* * * ! Official 2016 US Presidential Election Day Thread ! * * *

Heading out to vote. In NYS, this is what passes for early voting.

I’m picturing this announcement as you enter the polling place:

Female announcer’s voice over the PA: Check the white square to vote for Hillary. Check the gray square to vote for Trump.

Male voice: The white square means a vote for Trump. Check the gray square to vote for Hillary.

Female voice: No. The white square is for Hillary, the gray square is for Trump.

Male voice: The white square has always been for the Republican candidate, and gray for the Democrat!

Female voice: Don’t tell me which square is for the Republican, and which for the Democrat!

Male voice: Listen, Betty, don’t start up with your white square shit again.

Female voice: The white square is for Hillary!

Male voice: Christ, you’re as bad as your mother!

Female voice: Oh, really, Vernon, why pretend? We both know what this is really about. You want me to have an abortion.

Male voice: It’s the only sensible thing to do.

I’m in Europe, also considering an all-nighter. Maybe combine it with a Civ 6 marathon… Hmmmm…

I’m on the far-more-enlightened west coast, and cast my vote two weeks ago by filling out the ballot in the comfort of my own home and sliding it into the dropbox outside the courthouse.

I’m going to go to bed and wake up around 3 to see how the rest of the country is doing its thing.

Heading out to vote.

Cross your fingers.

Was up and at the polls by 5:45am here in NYC, where there was already a line of 75+ people, plus four news vans and multiple reporters (including one radio reporter, haven’t seen one of those for a while!). If all polling places are equally covered by the press, there must not be a single journalist taking a day off in the city.

By opening time the line was wrapped around the block. And I thought New Yorkers would be complacent! Voting was easy here, no ballot initiatives and a straightforward, down-the-line vote (at least, for straight-ticket voters like yours truly).

I frickin’ love voting. I love it. I’ll never understand people who don’t take advantage of the opportunity to do something. I’m a major depressive and this is one time every couple of years when I actually feel optimistic and empowered.

Am I thrilled by the choices? No, I wouldn’t pick Clinton if I were ordering candidates from a catalogue. But I am thrilled that I’m alive to vote for the first woman candidate topping a major party presidential ticket, especially since she might win. This is my niece’s first-ever election, and that delights me too–that she gets to vote for a woman (doesn’t hurt that she’s registered in Ohio, too! :D).

Honestly, I am hoping that–like Samantha Bee said so eloquently–that Hillary Clinton may be who she is now, but there’s still a little “Hillary Goddamn Badass Queen Beyoncé Rodham” left in her after her enemies tried to beat it out of her for decades.

Anyway. I spent the night waiting to vote and can now sleep, at least until the polls start closing at 6PM.

Long Lines… possibly more people in this school gym than I have ever seen.

I picked a Hell of a day to quit smoking…

Hahaha quit? Smoking? Not today, baby.

The countdown has begun. Armageddon or business as usual? we’ll see.

Looks like I picked the right day to start drinking.

Does anyone have names of any reputed exit polls who can give their results before the actual results (say after 12 hrs to 18 hrs)?

Though the image of Trump’s way-too-hot-for-him wives trying to escape their bank vault cell seems particularly apt.

Given EV battleground returns, I (and Jon Ralston) am already calling NV for Clinton.

How wrong is it that I considered doing a full Lebowski?
We got the day off, and I’m feeling really lazy. I walked outside to smoke, in my robe and sandals and noticed the flag pole from my voting place, since it’s only about 2 blocks away. It occurred to me I could just walk over and be there just as my smoke was finishing up.

Unfortunately I didn’t have a White Russian handy. :frowning:

Just got back. There won’t be any useful data from my end on the federal races, since my suburb is overwhelmingly liberal. The interesting one to watch here is the lone ballot measure, concerning the fate of our hospital: 90% of the grassroots support is on one side, and 90% of the institutional support is on the other.

Yeah. Nevada’s gone. That really isn’t terribly surprising.

Trump can still win if he breaks through the Clinton firewall in a rust belt state like PA, but he would have to win every other battleground state (assuming he loses Colorado, which looks very likely.) Actually, if he won PA he could drop something else small like NH. But, again, he has to run the table AND win a rust belt state, or run the table and win Colorado and New Hampshire.

Winning without Nevada but with CO and NH:

Winning without Nevada but with PA making the difference:

(On this map he could even blow Iowa or Alaska.)

It’s surprising how much harder losing little Nevada makes it. You can create many more scenarios for a Trump victory if he has those six votes.

Trump does.

Neighbor reported a half-hour wait at 6:45AM at the Brooklyn polls. Everyone going to jobs should have their noses to the grindstone by now; guess I’ll mosey down.

Rather blatant election rigging in North Carolina is affecting the vote significantly:

I’ll let you guess which party’s doing the rigging. Rather shameless about it, too. That’s rough for Clinton.

Only because I was watching a movie about gladiators.

Good chartin the NYTimes (BTW, they are offering all free access to their site today, whether or not you’re a paid subscriber).

It shows successive maps of the USA with states highlighted as their polls close Eastern time), along with the accumulating electoral vote numbers.