Bookmark this page to track original reporting from TYT and curated reports from around the country on the 2022 elections. You can also join TYT National Correspondent Matthew Sheffield, Washington Correspondent Candice Cole, and Managing Editor Jonathan Larsen for the TYT Reports Twitter Spaces discussion about election returns as they come in, with special guests throughout the night, starting at 6:30 pm (all times are eastern).
5:34pm - The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) just put out a statement calling on Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to apologize to Democrats for wounding the party heading into today's elections. PCCC Co-Founder Adam Green said in the statement:
"When President Biden took bold action, such as passing the Inflation Reduction Act and canceling student debt, his popularity went up and Democrats were more likely to keep Congress [but]...
"Candidates up and down the ballot – from progressive to more conservative – were hurt by Joe Manchin’s stalling of the Democratic economic agenda for an entire year. As gas prices were tangibly felt by voters, Manchin's obstruction denied voters the opportunity to have money in their pockets, child care for their families, lower-price prescriptions, and other positive impacts in time for the 2022 election. These benefits would have more than offset the crunch on many family budgets from rising gas and grocery prices. Manchin owes all Democrats and the country an apology."
The PCCC statement notes a Washington Post account suggesting Reps. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Kim Schrier (D-WA) had trouble running on the Inflation Reduction Act but had trouble selling it because voters haven't felt it in their finances yet.
We don't do tea leaves here, but if the PCCC is calling on Manchin to apologize before the polls even close... it's tempting to conclude someone's reading tea leaves. - JL
4:56pm - Maricopa County, AZ, reportedly has fixed its voting tabulation issues that impacted 60 polling sites. According to CNN, county officials said in a statement that technicians changed the printer settings because the printers were “not producing dark enough timing marks on the ballots." - CC
4:37pm - We warned earlier that Maricopa County, AZ, technical issues might fuel right-wing misinformation -- and you'd know it's misinformation because the claims would come out before any evidence existed...well, they're right on schedule. NBC's Brandy Zadrozny Tweets that right-wing accounts including those of Donald Trump, Jr., and Charlie Kirk have helped drive an explosion of false claims about election fraud there -- in a county run by Republicans. - JL
4:26pm - A whole slew of polling places are extending voting hours due to long lines and/or technical issues, Democracy Docket notes in an endless string of Tweets. Affected areas include Bell County, TX; one site in Blackstone, VA; three North Carolina precincts; Luzerne County, PA; two Cobb County, GA, locations; and -- I'm guessing -- more by the time I finish writing this. Just a reminder that humans are typically bad at processing big numbers and these are tiny numbers compared to the overall number of sites nationwide, so don't read anything into it other than shit happens. - JL
4:20pm - The Hill reports that Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake told reporters, “I’m going to be your worst fricking nightmare for eight years, and we will reform the media as well," after being asked whether she would serve a full term if tapped as a running mate for Trump in the 2024 presidential race. - CC
4:15pm - As Jonathan noted earlier, Ron DeSantis, the Republican Florida governor, is upset that federal officials from the Department of Justice have been sent to monitor election conditions in his state. It's a cause he's bound to lose, should it come to a legal battle, Daniel Uhlfelder, the head of an anti-DeSantis political action committee tells TYT:
"DeSantis incorrectly suggests that the Justice Department cannot send monitors to three Florida counties because it would violate 'state law.' However, Article VI of the US Constitution, otherwise known as the supremacy clause, trumps 'state law.'" - MS
4:06pm - Trump backs Rep. Kevin McCarthy(CA) as speaker of the House if Republicans win control of the House, in Fox News interview. It's an apparent shift from what seemed to be a fracture in their relationship following comments McCarthy made wanting Trump to resign following the Jan. 6 insurrection. - CC
3:55pm - Because of the way that some states count their mail and early voting ballots, voting experts say that several races are likely to see a “Red Mirage,” just like what happened in 2020. That’s because a few states have laws that prohibit election officials from counting early ballots before all the in-person votes have been tallied.
Because Republicans have turned overwhelmingly in favor of in-person ballots cast on Election Day, this will likely mean that several GOP candidates such as Mehmet Oz (a Senate candidate in Pennsylvania) will appear to have significant leads which will evaporate throughout the night as the early votes come in. “BEWARE: it is going to show up in MI and PA tonight for sure,” National Review podcaster Jeff Blehar tweeted. “Blame the GOP legislatures.” - MS
3:40pm - Bomb threat reportedly received at a school 20 minutes outside New Orleans that was being used as a polling place today. Voting was moved to another school. - JL
3:32pm - Andrew Warren is the Hillsborough County, FL, state attorney who was suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for exercising prosecutorial discretion and not prioritizing prosecution of those who violate Florida's new anti-LGBTQ and anti-reproductive rights laws ... and he's now weighing in on DeSantis's standoff with the federal government today over federal election monitors. In our conversation (Twitter thread here) this afternoon, Warren noted that the three counties in question are heavily Democratic, that DeSantis has zero legal grounds to block Justice Department monitors, and stands to benefit politically with MAGA voters by suggesting there's something suspect about federal election monitoring. - JL
3:21pm - Tudor Dixon, the extremist Republican running for governor in Michigan, has lagged in the polls during her entire campaign, but her supporters already appear to be generating conspiracy theories about voting in Detroit in the event that she loses as expected today. On Monday, a local state judge threw out a Republican lawsuit that attempted to force all residents of Detroit (and only Detroit) to vote in person or to obtain an absentee ballot from the city clerk, allegedly because the city had violated Michigan election laws.
“Despite plaintiffs’ arguments to ‘shed light in a dark place,’ they have failed dramatically,” Wayne County Judge Tim Kenney wrote, saying that the plaintiffs had presented “no evidence of election law violations.”
Moments ago, ex-president Donald Trump promoted the discredited allegations on his Twitter clone website, meaning that even though they were shown to have no evidence backing them, Republican voters will likely be repeating nonsense about voting in Detroit this year for a very long time. - MS
2:50pm - Disabled voters reportedly are finding it harder to vote this year, facing new obstacles imposed by Republican politicians. The New York Times specifically cites Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) and Republican legislators for placing new obstacles in their way.
2:20 pm- After Donald Trump began generating conspiracy theories about “voter fraud” in his 2020 election loss, his most loyal Republican supporters have become obsessed with the idea, including the idea of having armed vigilantes station themselves near voting places.
According to a new poll from the University of California-Davis, the vast majority of Americans don’t support people with guns patrolling areas around voting places. But among people who voted for Trump and incorrectly believe the 2020 election was stolen, more than 40% support armed citizens near voting centers or ballot boxes.
About 15% of Americans overall and 33% of Republicans in the survey said they voted for Trump and believed the election was stolen from him. There’s lots more sobering data points in the study (including strong majority support among MAGA for violence) so please check it out. - MS
2:15pm - The refusal by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to let Justice Dept. monitors into polling places in three Florida counties is raising alarm among advocates. In a statement to TYT, State Voices CEO Alexis Anderson Reed said this afternoon:
“The news coming out of Florida this morning is extremely concerning. Election officials should not be denying nonpartisan poll monitors — who are seeking to keep voters, poll workers, and our elections safe and secure — from accessing polls on election day.
“Even in the face of targeted voter intimidation efforts and conspiracy theories, we need to instill trust and transparency on Election Day.”
State Voices is a national coalition of groups advocating for multiracial democracy. Reed added that people can get help if they witness anything questionable about voter security by texting or calling 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
As Candice noted earlier, Missouri is also balking at federal monitors, even though federal law trumps state law. - JL
1:38pm - We're awaiting comment from the Dept. of Justice as Florida and Missouri have both blocked DOJ election monitors from entering their polling places. Florida and Missouri are two out of 24 states, which also include Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, where the DOJ will monitor compliance with voting rights laws. - CC
1:17pm - TYT's John Iadarola Tweets out Media Matters flagging Fox lying to viewers by saying vote-counting shouldn't take days. Meanwhile, as we mentioned earlier, Republicans (Karl Rove's and Bill Barr's group) literally sued in Philadelphia to delay some vote-counting there. - JL
1:10pm - Those tabulator issues in Maricopa County, AZ, voting machines that we mentioned earlier are providing fodder for people who don't need facts to make accusations. We've already got reports of right-wingers alleging voter fraud. It's really important to note how quickly these explanatory theories arise, because the earlier they are, the more they're admitting they're ready to make claims without evidence. Instantly self-discrediting. - JL
1:02pm - A legal battle is under way in Pennsylvania over ballots that were mailed in on time -- but the voters failed to write the date on them. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D-PA) has asked a judge to make sure those votes are counted in his Senate race, while Republicans have argued the votes should be tossed, and even sued trying to block election officials from notifying early voters to correct their submissions before Election Day. - JL
11:53am - Democratic campaign committees and top allies held a private call last night to strategize response if Republicans prematurely declare victory tonight, Axios reports. Other than issuing pre-emptive public warnings against this kind of thing, the strategy as reported so far seems to consist of assuring that there's a strategy. - JL
11:26am - Washington Post reporter Yvonne Wingett Sanchez Tweets that Maricopa County, AZ, is having tabulator problems at about ten percent of polling places. - JL
11:17am - More than one in five Black citizens in the state of Tennessee have been stripped of the right to vote, ProPublica reported this morning, based on data from The Sentencing Project. Specifically, 21% are barred, due to past felony convictions. That number is about 16% in Mississippi. And an additional eight percent of Tennessee Latinos can't vote either. Stripping citizens of constitutional rights is one of the foreseeable results of simple-minded "tough-on-crime" policies and politics. - JL
11:03am - More details on that Rove/Barr lawsuit delaying the Philadelphia count tonight. The Washington Post's Aaron Blake Tweets that the only Republican on the three-person elections board says this about the lawsuit:
“I want to be very clear that ... the reason that some ballots would not be counted is that Republicans targeted Philadelphia — and only Philadelphia — to force us to conduct a procedure that no other county does."
- JL
10:57am - There's a showdown brewing in Florida, where the Justice Department announced it's sending federal election monitors to check out polling places in three counties. But state Secretary of State Cord Byrd reportedly says he's going to block the federal monitors and send state monitors to keep out the federal monitors. Pretty sure federal law trumps state law, so I'm guessing someone's in the process of getting a judicial injunction right about five minutes ago. We'll be following this today. - JL
10:50am - The easiest way to attack government is to assert its failure has led to a "crisis" (except when it's a pandemic and government response might in any way obstruct capitalism). We've seen it with crime but we've also seen it with education. Yes, COVID (and our crappy response to it) massively disrupted education. But recent polling data shows that people who actually have kids in school are pretty happy with those schools. Remember that when pundits tonight suggest that Republicans might be better at education policy. - JL
10:36am - Philadelphia will delay counting thousands of paper ballots tonight, the New York Times reports. That's after a lawsuit said the process could lead to double-counting: Meaning voters could cast paper ballots and then show up in person. That could delay the results in the tight Senate race between Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz -- and delay, as we've seen, can create space for specious fraud claims that can then be used to justify specious legal (or illegal intervention). Just ask Pres. Al Gore. As the Times notes, the group filing suit was founded not by Trump loyalists, but by classic, old-school Republicans including former Pres. George W. Bush advisor Karl Rove and former Trump Atty. Gen. Bill Barr. - JL
10:05am - Local ABC station reports that every single voting machine in Mercer County, NJ, was down today. The state Democratic machine appears to be functioning normally. - JL
9:37am - I've meant to flag this for a while, but the Washington Post IDs one of the country's top 50 megadonors this cycle as "CEO of...a large poultry farm." The post doesn't mention that Ronnie Cameron is also a multi-million-dollar supporter of the secretive, right-wing Christian organization, known as The Family, which runs the National Prayer Breakfast and uses it to stand up right-wing networks around the world. - JL
8:59am - Early report that TargetEarly is tracking an eight-percent increase in turnout over 2018, the last midterms. That, and a younger electorate. (Which, I might add, might be due to increased youth engagement...or decreased lifespans due to COVID...or both.) - JL