I Didn't Know It Was Election Day

 

Just kidding on the title of course. After somewhere around four or five months on non-stop attack ads, I am going to be thankful to get back to ads about ED or people dancing in supermarkets because of the medicine they are taking. Not a single one of the thousands of ads foisted on me changed my mind in the slightest. All my votes were based upon personal research of what that candidate will do for me and not what the other candidate says the other candidate will do for me.

Overall, my ballet was purple this year. The past couple years I have lived in a complete red world, i.e. one party completely controls my state and the federal governments. I have always firmly believed that when one party holds all the power, compromise is put to the wayside and we tend to get the worst legislation passed. So my hope, as always, is for a mixed bag of parties holding power. Forced compromise or just gridlock seems to be the best I can hope for these days.

Some predictions:

Both parties will proclaim certain vote results to be referendums. They never are. They are always just those of us in the middle getting sick of swinging one way hoping in vain that someone will pay attention and then failing to get that attention, swinging the other way. I have no doubt that the Democrats will come away with many victories today. But a referendum? No. Just hoping in vain that they will pay attention to the middle.

The term battleground will be used many times tonight to describe states where people of both political parties peacefully lining up to vote. 

This election, I predict that not only will news reporters be reporting on exit polls and actual returns but will also be referring to Kalshi prediction markets quite often. 

Tomorrow morning, the sun will rise and there will be some people happy and some people unhappy. Our country will still be here. Life will go on. 

My wife wanted some company so I went with her to the polls, arriving about ten minutes after it opened. Our polls out here in rural America aren't like anything ever shown on television. We both had to wait about 90 seconds in line before we got up to the check-in table to verify our identities. I was number eight to do so on my side of the table and it looked like my wife was about a similar number on her side. So about 14 people had voted ahead of us. Just based off past mid term elections, this signals to me that we are going to have pretty heavy turnout. It will still be laughable when compared to the number of eligible voters who didn't vote but it will be a good turnout for those that only occasionally vote. 

Per my normal routine, I will try to grab a nap during the day so I can stay up and watch the results come in. I know I am guaranteed to be disappointed with most of my votes since they tend to be moderate and away from the extremes that have dominated our elections lately. But the whole free election process has always fascinated me. I like to see democracy unfold in real time as those who care enough to vote, have had their say.

It still won't be a referendum.