We’re thrilled for the many trailblazing transgender Americans who made history yesterday in their states and local communities by being elected! Clearly, voters are rejecting discrimination and anti-transgender attacks and voting in favor of fairness and equality for all. Take a look: http://bit.ly/2m59379
It’s Election Day tomorrow (November 7th) in the US (aka my third favorite day of the year) and even though it isn’t midterms or the presidential, it’s still really important to get out there and vote! Think of it this way: Local elections are just as if not more important than the bigger ones because you have to live where you live, and they’re in charge; why wouldn’t you want to have a say in that?
Shelly Simonds will ask the Newport News Circuit Court to reconsider the decision to count one ballot in Republican Del. David Yancey’s favor last week. Simonds’ team has asked for
The Virginia House of Delegates was a house divided, with 50 Republicans, 49 Democrats, and one more seat that Democrat Shelly Simonds won by a single vote. After the recount was complete, “all ballots had been counted or set aside following State Board of Elections rules, and officials picked by both candidates agreed the recount was complete.” Because both parties agreed at that point and had no further challenges, that should have been the end of it and the results should have been certified the following morning, resulting in an evenly split state legislature.
Instead, the next morning her Republican opponent, David Yancey, ran to court to argue that one more ballot should have been counted in his favor.
The ballot in question (see it here) voted for both Simonds and Yancey, and was therefore discarded as an “overvote.” Yancey argued, however, that the voter had drawn a line through the bubble next to Simonds, so the voter must have intended to vote only for him.
BRIEF HISTORICAL DIGRESSION: The Republicans are the same political party that argued forcefully--and successfully--in the 2000 Bush-Gore election that numerous Florida ballots were ambiguous and invalid, regardless of the intent of the voters. These included not only the infamous “hanging chad” ballots, where the voter punched through but the chad remained attached by one or two corners, but even a ballot with no punches but the name GORE written across it in giant capital letters.
Back to the current day: The court sided with Yancey, awarding him the ballot and resulting in a tie vote. And in the subsequent random drawing to decide the outcome, Yancey won, giving the Republicans their majority.
“‘It does seem like a sad ending to the story to have to end on a game of chance,’ Simonds said.”
There were a lot of historic firsts after yesterday’s election! A list can be found here. Congrats to the candidates who are paving the way for a better future-- and bye bye to all the shitty nazis who are scared of brown people, LGBTQ+ folks, and women in power. WE WILL REPLACE YOU.
