memeorandum: The looming election disaster (Charlie Mahtesian/Politico)

11:20 AM ET, November 8, 2022

Top Items:

Catherine Rampell / Washington Post:

Democrats are drowning in denial — Democrats appear to be heading toward painful losses on Tuesday, in one if not both houses of Congress. What went wrong will be debated for months, perhaps years. — Much of the problem can be summed up in one word: denial.

Discussion: Mediaite, HotAir and Fox News

CNN:

Biden readies for ‘a horrible two years’ if GOP takes control of Congress — As if Democrats needed any more convincing Tuesday's midterm elections carry enormous stakes, President Joe Biden offered a bluntly dire assessment during a fundraiser last Friday in Chicago.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, CBS News, Bloomberg and Blue Virginia

Jonathan Martin / Politico:

Biden's and Trump's Performances on the 2022 Trail Sow Doubts About 2024 — OCEANSIDE, Calif. — It's the bipartisan truth that dare not speak its name, at least not in public: Republicans and Democrats alike are stumbling into the midterm elections saddled with presidential frontrunners …

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Post, Bloomberg, Washington Times, Cyprus Mail, Instapundit, CBS News, The Hill and Associated Press

Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: Bidenworld makes peace with the midterms — Presented by With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross — DRIVING THE DAY — Every ad has been cut. Every speech has been delivered. Every poll has been taken. And now we wait for the voters to decide. — Needless to say, the stakes are high.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Opinion Today and CNN

Scott Dworkin / Newsweek:
Democracy Is on the Ballot. The Democrats Are the Only Choice

Discussion: AFP, Washington Post, Politico, HuffPost, The Guardian, The Bulwark, Letters from an American, WND, The Daily Caller, Herald, Associated Press, Common Dreams, New York Magazine, The New Arab and WGN-TV

Sabato's Crystal Ball:
Final Ratings for the 2022 Election

Discussion: The Hill, Wall Street Journal, OPB, FiveThirtyEight, Split Ticket, Washington Post, New York Magazine, Outside the Beltway, HotAir, Raw Story, Elections Daily, No More Mister Nice Blog, Fox News, Mediaite, Erick Erickson Show Notes and Instapundit

NBC News:
As Democrats press ‘threat to democracy’ in campaign's final days, few GOP candidates still want to talk about 2020

Discussion: Politico, Eduwonk, CNN, Washington Post, Hyperallergic, Washington Times and The Guardian

Elena Schneider / Politico:
Specter of midterm wipeout threatens Dem plans to shake up presidential primaries

Discussion: The Hill

The Philadelphia Inquirer:

John Fetterman's Pa. Senate campaign is suing to have undated and misdated ballots counted — Lt. Gov. John Fetterman's campaign for U.S. Senate has joined the legal fight over whether mail ballots with no date or the incorrect date should be counted in Tuesday's election …

Washington Post:

DeSantis official says Justice Dept. can't send monitors to 3 Florida counties — The DeSantis administration is attempting to block Department of Justice election monitors from gaining access to polling places in South Florida, saying in a letter that the federal government's involvement would be …

Discussion: Fox News, The Capitolist, Florida Politics and Raw Story

Kimberly Wehle / The Bulwark:

Case After Case After Case: The GOP Keeps Suing to Toss Out Midterm Ballots — “While it is easy to hurl accusations of violations of law and corruption, it is another matter to come forward and produce the evidence.” — The midterms have sparked debate as to whether this election is a referendum on the future of American democracy.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Atlantic, Raw Story, MLive.com and Bridge Michigan

OpenSecrets.org:
Most Expensive Races — Some Congressional races are seeing more spent by super PACs …

Discussion: Fox News

U.S. Department of Justice:
Justice Department to Monitor Polls in 24 States for Compliance with Federal Voting Rights Laws

Kelly Weill / The Daily Beast:
These Counties Already Want a Recount and the Votes Aren't Even In Yet

Discussion: Arizona Republic, Associated Press, Arizona Mirror, Washington Examiner, Fox News, NBC News, Georgia Secretary of State, WND, Raw Story, The Nevada Independent, CNN and Election Law Blog

David Weigel / Semafor:
Republicans hope Michigan is proof-of-concept for an LGBT backlash

Discussion: New York Times, The Federalist, Sputnik News, National Review, Occupy Democrats and The Daily Wire

Lori Rozsa / Washington Post:
Black voters in Florida express fear, confusion as DeSantis election laws kick in

Discussion: Daily Kos, HotAir, Raw Story, NPR and Los Angeles Times

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Final Election Update: The Forecast Is More Or Less Back Where It Started — Republicans are favored in the House. The Senate is more competitive. — By Nate Silver — Nov. 8, 2022, at 2:20 AM — When we launched our midterms forecast on June 30, Republicans had a 53 percent chance …

Discussion: Vox and Exiled Policy

Sahil Kapur / NBC News:

Early bellwethers: Key races to watch once polls close on election night — Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and other key races to watch on Election Day — The 2022 midterms are shaping up to culminate in an unpredictable election night, with recent surveys showing close fights in a host …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Politico, The Hill, Slate, NPR, New York Times, Sacramento Bee and Roll Call

Amy Walter / Cook Political Report:
Three Most Likely Scenarios for Tuesday

Discussion: The Guardian, New Republic, The Daily Wire, The Daily Caller and WHNT-TV

Casey Newton / Platformer:

Musk discusses putting all of Twitter behind a paywall — Will he go through with it? PLUS: Botched layoffs, how the new Blue could lose money, and more — If Friday brought massive layoffs to Twitter, Monday brought fresh evidence that the company will never be the same.

Discussion: Gizmodo, Fortune, Mashable, Metro.co.uk, New York Times, Adweek, Breitbart, Protocol and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Kalley Huang / New York Times:
What Is Mastodon and Why Are People Leaving Twitter for It?

Discussion: MIT Technology Review, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, The Atlantic, Courthouse News Service, Mercury News, Quartz, Slate, globalnews.ca, One America News Network, Fortune, Al Jazeera and Cyprus Mail, more at Mediagazer »

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Twitter tells advertisers that user growth is at ‘all-time highs’ under Elon Musk

Discussion: HotAir, Fortune, Washington Post, The Register, Slate, Webb Chatham Report, Mashable, The Atlantic, Twitchy, Brookings, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, Mediaite, The Daily Beast and New Republic, more at Techmeme »

Charlie Mahtesian / Politico:

The looming election disaster — OFF THE RAILS — It's time to talk about it out loud: This year's election is going to be a train wreck. Not just Election Day, but the weeks and perhaps even months to come. — For starters, it might not be clear who controls the House for days, or longer.

Discussion: Morning Shots, ABC News, New York Times and Politico

Matt Keener / American Thinker:

Does Joe Biden Know The Fix Is In? — On November 3, 2020, as election night rolled into election morning, Jill and Joseph Biden walked out alone on stage to stand before a crowd of brand-new Jeeps. “We feel good about where we are. We really do,” Joe Biden said to the occasional honk from the vehicles.

Discussion: Chris Waldburger and Washington Post

Isabella Murray / ABC News:
Early election night results might not indicate final tallies (and why that's OK)

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Bloomberg, The Hill, HotAir, Big League Politics, New Republic, The Gateway Pundit, Summit News, NPR, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Michigan Advance, CNN, PoliticusUSA, Vox and Al Jazeera

Nate Cohn / New York Times:

Are the Polls Still Missing ‘Hidden’ Republicans? Here's What We're Doing to Find Out. — There was no breakthrough in our experiment, but the differences were intriguing. — It won't be long until we learn the results of the 2022 midterm elections — and how the polls fared.

Spencer Abraham / Washington Free Beacon:
On Election Day, Here's What the Polls Really Say

Discussion: HotAir and Daily Kos

Simon Rosenberg / NDN:
On This 2022 Election Eve Would Rather Be Us Than Them

Discussion: Raw Story

Lawrence Norden / Brennan Center for Justice:

Why Does It Take So Long to Count Mail Ballots in Key States? Blame Legislatures … The slow count of mail ballots has been used to cast doubt on election results, but these delays are a deliberate choice by lawmakers in battleground states. — Lawrence Norden Photo — Derek Tisler Photo

Discussion: Washington Post, WHNT-TV, HuffPost, USA Today, Brookings, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Axios, Media Matters for America and Sacramento Bee

Julia Davis / The Daily Beast:

Putin Insiders Pray for ‘Frightening’ GOP Election Sweep — Kremlin cheerleaders are hoping for Republicans to win big in the midterms to unleash “poisonous American spiders, tearing each other up” on Capitol Hill. — Russian state media is following the midterm elections in the United States …

Alexander Hall / Fox News:

Karine Jean-Pierre blasted for warning it may take ‘a few days’ to count votes: ‘This insanity has to stop’ — Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton warned, ‘Counting ballots after Election Day undermines voter confidence.’ — White House warns midterm results may be delayed

Discussion: The Post Millennial, Breitbart, IJR and The Daily Wire

Washington Post:

In one Ukrainian village, occupation ended — and the feud began — SHEVCHENKIVKA, Ukraine — A month after Ukrainian troops liberated this picturesque village in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, the once close-knit community of Shevchenkivka remains cleaved in two over allegations that some residents collaborated with the Russians.