We’ve been doing it for municipal elections in Minneapolis, and it hasn’t been bad. Takes longer to tally results though, since approved software is hard to find.
I think the danger is in those House districts that are red but flippable. It’s possible that if the Democratic vote gets splintered, the ‘top 2’ rule would deny any of them a shot in November.
As far as I can tell the Gubernatorial front runners are Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa, which to us locals has its nuances but in the big picture boils down to ‘Left and Lefter.’
Then there’s the whole Feinstein thing. Some of us are sick of her, but I hear she’s in no danger of being unseated by her to-the-left challenger Kevin De Leon, though if he makes the 2nd slot he could dog her until November.
LMN8R
3145
Ah, thanks. I wasn’t familiar with the top two rule.
Ain’t that the truth. I love the results, but it’s impossible to eyeball voting returns (in a crowded, contested race) and reckon who won. It’s like tracing ribbon cables…
http://vote.minneapolismn.gov/results/2017/2017-mayor-tabulation
Speaking of Democrats and Minnesota, holy cow: U.S. Rep Keith Ellison, first Muslim in Congress, the #2 guy in the Democratic Party, just decided he won’t run for reelection, and instead is going to run for the Minnesota Attorney General spot. Seems like a step down, but maybe he wants to be closer to his family.
He’s doing this as result of sudden chaos. We just had our DFL and GOP conventions. There, the parties figure out who gets the endorsement before the statewide primary in August. But the theme coming out of the conventions is “Be unconventional.” The GOP endorsed their guy, Bland Johnson, for governor. A former governor and more recently lobbyist Tim Pawlenty (who in another timeline would have been a tepid VP candidate with John McCain, but McCain went with the maverick game-changer) didn’t bother trying to get the party endorsement. He’s just going to run for governor. On the DFL side (we call our Democrats DFL because, in this state, that party merged with the Farmer-Labor party), the woman that won the DFL endorsement for governor is still facing off with a guy she beat at the convention but isn’t taking the hint. Not only that, but the incumbent Attorney General decided maybe she would make a swell gov…and she hadn’t even been running for the governor spot until after the convention. Since she wasn’t running for AG anymore – because_she had been_ – a ton of folks decided maybe they would make a good AG. Including Ellison. Which means even more people are thinking maybe they should run for U.S. rep in Ellison’s place. I don’t know if he intends to step down from his position in the DNC, too.
It’s a madhouse! A madhouuuse!
(I hope my preferred but failed choice of DFL MN gubernatorial nominee, Rebecca Otto, is able to snag some plum from this deconstructed pie.)
Timex
3147
Have the voters in CA fucked themselves over yet? Today’s the day, right?
Today’s the day. I’m in Ted Lieu’s district, and he rocks, so on the House side there wasn’t much I could do besides vote for him again because he rocks.
Timex
3149
The issue that that in a bunch of districts, the dems are gonna split the vote between a billion different idiots, and then have two GOP guys go through to the general, right?
That’s the fear, yes. The Pod Save America guys were quite worried about it on their last podcast. They very forcefully advocated rallying behind the top Democratic contenders in the relevant districts so those votes in November wouldn’t end up being R v. R.
We’ll see by end of day, I suppose.
Scuzz
3152
I agree with this. In my district Nunes has a decent challenger this year but in the primary you would never know he is the Dem favorite because none of his material tells you that.
As for propositions, I can’t even remember what any of them are now. I voted about 3 weeks ago. I have become terribly cynical now and vote against anything with a price tag, no matter how good it sounds.
Yeah, DeLeon is interesting, but he’s had trouble polling over 15% when matched against Republican likelies.
But if it ends up being Feinstein and DeLeon, that’ll be an interesting race to watch.
Are you doing a thread for today’s primaries? Or am I stuck slumming it with MSNBC?
Well, he’s the #2 guy at the DNC, which isn’t really the same as being the #2 guy in the party. I think his DNC position was just two years though.
Anyway, I’m pretty happy with the known CD5 candidates - Margaret Anderson Kelliher and Patricia Torres Ray both announced. And there’s no way we end up with a republican, although they’re running a candidate this time (who has never held office and who came in third for a parks board seat).
Wow! Ilhan Omar just threw her hat in the ring, too! She might be a little green but she’s been a strong voice for her fellow Somali-Minnesotans. I’d be proud to vote for her, too. It is going to be a crazy two months. And on top of all that, U.S. senators Tina and Amy (DFL) are up for re-election(-ish) too. At least they don’t have any sudden new challengers from the Democratic ranks.
Sorry. We’re taping a TV show tonight or I would.
(Taping a TV show = Me in my office in Virginia wearing sweatpants, listening to script cues from my bosses in California and then pushing content onto our platform as needed. Tres glamoureux.)
Menzo
3159
If there’s no triggercut thread, it didn’t happen.
I haven’t heard any major problems with Maine’s ranked voting system. Although, I guess we will have to wait until next week to know for sure. I love ranked voting, because I think will produce less extreme result, I’m sure Trump wouldn’t be President if Republican used it.
It is ironic that Maine is experimenting, because with exception of the governor they have a history of sending moderates to Congress, especially the Senate, Cohen, Collins, Stowe, King, all of whom I’ve liked very much.
Timex
3161
I don’t see how ranked voting would be “too complex”.
Honestly, if you can’t figure out how to order names by preference, you probably have no idea what you’re voting on anyway.
CraigM
3162
Wel, yeah, that’s our problem to begin with.
