Election day

The final day of the election is upon us.  If you haven't voted yet, this is it -- the last chance to help stop our country's slide toward fascism, theocracy, and isolation.  Make your voice heard now or forever hold your peace.

Over the weekend, asshole Trumpanzees across the country bizarrely clogged freeways with their vehicles (ve-hick-les?), bringing traffic to a standstill.  As with the asshole protesters blocking streets and stopping traffic which we've seen here and there in cities across the country, it's harassment of innocent bystanders, which can only turn the victims against the professed cause of whatever set of assholes is doing it.  No sane motive suggests itself.  I do wonder if they realize deep down that Trump is going to lose, and they're getting a head start on their temper tantrums in response.

If that's the case, they're better informed than the majority of their ilk.  Over 80% of Trumpanzees expect their man to win, and that reflects what I've seen on various Trumpanzee blogs.  Assuming Biden does win, we can expect them to be shocked and outraged and firmly convinced that the Democrats cheated somehow, even though the outcome will merely reflect what all serious polling has predicted.  Don't be surprised if you see more traffic-blocking and even sporadic shootings here and there.

Contrary to what we've been told to expect, it's quite possible that we may know the election outcome fairly confidently as early as tonight.  Florida and North Carolina are early-vote-counting states and, if either candidate wins them by a substantial margin, they could be called soon after the polls close.  North Carolina's polls close at 7:30 (4:30 Pacific) and Florida's close at 7:00 local time (5:00 Pacific, because part of Florida is in the Central time zone).  If Trump loses North Carolina, he has little chance of winning the Electoral College; if he loses Florida, he has virtually no chance.  If, on the other hand, he wins both states, it means the national outcome will be a nail-biter.  An early call of the North Carolina Senate race, too, would offer a hint of how Senate control will come out.

Texas's polls close at 7:00 local time (9:00 Eastern / 6:00 Pacific, because El Paso is in the Mountain time zone).  If Biden carries Texas by a big enough margin to be called immediately -- admittedly very unlikely -- that will tell us we're seeing a blue wave of unprecedented magnitude.

Beyond that, I've pretty much said what I have to say.  If anyone is still dithering about whether or not to vote for Biden, I made my final argument here.  Darwinfish 2 and Shower Cap have some election-eve observations, while Yellowdog Granny has a round-up of inspirational images.  Greg Fallis is anticipating a long day as a volunteer poll worker.  Electoral-Vote has its usual intensive analysis and will start live-blogging the election at 6:00 Eastern.  Its final polling-based projection has Biden with 350 Electoral votes and the Senate going Democratic 54-46.

Take heart that the last few Republican efforts to (further) suppress the vote aren't panning out.  Trump's appeal for thuggish "poll watchers" to intimidate voters is getting little response.  A last-ditch effort to have 127,000 Houston-area ballots thrown out has been thwarted in court.  The massive scale of early-voting turnout shows that suppression is backfiring by making people angry.

Let's get the job done.