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Polls Close In Florida, Connecticut; Voters In Other States Continue Casting Ballots

Paresh Dave |
November 2, 2010 | 10:00 a.m. PDT

Executive Producer

More than 90 million voters nationwide today will either rebuke or affirm a sweeping liberal agenda charted by President Barack Obama two years ago that has done little to calm nationwide angst about a feeble economy stunted by unemployment rates not seen since Ronald Reagan's presidency.

About 20 million Americans voted early, nine million people on Facebook say they have voted and, today 42,000 people have checked themselves in at polling places on foursquare, as of 5:00 p.m. PDT. Polls closed at that hour in Delaware, Florida, Connecticut, Illinois and Pennsylvania.

In Kentucky, Democrat Jack Conway should lose a Senate contest to Republican Rand Paul, giving some foundation to the Tea Party. Party-breakdowns for turnout there and in Pennsylvania will offer clues as to whether projections about an “enthusiasm gap” favoring Republicans will hold.

Republicans are savoring the chance to take over the House with pollsters predicting 55 wins, though only 39 seats must be added to their roll to claim a majority. Democrats are clinging to poll data showing that they will maintain control of the Senate. And the president could be left to search for ways to shed the elitism that has plagued him and ingratiate himself with the same Republican lawmakers he's labeled as destructive to America's prosperity.

Spending by outside organizations boosted the campaigns of conservative candidates nationwide, but by the time many of those ads aired, some 20 million voters had already turned in their ballots in what will likely become a record for a midterm election.

Congressional realignment is not foreign to either party, and the most recent upheaval for Democrats, amid Bill Clinton's presidency in 1994, did not choke a building leftward surge in the nation's political climate.

If by early evening, Republicans do capture control of the House, they could stifle efforts at bolstering environmental protections, responding to calls for greater rights for gays, affording more benefits to struggling Americans and counteracting skyrocketing college tuition.

Though Obama entered office promising to reach across party lines, he failed to give Republican ideas worthwhile credence. Commentators criticized the lofty seat Obama seemed to believe he held. Though he may have entered with a mandate to “move American forward,” he never fully took the reins of America, allowing Republicans to launch a massive castigation of “Obamacare.”

Fierce lobbying and a poor strategy split Obama's own party, continuing to disengage him from the bases that elected him in the first place. October's reddish hues sparked the president's athletic aggression—a fuel that sent him on a nationwide tour of rallies and fundraisers. He blasted Republicans for getting the country into a mess and offering that Democrats are the one's that can dig the nation out of its hole. Confident as ever, he attempted all the way through this past weekend to re-kindle the hope of 2008.

Returning back to their grassroots foundations, Democratic incumbents and challengers alike have also relied on millions of volunteers in the final days before today's elections to call and walk up to the doors of several million voters.

Republican get-out-the-vote operations were doubly stronger than usual this year, partially because of funding from conservative groups such as Republican strategist Karl Rove's American Crossroads. All told, campaign expenditures across both parties should reach $4 billion.

But the battle has gone on for much longer. Since Scott Brown's election to the Senate in a January special election to take over the late Ted Kennedy's seat, Republicans have realized they may have a chance to highlight Obama's shortcomings. The Tea Party movement emerged, putting Sarah Palin front and center of a resurgence of America's deepest conservative roots. Whether her campaigning will help or hurt Republicans remains to be seen. Also unknown is if a significant number of the 138 Tea Party candidates actually are victorious and provide a new voice in Congress.

Eighteen hours of voting began at 3 a.m. PDT and concludes at 9 p.m. PDT when polling places in Hawaii and Alaska shut their doors.

Voters in states with some of the key races out of the 500-plus for congressional and governor's posts heard Obama's voice as they drove in early morning traffic, admonishing them that he would point his finger at them if they failed to vote. For his own sake in 2012, the president will be monitoring governor's races in battlegrounds such as Colorado, Florida, New Mexico and Ohio.

 

Reach executive producer Paresh Dave here. Follow him on Twitter: @peard33.



 

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