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This blog is the work of an educated civilian, not of an expert in the fields discussed.

Wednesday, July 01, 2020

Primary Update: More Returns and Other Races

The increase of absentee ballots has the possibility to extend  elections and the early primary returns in Kentucky and New York were only preliminary.  Thus, yesterday, we had an official announcement that Amy McGrath won the Democratic "let's beat Moscow Mitch" Primary.  The margin of victory there (an over 40% plurality, which in a place like Georgia would have meant a run-off) was less than the votes from also rans. I'm somewhat concerned about such results and think instant run-off voting would be appropriate in such cases. 

The Kentucky returns led the 270 to Win website to estimate that Biden basically exactly (2376; exact would be 2375.5) has enough delegates to win in the first round even with superdelegates involvement.  Thus, we have another boundary passed though a more "official" count will come when the New York official results are dropped.  As of now, Biden won every delegate in Kentucky except for two, which is labeled at one site as "uncommitted," about 11% of the state as a whole that status.  An instant run-off approach could have helped Sanders some in Kentucky.  

There were three state primaries yesterday (Colorado, Oklahoma and Utah) with an assumed pick-up this fall winning the Democratic primary in Colorado though he has been having some issues of late including an ethics charge. Oklahoma passed a measure of special note: "At least 200,000 Oklahoman adults will be newly eligible for Medicaid, but program enrollment may climb even higher as the state's unemployment rate has surged to nearly 13 percent." OTOH, the eighty-five year old troll in the Senate is likely to comfortably win in November. 

While the other stuff is happening, third parties have also been picking their candidates.  In 2000 and 2016, third parties were of special concern.  This time around, there appears less of a chance, and a non-entity (sorry) winning the Libertarian Party nomination (Green has yet to be picked) is perhaps telling.  Who is to know -- some state very well might be so close that it will turn on these people.  As seen here, there actually are a range of third party options in various states and (is this is thing?) Rocky De La Fuente has been nominated for three of them. He is a perennial candidate and sort of a familiar fill in the blank sort there.

There are multiple primaries in a week span in early to mid-July and I will do a wrap-up after the last (Puerto Rico, Democratic) is over. And, we have some time to go before the New York votes all will be counted -- talking at least next week.  

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