GT: 2018 US Midterm Elections

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

Maybe a political nerd here could please ELI5 to those of us who aren't very familiar what is happening today. Obviously American politics are being shoved down our throats constantly every day. But I'm no expert on the various levels of US government and what the implications are.

If I understand correctly, Americans can vote during these midterms for representatives of the House and Senate? However from what I've read, it's more likely the Democrats could win the House but not the Senate? What exactly is the difference? And why is one more likely then the other and what does this mean going forward? Do these kind of elections occur every 2 years? Or every 4 years, but 2 years apart from the main elections?

If the Democrats win, how exactly does this give them more power when a Republican like Trump is still in power? What can they actually do?

Every 2 years, they vote on every house seat. Senators terms are every 6 years, and approx 1/3 of the seats come up for re-election every 2 years. Dems are currently holding a lot more seats up for re-election this year than the Repub's are, so there aren't many opportunities to flip.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

Maybe a political nerd here could please ELI5 to those of us who aren't very familiar what is happening today. Obviously American politics are being shoved down our throats constantly every day. But I'm no expert on the various levels of US government and what the implications are.

If I understand correctly, Americans can vote during these midterms for representatives of the House and Senate? However from what I've read, it's more likely the Democrats could win the House but not the Senate? What exactly is the difference? And why is one more likely then the other and what does this mean going forward? Do these kind of elections occur every 2 years? Or every 4 years, but 2 years apart from the main elections?

If the Democrats win, how exactly does this give them more power when a Republican like Trump is still in power? What can they actually do?

House seats are up every 2 years, so midterm and presidential elections decide the house of representatives regularly. It's one of the 2 legislative houses, the other being the senate which is likely going to the Republicans.

Senate seats are up every 6 years, and the two senate seats rotate their elections so that there is at least one consistent senator through every election. Senators tend to hold a lot of power, and the elections are rare, so these are probably the most important mid term races to watch.

Governor seats are up every 4 years (with some variations), and the rules vary from state to state on term limits etc. Governors tend to have a large influence on the district lines being drawn, along with other important state laws and policies that are not governed by the fed. State elections get less attention, but might be more important to the overall effect of government on people's day to day lives.

[Parallex]

They're not getting a lot of media play but there are a host of ballot initiatives... Amendment 4 in Florida (return the right to vote to people who have a felony conviction in their past), Michigan and North Dakota are voting on Marijuana legalization, and voter registration proposals in Nevada, Michigan, and Maryland. Those are just the more interesting ones.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

If the Democrats win, how exactly does this give them more power when a Republican like Trump is still in power? What can they actually do?

The federal US system has 3 parts to their government. Congress consists of the House (435 seats, up for reelection every 2 years, portioned ostensibly by population) and the Senate (100 seats, up for reelection every 6 years, not on a fixed schedule so only some are up every 2 years, 2 Senators per state). And of course the President who's elected every 4 years.

The mid-terms (which is today) are the non-presidential elections.

Congress makes laws, the President signs them into law and implements the law (hence the "Executive").

Currently Republicans hold all 3, meaning they control what laws get written and passed.

If Democrats win the house, they'll have power to write laws again. Of course getting them passed by the Senate and signed by the President are another thing, so a likely outcome of this path is more dysfunction with not much getting accomplished.

They'd also have control of all the committees in the house, which does have some power, including oversight and investigative, which probably means more investigations into Trump and the White House's actions.

If Dems somehow won the Senate as well that's even more similar powers.. Trump can still veto any laws written by Congress (unless they have enough votes to override his veto), but Dems winning the Senate is pretty unlikely.

[Johnny Makarov]

The only good Republican is one that is voted out.

[Thor]

A MSNBC former Republican strategist was just talking about how most of the young voters are not watching ADs or TV news, that they are also very hard to poll, so because of that if these huge numbers of youth voters is happening; it would be a scary night for the Republicans. IF they show up to vote.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Thor

A MSNBC former Republican strategist was just talking about how most of the young voters are not watching ADs or TV news, that they are also very hard to poll, so because of that if these huge numbers of youth voters is happening; it would be a scary night for the Republicans. IF they show up to vote.

They're not escaping ads any more. I've seen local house district ads on most every web page I've visited and every youtube video I've watched.

[Matata]

I think with the youth, it's easy to get them all fired up about the issues, but when it comes time to vote, they become plagued with thoughts like "I actually have no ####ing clue what's going on" or "voting based on what Lady Gaga said might actually be a really stupid thing to do" or "This is a boring waste of my time." I would expect an uptick, but will fall well short of peoples hopes and expectations.

[MrButtons]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1059838200699674624

https://twitter.com/user/status/1059868567318003715

[Thor]

In Georgia a polling place in a predominantly black area had no extension cords, so they are unable to use more than a few machines.

Its pretty incredible how blatant the Republicans are with their attempts to keep people from voting.

How can anyone vote for this party is beyond me, oh yeah Abortion, damn immigrants..

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

House seats are up every 2 years, so midterm and presidential elections decide the house of representatives regularly. It's one of the 2 legislative houses, the other being the senate which is likely going to the Republicans.

Senate seats are up every 6 years, and the two senate seats rotate their elections so that there is at least one consistent senator through every election. Senators tend to hold a lot of power, and the elections are rare, so these are probably the most important mid term races to watch.

Governor seats are up every 4 years (with some variations), and the rules vary from state to state on term limits etc. Governors tend to have a large influence on the district lines being drawn, along with other important state laws and policies that are not governed by the fed. State elections get less attention, but might be more important to the overall effect of government on people's day to day lives.

States also have 3 levels of government. We've had a Democratic governor for years, but they haven't been able to do much without the other levels. Republicans have one seat majorities in both the state house and senate, which have far worse gerrymandering than federal districts.

[direwolf]

A polling station in a major city with only 8 voting machines? That is beyond ridiculous.

[photon]

I get that they can't have a federal voting system down there, but couldn't they at least have some common standards that all the states have to adhere to?

Just make it a requirement that there can never be a longer wait time than 30 minutes, how each state meets that requirement is up to them.

I guess that assumes the goal is to make it easier to vote, when that's not always the case.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Great, another thread to cause additional stress and anxiety.

I’m surprised at myself how hopeful I am with today’s elections... but preparing to be disappointed.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

[Senator Clay Davis]

Simple solution of course is to go back to paper ballots. But then I imagine the GOP would simply try to ban writing utensils.

[Matata]

It was madness to ever stop using paper ballots, youtube is loaded with videos of 12 year olds hacking voting machines.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by direwolf

A polling station in a major city with only 8 voting machines? That is beyond ridiculous.

3rd world country. Not surprising.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Matata

It was madness to ever stop using paper ballots, youtube is loaded with videos of 12 year olds hacking voting machines.

Paper Ballots with Electronic counting makes so much sense. You still have the documented paper trail but get all of the efficiency of electronic machines.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by GGG

Paper Ballots with Electronic counting makes so much sense. You still have the documented paper trail but get all of the efficiency of electronic machines.

But much harder to prevent great swathes of democratic voters from having their votes count.