I voted

[Mike]

Noah's home from school for Fall break, so we figured it was a good time to vote. So I drove to the courthouse with three of my kids and we made an event out of it.

Civic duty achievement UNLOCKED!

[Akiva]

Are you guys anywhere near the blue dot?

[Tahlvin]

In person absentee voting begins for us tomorrow. My wife and I will probably vote tomorrow morning, then take the college kid to vote on Friday, when he doesn't have any classes.

[Mike]

Are you guys anywhere near the blue dot?

We are not. If the polls are so far off that my vote helps hand Kamala another electoral vote from Nebraska, then the final tally will be around 458 to 80 in her favor.

But I did get to vote on weed and abortion and school choice and requiring business to provide paid sick leave.

And on top of that, I got to vote against Deb Fischer for Senate in favor of pro-labor Independent Dan Osborn (no relation to former congressperson Coach Tom Osborne.) This new Osborn is only 0.8% behind in the polls. I think our 4 votes may make the difference.

And.then we had a great lunch.

[Tahlvin]

Civic duty completed!

Here's hoping that gets me off some of the calling/texting/mailing lists. I hate being in a swing state.

[Phoebe]

It must be intense! Constant ads. I am sad because nobody has called me for polling lately. They call for my kid and I don't want to lie, so... I enjoyed voting and it's remarkable how the oxygen is eaten by national offices. We have a lot of other races and ballot initiatives going. Nobody even hears about judges or community boards.

I am deeply upset because a person I gave real money to, since he was by far the least of two awful people running for a lesser administrative role last time, has proven to be awful in his own right. Much, much less awful, to be sure, but still awful. It's like appointing a small devil who will balk at doing deeper evils, but he's still happy to swing his pitchfork a little. Ugh. I want to live in Minnesota or maybe Colorado and am being thwarted by capitalism, because we need health insurance and jobs.

[Phoebe]

And on top of that, I got to vote against Deb Fischer for Senate in favor of pro-labor Independent Dan Osborn (no relation to former congressperson Coach Tom Osborne.) This new Osborn is only 0.8% behind in the polls. I think our 4 votes may make the difference.

Love this guy. It's incredible for nonpartisans to have a real candidate in a big red state. He really could win but even if he loses he has shown a new way forward. In many red states, Republicans dominate Democrats so they act like they dominate the whole state, but in reality they would struggle against a true non-partisan candidate who can pick up Democratic voters as well as some of the Republicans who just register that way but don't really care.

I read some interesting articles about this Osborn Fisher race In national publications over the past weeks... They must be sourcing from a common well because they keep mentioning that the other Senate race in Nebraska isn't even close, considering that a civil rights activist is being trounced in the polls by a "popular former governor". Hmm. I think they mean a rich former governor who is wildly unpopular. If Osborn had a similar friend running against that guy I think most Republicans would like an alternative to voting for him. Where are journalists getting this idea that he's popular?

I haven't seen any polling about ballot initiatives but I would be curious to know what it looks like for marijuana in states where it hasn't been legalized yet. Republicans want their weed too, even if somebody running for office up in the ether wants to put a thumb on it. Amongst the elderly maybe the rank and file Republican voter is not pro weed but anybody my age or younger? Come on. Who do they think smokes it right now? Especially in a state where there aren't aa many Democrats but a fat majority supports legalization!

[Kyle]

My family and I are going on Saturday to do our part to try to get Ted Cruz out of office.

[Tahlvin]

If Ted Cruz can lose, that would be sweet! Don't let the door hit him in the ass as he flees to Cancun.

[Kyle]

Yeah, people call him "Cancruz" here.

[Stan]

Voted today, only 35 minute wait which is better than it has been all week. Living in a heavily democratic area in a republican states means too few voting locations.

Turnout feels very high which gives me some hope.

[Mando]

In and out in 5 minutes...I was #52, my wife was #51 and it was 11:30. We then drove to the courthouse where we handed in my daughter's ballot to the registrar for her since she is in college and our mail system in this area is really slow.

[Akiva]

Voted today. Only about a 10 minute wait.

[Stan]

Ah shit.

I gotta say that the heads of the democratic party have the worst communication skills possible to be near the top of a major country, and Biden's administration was bad even for that group. They let lies stand uncontested and rarely address complaints. Trump has been a weak and vulnerable campaign every time he ran.
For example, the border was never open. It could be better but the republicans voted against reform.
Another example, inflation was largely the product of higher oil prices. Why did oil prices go up? Because we are in a proxy war with Russia. It's either suffer a bit of inflation or let a dictator start gobbling up countries. If we keep the pressure on and Putin falls, it could be possibly be the end of a mountain of interference and misinformation. Biden's people got NATO to coalesce behind Ukraine, which literally saved them, but hasn't crowed about it.