When Bernie Sanders spoke in the Mission yesterday, he insisted that this election will be all about turnout. If turnout is high, Sanders will win; if it’s low, Clinton will win.
The same probably goes for the progressives on the DCCC Reform Slate, Prop C (affordable housing), and the Jane Kim for Senate campaign. If Bernie voters turn out today – and if they had enough sense to register as Democrats so they could vote for DCCC – it will be good news for progressives.
The state Senate race is just Round One — we know that Sups. Jane Kim and Scott Wiener will run again in November. Wiener started much earlier, and has twice ad much money, but Kim has been part of the Bernie movement, showing up twice with Sanders, and if those voters show up at the polls, she may make this close.
Kim doesn’t have to win tonight — she just has to be close enough to make the case that an even-higher turnout in November will put her over the top.
I can’t speak to how many of the new, mostly young voters registered as Democrats since I haven’t had time to analyze that data in SF. I do know that I’ve been getting a lot of calls and emails today from people who didn’t understand the rules – people who registered as No Party Preference but asked for a Democratic ballot, and were allowed (under party rules) to vote in the presidential primary, but couldn’t vote for DCCC. Only registered Democrats get to vote in that race.
I’ve also heard reports of a few screw-ups, people who changed their registration to Democrat to vote in the crucial DCCC race showing up and finding that they were still listed as NPP. Not widespread, but happening.
The good news is, when I rode my bike around this morning to check on voter turnout, most precincts had lines out the door, and were reporting healthy numbers. I voted at around 11am in Bernal Heights, and it was quiet, but the workers there told me that this was the first slow period all day.
I’m sure it didn’t help that AP, and then CNN, announced early in the day that Hillary Clinton had won the Democratic Party nomination (which assumes, perhaps accurately, that the superdelegates will all continue to go with her).
That kind of stuff has an impact: The national news media loves to be first with the news, but when you tell people an election is over before everyone gets to vote, you have an impact.
We will be following the local results, which should be available by about 8:30. And we will be livestreaming the party where the Reform Slate candidates will learn the good or bad news on our facebook page.
