Exit, pursued by a poll.
And if Biden does have to step down, Phil, Kamala Harris's husband already has a preferred candidate to replace him. Per Jonathan Martin of Politico: “Doug Emhoff has told Democrats the party must rally around Harris should Biden not run.”
There's an election today?
Another exit finding, this from Fox News, is that 57% of voters said that Biden does not have the “mental capability to serve effectively,” which is just a staggering number. If tonight turns out to be the thumping most people now expect, this is the sort of finding that you have to think would cause Democrats to put more pressure on Biden to decline to run for reelection. He will be turning 80 this month, and this problem will not get any better with age.
As Phil notes, exit polls are to be taken with a grain of salt, but . . . CNN is reporting that, in its exits, 73% of Americans said they were either “angry” or “dissatisfied” with the way things are going in the United States.
The numbers out of Florida are so extraordinary that progressive activists are starting to tweet things like this:
“At the rate Florida is going, an NPA candidate for governor may have a better shot than a Democrat in 2026. It's that bad. Complete collapse. We either reset or go extinct.”
Republicans are currently winning Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Duval—all of which went for Joe Biden in 2020. Meanwhile, CBS News is reporting that its reporter was unable to find a single Charlie Crist voter to interview, despite having stopped traffic to ask drivers and searched the local diners. It looks as if it's going to be a big, big night for Ron DeSantis, Marco Rubio, and everyone else with an (R) next to their name.
Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who has touted former president Trump’s false allegations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, seemed to suggest earlier today that the tabulator problems may be the result of partisan interference.
“Do you think this is normal guys? My question is, do you think what’s happening here in Maricopa County is normal? We have had problems after problems,” Lake said to reporters.
“I hope it’s not malice. But we’re gonna win. And when we win, there’s gonna be a come to Jesus for elections in Arizona,” she said.
Early exits are notoriously bad at predicting election outcomes, but they are interesting to get an initial temperature reading of the electorate. When NBC asked voters the most important issue in deciding their vote from five options, here's what they found:
Inflation: 32%
Abortion: 27%
Crime: 12%
Gun Policy: 12%
Immigration: 10%
No answer: 7%
Officials in Arizona’s Maricopa County said they have “identified a solution” after tabulators at 20 percent of the county’s 223 voting stations were glitching earlier today.
“County technicians have changed the printer settings, which seems to have resolved this issue. It appears some of the printers were not producing dark enough timing marks on the ballots,” the county recorder’s office said this afternoon.
Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer apologized to voters for the issue and said, “Every legal vote will be tabulated. I promise.”
Jon Ralston, the most well-known political reporter in Nevada, is seriously regretting his prediction that Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto would hang on, after having spent the day looking at turnout numbers:
“How are you feeling about your predictions?”–Multiple people emailing and texting me.
“What predictions?”
–Me, trying to get into @TheNVIndy's Content Management System to find the delete key.
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) November 8, 2022