Long lines and malfunctioning machines have marred the early hours of voting in some precincts across the country, as tens of millions of Americans vote in the midterm elections – and record numbers voted in advance.
“The midterm elections used to be, like, boring,” said Donald Trump, the US president, at a raucous rally on Monday evening in Cleveland, Ohio. “Now it’s like the hottest thing.”
Early voting totals would appear to support this.
Michael McDonald of the US Elections Project said that 38.4 million Americans have cast their ballots early, compared with 27.4 million in the 2014 midterm election.
With control of Congress at stake, all eyes are on several dozen close House and Senate races that will decide if Democrats or Republicans control the legislative bodies.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 seats in the 100-member Senate and 36 governorships are up for grabs as Americans in all 50 states cast their ballots.
Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats to take control of the House for the first time since the Tea Party wave of 2010 and the latest polls give them a good chance to do so.
Republicans enjoy a slim 51-49 edge in the Senate and are favored to hang on to their majority since Democrats are defending 26 seats on Tuesday and the Republicans only nine.
Some of the biggest voting problems were reported in Georgia, a state with a hotly contested gubernatorial election, where some voters reported waiting up to three hours to vote.
Voters arriving at two separate polling stations discovered that most scanners had broken down, forcing some people to drop their ballots in “emergency ballot boxes” or vote using an affidavit ballot.
“People are grumpy and frustrated but positive in a weird way, making jokes and talking to one another. I think it’s because we all are in the ‘no one will stop our vote today’ mood,'” said Nikki Euell, an advertising producer who waited more than two hours to vote in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood.
City Councilman Brad Lander said he opted to wait at his polling place in a line about 100 people long -so long that workers had rigged up a sign on a broomstick to mark the end of the line – only to learn as he neared the front that the fourth scanner had also broken. He went to the polling site around noon thinking it wouldn’t be crowded, but “it was a mosh pit,” the Democrat said.
Reports of broken ballot scanners surfaced at polling places across New York City.
Turnout was so heavy at one packed precinct on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that the line to scan ballots stretched around a junior high school gym on Tuesday morning. Poll workers there told voters that two of the roughly half-dozen scanners were malfunctioning and repairs were underway.
The election marks the first nationwide voting since Russia targeted state election systems in the 2016 presidential race.
Federal, state and local officials have been working to make the nation’s myriad election systems more secure. They have beefed up their cyber security protections and improved communications and intelligence-sharing.
The US Department of Homeland Security, FBI and other federal agencies have opened a command center to help state and local election offices with any major problems that arise.
There have been no signs so far that Russia or any other foreign actor has tried to launch cyberattacks against voting systems in any state, according to federal authorities.
There was also no indication that any systems have been compromised that would prevent voting, change vote counts, or disrupt the ability to tally votes, US officials said.
Culinary Workers’ Union out in force in Nevada
Our man in Nevada, Rob Crilly, reports:
The Republicans may have Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate and donor, but the Democrats have possibly the most powerful political force in Nevada. They can count on the thousands of waiting staff, casino porters, hotel cleaners and bar tenders of Las Vegas that are represented by the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 unions. In all, they have more than 57,000 members, a ready made army of door knockers and canvassers.
Their political teams have been working six-day weeks since August getting the word out for Jacky Rosen, the Democratic Senate candidate, and a whole slate of candidates.
Today Culinary Workers Union Local 226 has 350 people getting out the Democratic vote in Las Vegas, where they wield considerable power (because of all the bars, casinos, hotels, restaurants). Spent the day with Ana and Leah on Saturday pic.twitter.com/2ETbDXkTDz
— Rob Crilly (@robcrilly) November 6, 2018
I was out with them on Saturday, when 300 members – operating in pairs – knocked doors of registered Democrats to ensure they would be ready to vote today.
Leah Bailey came from an affiliated union in New Orleans to lend her support.
“This is an election where you can either strengthen Trump’s power or we can weaken it,” she told me.
Our man in Pennsylvania gets a fright
Tim Stanley writes:
I’m now in my hotel room – advertised as haunted – in Pennsylvania’s first district, centred around Bucks County, northeast of Philadelphia. I nearly crashed my car getting here. The weather is appalling, with driving rain and fog. Received wisdom says this will drive down turnout, but actually it’s been bright and cheerful. My lovely porter voted first thing and says she is usually number 90 in the queue. This year she was number 445. And at a count in Newtown Township, the length of the queue first thing in the morning was one hour and twenty minutes. By the way, whenever a first-time voter casts their ballot, the room applauds.
Received wisdom also says that a big turnout means Democrats registering discontent with President Trump, but the local Republicans insist this is not the case. At another Newtown count, the Republican team told me that their goal during the average polling day is to get 30 per cent of their known supporters out to vote – and that by midday they were already at 25 per cent. Their theory is that conservatives are fired up by the treatment of Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court. But there’s also supposed to be more moderate appeal for the local congressional candidate, Brian Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick is almost the dream candidate: youngish, former FBI, he replaced his brother, Michael, in the seat. The family’s first district was redistricted this year, adding, according to local Republicans, about 10-15 per cent more Democrat votes, which they say is jolly unfair.
And that’s why I’ve come here. What was once comfortably Republican is now a swing seat. That’s why Fitzpatrick’s campaign is burying the fact that he’s a Republican with an aggressive “independent” message. But Democrat Scott Wallace – a very wealthy, very progressive opponent – is tying Fitzgerald to Trump obsessively. Wallace is a fascinating figure. He was caught on tape suggesting dogs are smarter than police officers.
So, can an independent-minded Republican like Fitzpatrick overcome suburban anger at Trump? He’s pro-gun control and enjoys countless endorsements from unions and civic groups. What I find fascinating, however, is that most of the Republican activists I met prefer to talk about Trump’s agenda rather than the local issues. Turn on the TV and the message is that America is morally outraged by the President; meet ordinary Republicans and the opposite is true. They think he speaks a lot of sense.
That said, one registered Republican voter told me she had indeed turned out early but – in a rare instance – to vote against her own party. In other words, we really can’t tell what’s going to happen till it’s all over.
- The Telegraph