Is It November 8th Yet?

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

With various news media reports about early voting results from across the nation starting to filter in showing Hillary Clinton starting to make impressive gains in Florida, Arizona and Texas, states that traditionally skew Republican in presidential races, the overt kinds of bush-league voter misinformation tactics that eyewitness reported from various counties in Texas, while loathsome to the basic principles of Democracy, are unfortunately not all that surprising.


Considering the GOP's obsession with suppressing voter turnout, such shenanigans are predictable.

Especially given the release on Wednesday of the results of a joint poll conducted by Reuters and Ispos that doesn't bode well for the Trump campaign; Ispos is a 41-year-old independent market research company based in Paris for those of you who may subscribe to the Orange-Haired One's baseless wide-ranging accusations that any poll unfavorable to him is "rigged."

The Reuters/Ispos poll conducted between October 20th and 24th reveals that a remarkable 41% of Republicans now believe that Clinton will win next Tuesday's election; versus only 40% who believe Trump will win.

While the delusional Republican front-runner can boast a significant advantage in support from white male non-college educated voters, if you look over the results of some of the straw polls taken in 2015 during the presidential primary races, winning the "Trump demographic" of the U.S. population in a national general election simply isn't enough to win a majority percentage of a popular vote.

As National Review writer David French shared in an interview with Terry Gross earlier today on Fresh Air, the Alt-Right quasi-white supremacist voter base that supports Trump with an almost cult-like devotion can be loud and angry; French claims they Photoshopped an image of his adopted Ethiopian daughter in a gas chamber after he publicly criticized Trump and right-wing fem-Nazi and author Ann Coulter. Really.

Even though all those Alt-Right anti-Semite bigot Trolls represent a relatively small slice of the overall American electorate, Republicans seem to be holding on to the slim hope that suppressing the votes of enough Americans of Hispanic descent, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, elderly and college students will be enough to push the Alt-Right into the majority in enough states but the math just doesn't add up.

No matter how much voter misinformation and intimidation takes place in Texas or elsewhere.

Sample ballot received - ready for November 8th

So I count myself pretty fortunate to be able to come home from work, open the mailbox and find my 2016 General Election Sample Ballot waiting for me.

A good two weeks before the November 8th election the Mercer County Commission of Registration mails out easy-to-read sample ballots that tell you where to vote, what time the polls open and close, what candidates will be on the ballot, which party they represent and detailed instructions on how use the voting machine when the curtain closes.


You get to practice if you need to!

What a novel approach to the American electoral process, using government resources to make sure that registered voters are educated on what they need to do to vote well in advance of the upcoming general election so that they are prepared when they arrive at the polls on November 8th.

We may bitch and moan about high taxes here in Mercer County, New Jersey, but unlike certain counties in Texas, our local government does ensure a pretty efficient and well-run election process that includes voter education and poll sites where all you have to do is walk in, give your name, sign on the dotted line, and walk in and participate in the electoral process.

I'm not saying it's perfect or without flaws (much like American Democracy) but it works and unlike the Orange-Haired One's lunatic assertions you can't simply "rig" it as Putin did in Russia in 2012.

Of course that doesn't mean Republicans in Texas and other states aren't trying their best to do so to prevent the landslide that even they sense is coming.

Me I don't need a landslide, I just want to cast my vote to do my part to ensure that Trump goes back to doing what he does best so we can finally be relieved of having to hear about his toxic Tweets, boorish behavior and constant denigration of everyone and everything.

So we can get back to the business at hand, not the least of which is getting obstructionist U.S. Senate Republicans to do their jobs and put the nomination of Merrick Garland to vote so the Supreme Court can properly function as an institution.

Is it November 8th yet?