Are busy polling places today a good thing?

[Silent3]

I'm seeing posts from people who are all excited about the in-person voter turnout they're seeing today... but since in-person voting is heavily tilted Republican this year, is that really a good thing?

I still think we're in a very strong position regardless, but unless I'm missing something, I'd think people would be happier to see uncrowded polling places today.

[soothsayer]

1. I have those same misgivings

But I’m a worrier

[beachbumbob]

2. depends where. In Philidelphia its a GREAT thing, in Miami-Dade county, Browrd county its a GREAT

thing. Same with ANY large URBAN areas

[frazzled]

10. Where I live, it would be great too

because it's an overwhelmingly blue city in a solidly blue state. It won't change the electoral outcome, but it would mean we're running up the popular-vote tally big time.

[lagomorph777]

3. We don't actually KNOW that day-of voting is going to tilt GOP.

That's just a theory. Heavy turnout in blue areas is a GOOD thing. Heavy turnout in rural areas, not so good.

[SoonerPride]

4. Yes. Larger turnout is always good for Democrats (and democracy itself)

It is encouraging to see long lines everywhere.

[Silent3]

9. At the moment, I just want Biden to win big and take control of the Senate

There's no room in my heart for the "gosh, isn't it wonderful that everyone is participating, no matter who they vote for!" sentiment.

[Fahrenthold451]

5. Urban Good. Rural Bad. But...

Very rare for rural counties to have long lines in any circumstances because many more precinct per voter. So reports of long lines are almost always urban reports.

[uponit7771]

6. +1

[Amishman]

8. Lines are long everywhere

In my rural red corner of PA, I'd never seen the line this long.

[MineralMan]

7. It is only speculation that heavy election day turnout is Republican.

That will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

The 2020 election is going to be a unique one, due to the huge early vote and heavy turnout on election day. Unless someone is doing exit polling, we won't know who is voting today in any detail.

We'll all just have to wait and see.

[Whiskeytide]

11. Long lines in Alabama from my own experience and from ...

... 5 or 6 texts I’ve gotten from friends. I’ve never had more than 15-20 people ahead of me, and there were 200+ this morning.

Anecdotally the demographics looked good. A lot of young people and POC. And a lot of blue shirts??

Alabama doesn’t have early voting, so lines were expected. And Тяцмр is still going to win here easily. But it wouldn’t surprise me to see Biden perform better this time than Dems have in the past. And I’m hoping it’s a good omen for Doug Jones.

[crickets]

21. Doug Jones is miles better for AL than Tuberville. I have my fingers crossed for him. nt

[Whiskeytide]

24. A one-eyed, three-legged, psychotic polecat with flaming diarrhea ...

... and an inferiority complex would be better for Alabama than “one for the thumb” Tubby. Oh, and Roll Tide!

[Rice4VP]

12. In Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee it is

[bullimiami]

13. im nervous too. ptsd from 2016. but ask. has trump expanded his base? also

would there be more motivation for trump this year without hillary and the record of the last 4 years?

or has trump support gotten more concentrated and more vocal?

i want to think trump will get less support this year rather than more.

[RainCaster]

14. YES!! More voters is great. We all have a voice.

Plus, all the ratfucking the GOP has been doing means that there will be more Dems filling up the lines to vote today. So those Trumpanzees will have to wait in lines with masks.

[Silent3]

16. As I said in another post...

...there's no room in my heart for the "gosh, isn't it wonderful that everyone is participating, no matter who they vote for!" sentiment.

A big Biden win and control over the Senate is all I want. I'd be quite happy for anyone stupid and/or nasty enough to support Trump to not vote at all.

[gratuitous]

15. Obviously it's bad

When Donald Trump starts flying around the country by flapping his arms, and shooting laser beams out of his eyes, he'll disintegrate large clusters of voters all at once. So clearly, people should stay away from the polls.

[Tom Rinaldo]

17. Mixed bag, but it could be good

If almost no one went to the polls and voted in person today, Democrats would be the clear victors because we mobilized folks to vote early by mail etc. But that was never going to happen, lots of people will vote today, So...

It depends. If the reason why Election Day voting is robust is because a lot of Democrats were left to go to the polls today to add to the large number of Republicans going to the polls today, than long lines might be good. That would mean that the Republican margin of victory for Election Day voting will not be large enough to overcome the banked advantage that Democrats already have. If, however, almost all of the Democrats who intend to vote had already voted prior to Election Day, than obviously long lines today would be a negative indicator for us.

I prefer to be optimistic. I believe plenty of Democrats are showing up to vote today along with the Republicans who always intended to wait for today to vote, which would explain long lines. If that is true we will get our landslide.

[crickets]

22. 👆 This.

[honest.abe]

18. Im thinking its good.

There are a ton of Democrats who dont vote every election for whatever reason.. too busy, not inspired, don't really like the Dem candidate, difficult to get to polling place, bad weather, etc, etc, etc. This year, throwing Trump out the White House is a huge inspiration to all Democrats no matter what and people are showing up.

The pollsters may not have picked up on this group of voters since they may have waited until the last minute to register or also were not sure they were going to vote until the last minute.

Also, the golden rule has always been the more votes, the more Democrats win. I see no reason for that to change this year.

[Ms. Toad]

19. We're slow in the precinct I'm observing.

My republican counterpart is discouraged. She's checking the 11:00 voting list. Out of the 75 or so she checked, 3 were republican.

Very light turnout, aside from the line waiting at open. (Tons voted in this predominately AA community)

[jcgoldie]

20. The more people vote the more Democrats win

Republicans spend countless energy trying to shrink the electorate and make it harder to vote.

[Silent3]

23. That's definitely true *in general*

But if voting has been significantly self-sorted already, with Democrats voting heavily by mail and by early voting, and Republicans voting heavily in-person on election day itself, you can't safely apply the broad rule "more voting is good for Democrats" to the voting done by that self-sorted segment of voters likely to be mostly Republican.

To re-emphasize what I initially said, I'm still pretty bullish regardless about Biden's prospects, and Democrats down-ticket too. I only commented to say it seemed strange to me that people would specifically be heartened to see a lot of turnout today -- except, perhaps, if they're seeing it in strongly Democratic areas.