconsin’s initiative passed by a wider margin than Virginia’s and South Dakota’s. I don’t know if I want to live in a state that’s more backwards on this issue than Virginia and South Dakota.
Oh, and we also passed, 55-45, a non-binding referendum asking our legislature to bring the death penalty to the state for the first time in our history. Yes, it’s a proud, proud day for Wisconsin!
Fuck, man, that’s a veritable tie compared how the bigot amendment passed here in TN. 81% to 19%, I’d hoped that it’d at least be close. 
I’ll be sending some money to the state branch of the ACLU because of this.
My voting experience was pretty bland. I went into the city hall, the only wait I had was while the little old lady behind the table chatted with a friend of hers. We don’t have touch screen machines (and I looked for the Diebold label on it, but couldn’t find it). They have however, changed the software since the last time I voted. This time there was a multi-step final confirmation process (and we don’t get paper print outs). Normally, I vote for the third party candidates, but this time I wasn’t going to chance it, and voted straight Democrat (we also don’t have a “Vote party ticket” button). When it came to the local offices, however, there was rarely any party affiliation labels, so I just went for whichever candidate sent me the least amount of crap. I figure that they’re less likely to be on the take, as it were.
I’m sorry to hear that Harold Ford, Jr. lost. I didn’t like him, but I wanted the Dems to at least get close to taking both houses. As it is, it looks like we can expect two years of [Phil Hartman] Griiiidlooockkkk!!! [/PH], which will at least slow down the Constitutional shredding we’ve been subjected to.
Another amendment to our state constitution I was sorry to see pass was the freeze on property taxes for people over the age of 65. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. It’s good for folks who are retired, but for the rest of us, as the state turns into God’s waiting room, we can expect our property taxes to increase dramatically to compensate for this.
Whoo, all the offices that will directly effect me (NJ [home, where I’m registered], Senate and House; Governor and Senate in NM [school]) went Democratic - NM in a huge way - both elections ended up around 70-30.
I voted by absentee ballot weeks ago (and have encouraged everyone who can to do so; the fewer computer systems/machines/etc your ballot passes through, the better), so I can’t complain about any polling place shenanigans. But I can say that the local election board was really kind and sent me my absentee ballot with a pre-paid envelope. Pre-paid via the American Postal Service, which made the guy at the British post office kind of laugh and say “No, that won’t work.”
Personally, I’m very disappointed to see Lieberman win. I despise his politics and I lost all respect for him when he decided to run as an independent.
How do you like your math now, asshole?
Daniel
Speaking of Nice Polite Republicans, they just had Cokie Roberts on this morning, pushing the Republican frame for these results, which is that the Democrats won by essentially running conservative candidates. The conclusion is that it will be especially hard if not impossible for Pelosi to manage the Democratic caucus.
This is fucking bullshit. This election was a repudiation of the current Republican party, not an endorsement of conservativism! Jesus. I’d love to see Candy Crowley (CNN last night) and Cokie Roberts (NPR this morning) and all these other fucking numbnuts detail for me just how each of the candidates who overturned Republican seats is particularly unlike the Democratic party. Hell, even Lincoln Chaffee was tossed out, and he was nothing if not a moderate.
Well, I know our local Dem is pretty damned conservative. I think the pundits are onto something here, much as I hate it.
Daniel
When we vote (next week) for municipal elections, the optical scan ballots go into a paper sleeve which hides the actual vote selection. It goes into the OCR reader still in the sleeve and is sucked out and read inside the machine.
Okay, then, I’ll put it to you. Which conservative issues do you think the winners last night won on? Which conservative issues did they champion that will make it particularly difficult for the House Democrats in particular to caucus on? For example, was gun control an issue in any elections last night? Is it an issue that will be a roadblock to Pelosi in some way? By contrast, which winning candidates will be opposed to raising the minimum wage, which actually is an issue that Pelosi has indicated will be a first priority for the Democrats?
It’s one thing for some fat-ass commentator to spit-ball about, and another thing entirely to actually support. Why don’t we demand that they support these kind of bullshit frames with some type of analysis before just simply agreeing that people must still love them some conservatives (in the midst of an election in which no Democrat lost a seat AFAIK and in which the Democrats picked up more of a House majority than the Republicans ever had during the Republican “revolution”)?
In the USA, voting is regulated on the State level, not Nationally. Although, as you’ve noted, there are also subtle differences per County & Precinct (polling station).
Unless the Supreme Court decides to step in & prevent a State from running a recount–per the State’s laws. Of course, the Court could declare that their decision would not set a legal precedent–unlike every other judgment they’ve ever made. Remember 2000?
I had thought the moderate/conservative Dems that got elected (and there were some – I mean, anti-choice Dems for Og’s sake!) might be able to roadblock by allying with moderate/conservative Pubbies. But I forgot about that 30 seat majority the Dems have now. Any such roadblocks and the moderate/liberal Dems will run over them like tanks goving over infantrymen. Won’t be pretty, unh-uh.
Well, John F Kennedy, a prominent Democrat, was pretty ambiguous on the subject, so the party’s certainly got more wiggle room than the right trys to portray.
No, that’s the wrong way of looking at it. The question should be, which progressive issues were NOT responsible for a win at the polls? Running conservative Democrats meant that Republicans couldn’t launch attacks at progressive records–because there were no progressives in the race.
Daniel
Late to this, but Hentor I tried to boot Tim Murphy too. At least we got the big results we wanted. 
I had a really good laugh this morning, bordering on hysteria, when I heard Glenn Beck and El Fatso trying to justify such a humbling defeat after the both of them all but guaranteed that the Republicans would stay in control. I may have to listen to Hannity and Savage tonight just to hear what they have to say (read: so I can laugh at them).
This is a very funny rundown of the spin-&-denial that Fox News went through last night.
Otto, so few dudes are actually polled, it is quite possible that not a single person polled lied about how they were going to vote. Also, minds change- easily 10% of the electorate could have been leaning towards voting one way several months ago and then could have had their minds changed by last minute electioneering.
Exactly what is the “discrimination amendment”? 
I know it is about Same-sex marriage, but I don’t know the details.
Dude, you’re seeing commies under the bed. Cokie Roberts is not pushing a “Republican frame”. Are you sure she said “conservative” and not “centrist”? She’s one of the most respected political journalists out there. And we know that Rahm Emanuel specifically recruited centrist Democrats to run in the House. From wikipedia:
He’s a DLC Democrat, not a Dean Democrat.
I tried surfing FreeRepublic for the schadenfreude entertainment, but I damn near sprayed my monitor when I saw a post suggesting that George Allen’s defeat would give him more time to prepare for his 2008 Presidential run.
I guess techinicall that is true, even if it’s unbelievably naive. 
Allen was washed up presidentially the minute “macaca” passed thru his lips. Anyone who didn’t realize that is a babe in the woods of US politics.