= new reply since forum marked as read
As in simple minded.
Look.
You want be myopic about "what went wrong" for Dems @ mid-terms '14?
OK, be my guest. Have at it. It was ALL about turnout.
If you'd like to discuss the range of variables that contributed heavily
to the Dems "taking a shellacking", then we need to look at bit more than turnout.
.. At things like these:
There is verifiable evidence for at least these forms of election buggering by GOP:
1) onerous voter ID requirements (see Texas)
2) "Official" misinformation about polling place location, date of election
etc. distributed to deliberately mislead Democratic voters.
3) unbearably long-lines in heavily Democratic precincts
4) "running out of" ballots in ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
5) taking machines off line for "maintenance"
6) "losing" registration records
7) tracking ^above^ and then (in closing hours) hacking electronic-voting
machines (as needed to "close the deal"
in final stretch.
Looking the other way on these ^ is NOT doing the Democratic party any favors, believe you me.
I once had a friend explain to me why he was a republican.
Jesus told his disciples to fish off the right side of the boat.
Needless to say, we parted ways.
With a 36% turnout, that means that approximately 19% of the voting eligible public spoke, and we're all forced to listen.
I don't mean this as an excuse for the party's grand failure this cycle, but it is a part of it.
Dems in Oregon are happy as clams with our tried and true Vote-by-Mail system ... paper ballots, filled out at your leisure at home (or wherever), early voting as you will, verifiable by hand count as needed for recounts, etc.
I can't recommend it highly enough .. oh, and our turnout was pushing 70% .. i shit you not.
Why not require vote-by-mail at Federal level?
And it won't happen nationally because it would be the end of the Reublican Party as we know and hate it.