by Alexis Simendinger & Kristina Karisch
Exit polls showed that some voters on Tuesday are discouraged about the state of America and its future, but also worried about key issues such as abortion and inflation (The Hill). The Associated Press VoteCast exit poll indicated high inflation and concerns about the fragility of democratic institutions weighing heavily on voters. Meanwhile the NBC News Exit Poll saw Americans focused on inflation and abortion, key issues for Republicans and Democrats, respectively.
The NBC exit poll found that voters mostly disapprove of Biden’s job performance and a plurality said they think his policies are hurting the country. A majority of voters also said they are dissatisfied or angry about the way the country is going.
The Edison Research exit poll, used by other television networks, suggested that this midterm electorate skewed older than voters in 2018, with about one-tenth of voters in this election under age 30, while roughly one-third were age 65 or older (CNN).
Americans around the country regardless of party appeared to agree that voting matters.
“I want to do everything I can to use my voice to create the kind of democracy that deserves to exist,” Cheryl Arnold, a voter in Haymarket, Va., told The New York Times.
ProPublica: How Tennessee disenfranchised 21 percent of its Black citizens. (An interesting article but I may I say that the truth is somewhere hiding and it is not in that article)
Across the country, ballot measures offered an unfiltered glimpse into voters’ stances on some of the most pressing and polarizing issues, including voting rights and gun restrictions (The New York Times).
Voters made the importance of abortion clear in ballot measures in multiple states (The New York Times). Vermont became the first state to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, with a decisive 72 percent of voters supporting the measure (The Vermont Digger). California followed suit hours later, similarly passing a proposition to codify abortion rights in the state (NBC LA). In Michigan, voters supported a state constitutional right to reproductive freedom, including decisions “about all matters relating to pregnancy,” such as abortion and contraception (WXYZ).
In Montana and Kentucky, voters turned out against amendments that would have stated there is no right to abortion in their states’ constitutions (WCPO and The Hill).
Maryland and Missouri, meanwhile, both voted to legalize recreational marijuana (The Hill and The St. Louis Post-Dispatch).
