The Congress Elections 2022

[Couchpotato]

Still not able to call who controls Congress yet. The voting system in America is not efficient at all. Shouldn't take days to count votes. Doubt it will ever de digitally streamlined. As cyber security nowadays is a joke as well. Were still using paper ballots.

 

[Ripper]

I say take your time. We stick with paper ballots out of choice, and long may it continue. Counting machines are one thing (a bit like the machines that count bank notes very accurately) but no way should we go to a fully digital voting system. Cyber security is nowhere near the level it would need to be to even consider it. You might have seen the huge hack and release of Australian medical records, including records of abortions, and so on. Just appalling.

 

[Couchpotato]

Whether we like it or not digital vote will happen. When and how fast is the proper question. As of now the system is inefficient with each state having different laws/process. I know many mock Florida but after the Bush vs Gore, and Trumps victory they passed legalization to streamline the whole process, and get the votes done all in one day.

 

[Drithius]

As of now the system is inefficient with each state having different laws/process.

This is absolutely by design. There is nothing inherently flawed with having to wait several days (or weeks) to see which sorry excuse for a candidate gets elected in a binary system driven by money, gerrymandering, and ignorance.

 

[Couchpotato]

By design or not it's still inefficient look that word up in the dictionary.

You'll never change my opinion.

 

[SveNitoR]

I remember hearing in a podcast some voting expert talking about a country where electronic voting was introduced and then removed. I think it might've been Ireland.

The instant results made the people feel as if it was less important, since the old fashioned waiting and back and forth in the results was part of what made it something people actually paid attention to and discussed.

 

[Zloth]

That right there is democracy at it's best.

That would be the ultimate democracy, all right. It would also mean every one of us would need to be a professional politician that researches every issue at least far enough to figure out if it is worth spending time to make an intelligent vote. It would be too overwhelming to do alone, so we would probably start looking for people we could pay to do the research for us. Once we also let them do the actual vote for us, too, they would be representatives and we would be in a republic again - just not one where the representatives go by geography.

P.S. In family dinner conversation, I posed the idea that, in addition to our normal voting, every registered voter could also vote for a single House or Senate candidate in another state's election. The gamesmanship going into the election would be SO fun! People would gravitate toward voting in the high-profile races but, if a party could really organize its voters, they could swap a lot of seats. California could turn all the Rocky Mountain states blue all by itself. Unless the southern states plan for California's attack and countered their votes. But wait, it was a ruse! Californias actually switched Texas to solid blue while those Southern states wasted votes just making Republicans win by even more votes! Meanwhile, Libertarians all over the nation switch Hawaii to solid... whatever color we use for Libertarians. Oh, it would be glorious!

...and then we would have an awful civil war. But that election sure would be awesome!

 

[Corwin]

The Orville had an episode on electronic democracy back I think in season 1 and it wasn't pretty.

 

[Drithius]

Although, food for thought, if you replaced the system with voting by texting, you could more easily eventually introduce a fee for doing so. After a few years of that and acclimatization, remove the limit of one vote to help with "fundraising". It would certainly be more straight forward than what we have now with corporations having to jump through pesky hoops to buy their candidates.

 

[Zloth]

AP has called Nevada for the Democrats.

More interesting to me is that Trump style election questioning seems to be failing. Not by much, but maybe by enough that we won't go the way of so many third world nations where the Republicans simply announce that any election they lose is "fraudulent" and declare themselves the victor. (Or, if Trump got back in power, any election that wasn't a landslide in his favor must be fraudulent.)

 

[Pladio]

That makes it 50D then. Potentially 51 even so they may not need to rely on Manchin as much.

 

[Stingray]

That makes it 50D then. Potentially 51 even so they may not need to rely on Manchin as much.

Getting 51 (and not having to worry about Manchin) no longer matters at this point, since they won't be able to pass any legislation that isn't bipartisan anyway, as Republicans are going to be in control of the House. The only time the extra seat might come into play is if they're trying to confirm an appointment, such as a judge or cabinet member. Those are done by the Senate alone. I'm not sure if Manchin blocked any appointments by himself last term, but if he did, that would no longer be an issue.

 

[Drithius]

With Republicans all but guaranteed to win the House, it doesn't much matter if Manchin is on board with legislation in the Senate. The aimlessness of Democrats on full display for their first two years of the Biden administration will now simply be blamed on Republican obstructionism. Between Kevin McCarthy (should he even win speakership) pushing clowncar investigations and the 2024 general election rhetoric in full swing, two years of international embarrassment and gridlock is inevitable.

And with this all, Wall Street is relieved; it's a big fan of no change.

 

[OverIt]

Biden said a week ago that there will be no change to his policies...

 

[Zloth]

It was pretty gridlock'y already, and has been for many years now, because of the filibuster option in the senate. It's been eons since we passed a proper budget!

I've never really understood the "election went bad, fire the House majority leader" thing. If it seemed to go bad because of what s/he said or did then yeah, sure, but this race seemed to go bad more because of Trump and the Supreme Court's abortion decision.

 

[JDR13]

Trump is apparently going to be announcing another presidential run tonight at 9:00 ET.

 

[Drithius]

Trump is apparently going to be announcing another presidential run tonight at 9:00 ET.

Democratic strategists are cheering, Republican strategists are cringing, and 75% of the country is groaning in unison.

Looking forward to more 4th grader nicknames coming out during "debates".

 

[largh]

The results of the congress elections were not on the news where I live. This is probably a good sign. Who won? No significant deniers this time?

 

[JDR13]

The results of the congress elections were not on the news where I live. This is probably a good sign. Who won? No significant deniers this time?

Democrats retained the Senate while Republicans took the House. I haven't been following the news as far as deniers go, but I'm sure there are at least a few out there.