It has been a long four days since this past Tuesday. My wife and I voted early by asking for, and receiving mail-in ballots. However, once we filled them out, I drove over to an early-voting location and dropped them off myself on the first day of early voting. We then waited until this past Tuesday for the voting to complete and the results to be known.

On the day of voting my wife was a poll watcher. We both volunteered to be Democratic poll watchers, and we both took the Zoom training class together in order to learn the basics of being a poll watcher. Because Nichole was only a day away from making landfall, and because they decided to split us up between two different polling places at two different back-to-back times, I dropped mine so I could drive my wife over to hers. She was scheduled to arrive at 7 AM, which she did, and to work until 1 PM. I drove back home after dropping her off and then came back with a special chair for her to sit in as well as three bottles of Zephyrhills water and a bag full of dry almonds. She had her iPhone and iPad to aid for any communications if needed (no voice, just texting or writing to a special website). The polling place manager had her sit in an area where she could keep an eye on everything. There was supposed to be a Republican poll watcher at the same time, but he didn’t show up until 11 AM. About the first thing he did was to ask the polling manager if he could sit somewhere else, because he didn’t want to be next to my wife. The polling place manager said no. So he sat next to my wife until my wife left at 1 PM and never said a word. He wouldn’t even look at her. Such is partisan politics these days in Florida.

After the Tuesday general elections I turned off all news and refused to check on anything. I just couldn’t handle it. I didn’t start to pay attention to the news until late Wednesday, when I started to learn that the vaunted Red Tsunami was nothing more than a Pink Splash. It’s true that DeSantis won re-election by 19 points, and Rubio won re-election, but other key races beat back the Republicans in Pennsylvania and Michigan, where Democrats either won re-election or else beat their Republican opponents. The state houses in both states flipped from Republican control to Democratic control, which will be vital for the 2024 presidential election as these are considered critical swing states. Furthermore, I was happy to see Fetterman take a former Republican senate seat, beating fake doctor Dr. Oz. Now I’m hoping and praying that Hershel Walker gets beat in the Georgia runoff.

And as I just checked my phone, neither the House or the Senate have been called, with too many races not fully called yet because the Republicans in those states decided to scrutinize each and every vote because of false claims on the Republican side of non-existent violations, and so things have ground to a glacially slow pace. We probably won’t know all the final tallies until next week at the earliest, and if they’re close enough, then recounts will occur or a runoff, as in the case in Georgia.

The Republicans, who have tried to lie their way into as many elected positions as possible, have been called out and are feeling the unintended consequences of their lies. They tried to skew the polls in such a way as to show a so-called Red Wave, but that never materialized. If there was a bitter lesson I took from the 2016 election, it was to never ever trust any of the polls.

Right now I’m just working around the house, like I wrote about in my last post. I found a box of items that belong to me and go back over 40 years to before I was married and still living in Georgia. I’ve got a corner in the garage with other little boxes like that. Tomorrow’s adventures await…