Well, sort of: Washington and Wyoming hold their primaries. The two big races, per Political Wire, are WY-Gov and WA-Sen. I don't know anything at all about the Wyoming gubernatorial race, other than that there's an outgoing Democrat and presumably this is one of the more obvious opportunities for the GOP to gain...really, since there's no US House redistricting at stake, and since even if you believe that governors can affect presidential general elections no one thinks that Wyoming will be a swing state, and since Wyoming isn't a key presidential nomination state...well, I'm sure that it's important for those who live there, but for the rest of us it's a bit hard to get excited by WY-Gov.
The Washington Senate contest is a lot more interesting, but the primary isn't going to tell us much. I would caution everyone that a lot of people are going to be using primary turnout numbers as a major signal for what will happen in November (in part because of Washington's primary law, which jumbles everyone together), but as far as I'm aware there's no reason to do so. So use it as an occasion to become reacquainted with Senator Patty Murray and Republican Dino Rossi, but that's about it for now.
Polls close at 9PM Eastern in Wyoming, and 11PM Eastern in Washington. Thanks again to Taegan Goddard for regularly featuring poll-closing times.
And, as usual, I'll note that in almost all other countries Election Day comes around once every few years, not three times a month. I have no idea about any other elections today, but my guess is that WA and WY aren't all -- there's probably some area that has a school board election, or local ballot questions, or whatever. Has anyone ever compiled a master list of all elections at any level across the US over a typical two or four years? I'd love to see that.
Greetings from Seattle - where there's no such thing as election day any more.
ReplyDelete100% vote by mail really does make a difference. We've had ballots for weeks, and we've sent them in already. "Election day" doesn't mean much any more. It's the day they count stuff, but it's not the day you vote.
I think that technically we're probably something like 99.993% vote by mail. Somewhere the county has actual vintage polling places, where you can dress up in your best 20th century costume and drive the horse and buggy to go vote in person.
I teach computer science in San Diego and every day I berate myself for not being more like the more intelligent and technological minded 99.993% of the people in the enlightened state of Washington. But I take my horse and buggy to vote on election day in case something happens the day before, such as a candidate dieing.
ReplyDeleteFrom Seattle, What to look for in tonight's results: Not much.
ReplyDeletehttp://dulynotedpolitics.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-to-look-for-in-tomorrows-primary.html
In California, a special election for a rare swing State Senate seat, the 15th, John Laird (D) v Sam Blakeslee (R). There's a real effort for Laird, so Dems must think they have a shot in spite of the general environment.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - I think it's great that you do that, in the same sense I think it's great that we still have people who make swords and armor for a living. Some people should still keep traditions alive.
ReplyDeleteBut just waiting for election day doesn't solve your problem. What if you vote at 8am, and the death happens at 9?