81,281,891 Americans Turned the Lights On.

[cayugafalls]

I just wanted to say thank you.

Thank you to all of those who voted in this pandemic and made today possible.

I Thank DU for being here during all this time and for all they did and all that the people of DU have done to help educate and make this victory even more sweet.

I am getting ready to turn the lights out and go to bed on one of the brightest nights in four years.

Thank you to Joe and Kamala for being what we needed at this time in history.



I love you all.

[catbyte]

1. Sweet dreams, my friend.

[cayugafalls]

2. Goodnight, catbyte!

I have to wake up sometime...

[3catwoman3]

5. Oh, a little instapurr machine.

Sweet baby started purring before its eyes were even open.

[Silver Gaia]

3. Thank YOU for the post,

and goodnight. Rest well.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

4. If you go to sleep, twitter might let it back on.

[progree]

6. 3rd party voters helped illuminate the way too, this time by voting for the Libertarian candidate

Last edited Thu Jan 21, 2021, 09:29 AM - Edit history (2)

Jo Jorgensen, instead of for Trump, almost certainly costing him Georgia, Arizona, and probably Wisconsin.

Georgia Arizona Wisconsin ## State
0.24%   0.31%   0.63% ## Biden's victory margin over Trump
1.24%   1.52%   1.17% ## Jorgensen's (Libertarian Party) percent of the vote
0.02%   0.05%   0.03% ## Hawkins's (Green Party) percent of the vote
0.02%   0.01%   0.53% ## Other's percent of the vote*

*Other than Biden, Trump, Jorgensen, and Hawkins

Anyhow, it looks like without Jo Jorgensen and other 3rd party types, Trump would have won these 3 states and gotten their 37 combined electoral votes. That would have resulted in a tie in the Electoral College, 269 to 269.

In Wisconsin, there were several candidates other than Biden and Trump: Jorgensen (1.2%), Brian Carroll (0.2%), Don Blankenship (0.2%), Hawkins (0.03%), and write-ins, with their vote percentages in ()'s

Brian Carroll is a weird one, I don't know whether he might have drawn more votes from the right than the left for sure. Sounds more rightie to me, but the fringe leftists can be pretty weird and unpredicatable (see Jack Pine Radicals) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_T._Carroll

Don Blankenship is the disgraced former CEO of Massey Energy, the coal company. I'm sure he drew more votes from the right than the left.

I'm assuming that many more Libertarian Party candidate Jorgensen voters would have voted for Trump than for Biden if she had not been on the ballot. And that ones who would have voted for neither of the Big Two if she wasn't on the ballot is fairly small. The margin in GA and AZ is overwhelming (her vote percentage compared to the Biden victory margin), the one questionable state is Wisconsin.

I got these from NBCNews, NYTImes, and Wikipedia. Some more details at https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017633984#post4

Note: this is NOT an encouragement of DUers to vote 3rd party, rather it's a big thank you to Republicans and other like-minded fuckheads for voting for them instead of for Trump. And for once in a long long time it looks like the 3rd party jinx has worked against the Republicans.

[JonLP24]

9. I could see Jorgensen taking votes from both directions

The Guardian

Jorgensen herself doesn’t believe she is responsible for Republicans’ losses, and that the party’s candidates are to blame.

“They should be mad at those candidates for not following through on their campaign promises,” Jorgensen told the Greenville News, which is in her home state of South Carolina, earlier this week. She reportedly said that many of her supporters were “recovering Democrats” who want US troops brought home from abroad, as well as Republicans tired with federal spending.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/08/libertarian-jo-jorgensen-donald-trump-joe-biden

She also supports abolishing ICE and criminal justice reform.

I would never vote for a libertarian because of their economic policies but I can see her drawing votes from both directions.

[progree]

10. Yes, I agree. I have quietly dropped pursuit and mention of this subject

Several other polls mentioned in some of the other articles I've come across that indicates that on net, she likely hurt Biden a bit relative to Trump.

Assuming that's true, I looked at the states that narrowly went for Trump (a margin of victory for Trump below 5%), namely North Carolina and Florida, but there's no way that her and the other "Others" being absent would have changed the outcome in those states.

[TedBeezy33]

7. Oh yeah!

What a great night it was. Whew. We made it. Thank goodness brother.

[cayugafalls]

8. Thank you brother! It is nice to breathe easier!

Welcome to DU! Glad you could stop by and say hi!