As the dark falls here on California’s North Coast, there’s still three hours til polls close — yet back east already, voting has stopped in some places, as the end result starts to gin up.

I voted this morning at Arcata City Hall, and with no waiting at that moment, inked-in my ballot selections and was out of there in nearly-no time.
Polling volunteers were nice, instructive and displayed optimistic attitudes. In a way, although short, the event was an emotional experience.
Reason maybe being the gravity of the day — energy off the seriousness of the electoral moment seemed to captivate City Council chambers, where the polling station was located, and somehow/someway quickened the air.
And there’s this corresponding sense:

Based on data from Gallup, no other president in modern US history had such a low approval rating heading into their first midterm election.

(Illustration: Edvard Munch‘s ‘The Scream,’ lithograph version, found here).

Only 40-percent of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president, according to Gallup. Ronald Reagan carried a 43-percent approval rating at this point in his presidency, while Barack Obama had a 46-percent approval rating in November 2010, his first midterm.

And a poll on the polling: Majority say Election Day should be a federal holiday.
The Hill this morning:

The poll, conducted by Hill.TV and the HarrisX polling company, found 54 percent of voters said Election Day should be a federal holiday, while 46 percent said it should not.
Sixty-three percent of Democrats said the day should be a federal holiday, while 48 percent of Republicans agreed.

Who would have guessed…

And this a kind of black-humor fun: Brian Kemp, Georgia’s chief voter-asshole — Secretary of State, the office which manages elections (also conveniently GOP’s gubernatorial candidate), and a continuous election douche. Despite his political shenanigans with the ballot box, he hopefully, most-likely will lose to Democrat Stacey Abrams.
In an example of cruel-but-not-cruel-enough irony, Kemp presented an “invalid” voter card today when he tried to vote:

Kemp, who went to his home polling place in Winterville, Ga., on Tuesday afternoon, had to go back and get another card after unsuccessfully trying to vote, according to Atlanta’s ABC affiliate, Channel 2 Action News.
A Kemp aide told The Hill that a poll worker was able to right the issue quickly, and his voting experience was “smooth.“

Fingers crossed into the night…