So much for low Democratic midterm turnout
Earlier this week, a much-publicized poll projected that if overall voter turnout is very high in the upcoming midterm elections, the Democrats will take control of the House by a sizable margin, but if overall turnout is low, the Republicans could narrowly hang onto the House. That’s led to the question of what turnout will look like. Will the Democratic, liberal, and anti-Trump voters become too complacent and not bother to turn out?
Tonight we got a concrete piece of data from one state where a key election is taking place. Rachel Maddow revealed on her show tonight that early voting in Georgia, both in person and via the mail, is – in her words – “through the roof.” Higher overall turnout is nearly always a good sign for the Democrats, whereas lower overall turnout is usually a good sign for the Republicans. So this can only be seen as good news for the Democrats in Georgia.
Of course Georgia may be a unique situation. Over the past week Brian Kemp, the Republican candidate for Governor, is using his current status as Georgia Secretary of State to try to suppress the votes of minorities. This has become a major scandal, and the resulting backlash could be helping to drive early voter turnout on the part of Democrats. Several powerful entities are suing to try to get a judge to order those voter registrations to be reinstated.
The bottom line is this: if early voter turnout ends up being as high nationwide as it is in Georgia right now, and if election day turnout ends up being as high as the early voting numbers, then the Democrats will be in good shape to rack up wins. Over these next three weeks, it’s up to the Resistance to get out there and help drive voter turnout and make it happen.
