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election daze
Wednesday, November 9th, 2016 11:24 pmI worked from home yesterday after voting. The dazed feeling didn't go away. The streets outside my house felt quiet and empty, as if the city's population had disappeared into thin air. That would explain the empty polls, right? Qiao and Forestfen both later told me that they didn't have to wait in lines either, even though they voted later in the day. The election commission seems to have done a very good job this time.
.
Per the scvotes.org website, South Carolina voter turnout was 67.42% yesterday. In the 2012 election, it was 68.92%. There are 254,000 more registered voters now than 4 years ago, so there were still more ballots cast this time than last. So it wasn't that people weren't voting. They just weren't stuck waiting in lines.
In the 2008 election, the voter turnout was 76%.
In all 3 years, the Republican presidential candidate got about 54% of the votes (2008: 53.87%. 2012: 54.56%. 2016: 54.90%)
So it doesn't seem that dislike of Trump affected his results much.
The Democratic candidate got... 2008: 44.9%. 2012: 44.09%. 2016: 40.71%.
So disapproval of Hillary may have dropped her results about 3 to 4% compared to the usual.
All those numbers are only for South Carolina, mind you.
.
In the evening, when I checked the TV, the first state results were being called. Trump's numbers were in the lead. But those were from the typically red states, so I told myself that was surely to be expected, and would change.
When I checked again later, it still wasn't looking very good. I brought up the Democracy Now coverage online, and listened for a while.
"This is just like Brexit", I thought, "isn't it?"
By midnight things hadn't improved much. I finally turned the TV off around 1:30am, with things looking quite grim, but still a slight chance Hillary could win. It took me a while to fall asleep. I resisted the urge to get back up and check the TV again.
But this morning, the news was no better.
.
Yet, as this page points out: Tuesday Shouldn’t Change The Narrative,
that Trump won doesn't mean that the world is suddenly a much different place than it was yesterday. It is the same world, with the same people. Based on the current count, Hillary actually won the popular vote. Nearly half of voters nationwide voted for Trump, and the other half for Hillary. And many of the people who voted Trump didn't do it because they like him or most of his rhetoric, but simply because he's the Republican candidate with the Republican platform, and because they dislike Hillary more than they dislike him.
.
In looking up the word trump, I was surprised to see one of the definitions: Informal. a fine person; brick.
trump == fine person???
fine person == brick ??????
But yes, apparently brick can mean:
Informal. an admirably good or generous person.
.
Something else. In past presidential elections, I remember seeing a lot more yard signs and bumper stickers for the major candidates. This year, here, I only saw a couple of Hillary yard signs, and that was only during the primaries. Since then, I don't recall seeing any for either side. That seems to show how unpopular both really are.
.
Per the scvotes.org website, South Carolina voter turnout was 67.42% yesterday. In the 2012 election, it was 68.92%. There are 254,000 more registered voters now than 4 years ago, so there were still more ballots cast this time than last. So it wasn't that people weren't voting. They just weren't stuck waiting in lines.
In the 2008 election, the voter turnout was 76%.
In all 3 years, the Republican presidential candidate got about 54% of the votes (2008: 53.87%. 2012: 54.56%. 2016: 54.90%)
So it doesn't seem that dislike of Trump affected his results much.
The Democratic candidate got... 2008: 44.9%. 2012: 44.09%. 2016: 40.71%.
So disapproval of Hillary may have dropped her results about 3 to 4% compared to the usual.
All those numbers are only for South Carolina, mind you.
.
In the evening, when I checked the TV, the first state results were being called. Trump's numbers were in the lead. But those were from the typically red states, so I told myself that was surely to be expected, and would change.
When I checked again later, it still wasn't looking very good. I brought up the Democracy Now coverage online, and listened for a while.
"This is just like Brexit", I thought, "isn't it?"
By midnight things hadn't improved much. I finally turned the TV off around 1:30am, with things looking quite grim, but still a slight chance Hillary could win. It took me a while to fall asleep. I resisted the urge to get back up and check the TV again.
But this morning, the news was no better.
.
Yet, as this page points out: Tuesday Shouldn’t Change The Narrative,
that Trump won doesn't mean that the world is suddenly a much different place than it was yesterday. It is the same world, with the same people. Based on the current count, Hillary actually won the popular vote. Nearly half of voters nationwide voted for Trump, and the other half for Hillary. And many of the people who voted Trump didn't do it because they like him or most of his rhetoric, but simply because he's the Republican candidate with the Republican platform, and because they dislike Hillary more than they dislike him.
.
In looking up the word trump, I was surprised to see one of the definitions: Informal. a fine person; brick.
trump == fine person???
fine person == brick ??????
But yes, apparently brick can mean:
Informal. an admirably good or generous person.
.
Something else. In past presidential elections, I remember seeing a lot more yard signs and bumper stickers for the major candidates. This year, here, I only saw a couple of Hillary yard signs, and that was only during the primaries. Since then, I don't recall seeing any for either side. That seems to show how unpopular both really are.