It’s Tuesday. ELECTION DAY IS FINALLY HERE!!
Somehow, I never actually posted the disturbingly memorable winning submission of the 2nd annual Ulster County “I Voted” sticker contest, which was submitted by Hudson Rowan, 14, and promptly went viral after receiving more than 200,000 votes.
It’s almost enough to make me wish I was still registered to vote in my hometown of New Paltz – just to receive one of these stickers that I am sure are going to be a collector’s item. I mean, it’s already so beloved that some people – members of the ad hoc “Democracy Spider Squad” – have had it indelibly inked onto the their skin.
That’s a bridge too far, though, even for a tried-and-true democracy lover like myself.
I am going to be sure that I make it to the polls bright and early. Thanks to the recent move, I’m going to have to cast an affidavit ballot at the new poll site – the local firehouse – which should be interesting.
An aside: Why does no one do an Election Day poll site bake sale anymore? Or does someone do it and I’m just not privy to it? If your poll site does this, please let me know. Perhaps I’ll make a special drop-in inspection. There’s nothing quite so enjoyable as an Election Day brownie or cookie to make doing your civic duty that much sweeter.
I really enjoy the ritual of going to the polls, and signing in, casting a ballot – not nearly as satisfying anymore, IMHO, since we did away with the lever machines – chatting with neighbors and poll workers and departing with my freshly applied “I Voted” sticker prominently displayed.
Sometimes there’s even leftover Halloween candy on offer. (A poor excuse for baked goods, but beggars can’t be choosers. Voting is hard work!)
Going in person to the polls makes me feel nostalgic. I remember going with my parents and begging to be allowed to pull the levers. (Young readers probably are scratching their heads over this, but really, you don’t know what you’re missing. Pulling that curtain was so satisfying, and you could hear the machine registering your vote and it felt consequential – like you had just played a bit part in history).
I also remember watching the returns come in on election night with my dad at Dominick’s restaurant. (An old school New Paltz Italian restaurant that is long gone – in fact, it’s now a Jewish community center). I would drink too many Shirley Temples and struggle to stay awake long enough to find out if Dad won re-election to the Ulster County Legislature. They tallied the votes on a big chalk board, with people calling in results from the Board of Elections.
It turns out, though, that many Americans – a near-record number – are not interested in showing up on Election Day proper. They are, however, still showing up, which is good news, taking advantage of early voting opportunities in their respective states.
Midterm turnout reached a 40-year high in 2018, with 49 percent of the total voting-age population casting ballots. Early voting totals suggest that number could be even higher this year.
Here in New York, 1,178,674 in-person votes were cast over the nine-day early voting period, according to the state Board of Elections. This is the first gubernatorial race in which early voting was an option, since that has only been in place since 2019.
Almost – but not quite – half of those were cast outside the Democratic stronghold of NYC. Republicans are banking on disaffected centrist Democrats to cross over to their side of the aisle and/or just stay home altogether. Even though the momentum seems to be on the GOP side, the reality is that Democrats still enjoy a considerable enrollment edge in this state that is hard to overcome.
We shall see.
A programming note: Since I’ll be up late (for me) this evening doing local political commentary, tomorrow’s Rise and Shine might be on the later side – like 5 a.m. instead of 3 a.m. I know it’s inconvenient. I’m sorry. But also? Might you be just a wee bit spoiled?
It looks like a good day for voting, weather-wise, though it will be cooler than the past several (unseasonably warm) days, with temperatures in the mid 50s and sunny skies.
GET OUT THERE AND VOTE IF YOU HAVEN’T! Find your poll site here, if you don’t know where it is. Or here.
And BTW, did you happen to catch this? Not the end of days, as it turns out, just a lunar eclipse.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden stayed away from the toughest races on Election Day eve, opting to campaign in safe Democratic territory before what’s expected to be a difficult night for his party.
Biden predicted that the Democratic Party will have majority control of the Senate after all the votes are counted, saying he’s feeling “optimistic.”
Biden has dramatically raised the stakes of the midterm elections, declaring, as part of the campaign’s close, that democracy itself is on the ballot. Come January, he may find himself needing to govern with those he’s cast as democracy’s threats.
The Republican Party is winning support from a larger share of Black voters than in other recent elections and has improved its standing in the past few months among Latino voters, the latest Wall Street Journal poll finds.
Just a day after not exactly apologizing to West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin for promising a San Diego audience to replace coal fired power plants with wind farms, Biden turned to promising a New York audience to shut down drilling for oil instead.
Elevated fuel prices and shortages remained a concern for U.S. consumers ahead of the midterm elections, in which energy costs have become a crucial campaign issue.
Former President Donald Trump said he plans to make a “very big announcement” on Nov. 15 at his Mar-a-Lago estate amid growing speculation that he is mounting another bid for the White House.
Trump set off a scramble yesterday in the Republican Party after he threatened to upend the midterm elections by announcing his 2024 presidential bid on the eve of voting.
At an Ohio rally ostensibly held to support Senate candidate J.D. Vance, Trump gave Vance exactly one minute at the mic.
Months after Trump began building his social media platform, Truth Social, he considered jumping ship and backing a competitor, according to an insider account.
Trump posted on social media to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the midterm election in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania. “Here we go again!” he wrote. “Rigged Election!”
A judge in Cochise County in Arizona ruled that the county could not proceed with a plan to count ballots by hand in today’s election – the second setback this week for Republican efforts to use such counts to audit the results.
Pennsylvania election officials are scrambling to warn thousands of voters who did not properly date their mail-in ballots that their votes will not be counted following a last-minute court decision that could swing the airtight Senate race in the Keystone State.
Trump and his adult children indicated they will appeal a judge’s decision to appoint a monitor to watch over their family real estate business.
Stephen Miller, a former Trump aide, is the president of the America First Foundation, which is blitzing the nation with dishonest radio and television commercials accusing Biden and Democrats of “anti-white bigotry.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi broke her silence about the attack on her husband by a right-wing extremist, saying she feared something happened to her children or grandchildren when Capitol Police woke her with a dawn knock on her apartment door.
Pelosi said she “absolutely” draws a line between the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and the attack on her husband, Paul, 82.
When asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper if she had made a decision on whether to retire if Democrats lose the House, Pelosi said that her decision would be affected by the attack, but she did not specify how.
Pelosi said she felt “optimistic” about Democrats chances of winning races today, but added “it just depends on turnout.”
Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers militia, sought to distance himself from other members of the group yesterday, testifying during his seditious-conspiracy trial that his associates were “stupid” to have entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Biden phoned Likud chair Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate him on his election victory, as Washington aimed to portray a sense of business as usual, despite some apprehension regarding the likely entry of far-right figures into the next Israeli government.
Climate activists are expected to increase pressure on companies and world leaders today at the United Nations climate summit, demanding that they move faster on pledges to reduce emissions.
Switzerland, one of the world’s richest nations, has an ambitious climate goal: It promises to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, in part by paying poorer countries to reduce their own emissions and give Switzerland credit for it.
People who took the antiviral drug Paxlovid within a few days after being infected with the coronavirus were less likely to be experiencing long Covid several months later, a large new study found.
The report, which draws on databases from the Department of Veterans Affairs, examined more than 9,000 people who took Paxlovid, along with an almost 50,000-strong control group of people who tested positive but did not take the drug.
A new paper suggests that the combination of the Covid virus and anesthesia plunges the brain into a prolonged state of quiet — like a freshwater turtle in winter.
Covid is still keeping millions out of work while reducing productivity and hours of millions more, disrupting business operations and raising costs.
Covid cases have more than doubled in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, dampening hopes that authorities will lift a lockdown of the area surrounding the world’s largest iPhone factory.
Police in northeastern China said that seven people have been arrested following a clash between residents and authorities enforcing COVID-19 quarantine restrictions.
Hong Kong’s government said it was relaxing COVID-19 restrictions on inbound tour groups including allowing them to enter theme parks and museums after arriving in the financial hub.
A federal judge issued a second ruling against New York’s new gun-control law and blocked its prohibitions on carrying concealed firearms in parks, bars and houses of worship.
There is now a pause on enforcement for parts of the concealed Carry Improvement Act, including provisions that require gun license applicants to prove “good moral character” and provide a list of social media accounts and their family contact information.
Judge Glenn Suddaby of the U.S. District Court in Syracuse also sharply pared back a list of “sensitive places” where it’s a new felony crime to possess a gun even with a license, saying the state can’t ban guns in theaters, bars, parks, airports and other public places.
An unusually frenetic midterms election cycle in New York comes to an end today, when voters across the state fill out their ballots in a number of competitive races that have the power to reshape the state’s political future.
Some of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s top donors are privately panicking about Republican challenger Rep. Lee Zeldin’s recent surge in the polls ahead of today’s midterms, according to people familiar with the matter.
On the eve of Election Day, Hochul and Zeldin sprinted around New York City and its suburbs, making last-minute appeals to voters in what has become a surprisingly competitive campaign.
One day ahead of the midterm elections, Hochul announced that she will be pouring money into the security of community-based organizations at-risk of hate crimes.
Hochul accused Zeldin of “hyperventilating” over crime as the pair of gubernatorial candidates offered up closing arguments in a tighter-than-anticipated gubernatorial race.
New York City voters accounted for about 37% of the ballots cast in the state’s nine days of early voting ahead of Election Day, according to the state Board of Elections, welcome news for Hochul.
Zeldin said he looks forward to working with Mayor Eric Adams to “save the city” if he unseats Hochul as governor of New York.
A group closely aligned with Adams has donated $10,000 to Zeldin’s campaign for governor instead of Hohcul.
A Long Island man tied to a gang-style shooting outside Zeldin’s home last month was ordered held on $1 million bail on felony gun charges.
The grieving father of Ethan Williams — the 20-year-old Indiana tourist gunned down in the Big Apple — slammed New York politicians over their “silence,” saying elected leaders aren’t doing enough to stifle surging crime.
The term “Lee Zeldin” has been Googled roughly twice as much as “Kathy Hochul” while the race for governor tightened to the single digits ahead of the final day of voting on Nov. 8.
Speaking outside a Bronx subway station where a rider was stabbed in the neck Sunday morning, Zeldin said, “New Yorkers of all walks of life are uniting as New Yorkers to take back our streets, to take back our subways.”
Upstate Republican congressional candidate Mike Lawler blasted New York City GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis as “pathetic” a few years ago — but has since come around to accepting her political support, including letting her host a campaign fundraiser for him.
Adams and Department of Education (DOE) Chancellor David C. Banks announced that city public schools will not suffer funding cuts due to lower-than-projected enrollment rates.
Former Buildings Department boss Eric Ulrich has political ties to a former member of a Queens social club that was recently busted by the feds for acting as a front for a mob-run illegal gambling den, according to court papers and other public records.
Cornell announced the temporary suspension of all frat parties and social events, following school Police Department alerts that one student was sexually assaulted and at least four others were drugged at off-campus residences affiliated with fraternities.
The Cornell police said they were made aware at least four students who said they drank little or no alcohol at off-campus parties in recent weeks but became incapacitated. The students said they had been “exposed to Rohypnol,” the so-called date-rape drug.
Estimates of fire department overtime and water revenues in Troy’s proposed 2023 budget were scrutinized by the state comptroller in the final mandatory budget review it will conduct under a 1990s state law that bailed out the financially troubled city.
The Dutchess County Board of Elections may not have time to install a polling site at Vassar College by today, after the county’s GOP elections commissioner apparently misinterpreted a state Supreme Court order that the campus must have a polling place.
A state parole board found John Lennon’s assassin Mark David Chapman is a low risk to carry out another violent act, but rejected his latest bid for release from prison because of the “worldwide impact” of the former Beatle’s slaying.
“The View” host Whoopi Goldberg has joined the exodus from Twitter following billionaire Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of the social media platform.
Elon Musk is cracking down on people who impersonate others on Twitter, tightening policies and banning celebrities including Kathy Griffin who had posed as him.
The Powerball numbers weren’t drawn last night due to a technical error.
Tempting as it may be, please don’t lick the toads. The U.S. National Park Service made the plea last week to help protect the Sonoran desert toad, which secretes a toxin unlike any other found on the planet.
