A poll worker shows an I Voted sticker at a polling site on midterm Election Day at the Boulevard Mall Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.
Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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While it will likely be several days before we know the final results of the 2022 midterm elections, early results show that in an off-year election, heroic Americans answered the call of their patriotic duty and showed up to defend democracy.
America needed a rescue because of the monsters who threatened to undermine democratic norms, deny voters the right to have their vote counted, and subvert the very institutions that built this great nation.
We’ve spent months worried that the complete takeover of the GOP by MAGA extremists would lead to the destruction of democracy as we know it. That risk has not been eliminated and more work will need to be done. The unholy alliance of white nationalists, conspiracy theorists and hatemongers remain laser-focused on obtaining absolute power. And yet, today, there is reason to celebrate and have hope for the future of America.
Getting final results in Nevada and across the country is likely to take a bit of time. This is expected as the process of verifying, counting, recounting and litigating results is always time-consuming. That time and attention to detail are not signs of conspiracy or fraud, but marks of a democracy that takes pride in making sure every vote counts, and is counted accurately.
Moreover, we do know that the absence of a red tsunami and the overperformance of the president’s party in a midterm means that Americans aren’t ready to give up on democracy yet.
Poll workers in Clark County, facing years of relentless threats and accusations from the far right stood their ground and ran calm and efficient polling places.
Young people, so often the scapegoats for society’s maladies, appear to have turned out in droves, refusing to allow the generations that came before them to silence their voice and their agency in their own future. No longer can we claim that the voices of young people are irrelevant because they don’t turn out to vote.
Women, who have witnessed 50 years of civil rights progress stripped away by a Supreme Court stacked with religious zealots, proclaimed that they would not be relegated to the silently supportive role they fought so hard to escape in the past. Exit polls showed that while the economy was the top issue for roughly one-third of voters, the far right’s attack on civil liberties like abortion was the top issue for more than a quarter of us.
And Americans of all stripes — even a few Republicans — seem to have broadly rejected the violent extremism and conspiracy-laden rhetoric of the MAGA right.
The autocrats have been put on notice — they’ll keep at it, but the people have declared loud and clear for all to hear that we are tired of this nonsense from the would-be dictators. We have declared that as long as we have the right to vote, we will show up to reject extremism and promote democracy.
Challenges remain as Nevada, the United States and indeed the world face a series of mounting crises related to climate change, aridification, inflation and the rise of far-right nationalism around the globe. Challenges may still lie ahead in this year’s elections as conspiratorial election deniers seek once again to undermine democracy and limit the right to vote, as is currently happening in Georgia. But we have shown that together we can face these challenges.
We have shown that by rejecting violence and extremism, and by embracing the humanity of one another, we can move our state and our country forward.
Voting may be over this year, but the challenges facing our state and nation are ongoing. We must exercise patience in awaiting the final count of the ballots while celebrating that today, at least, democracy triumphed over extremism, and the great American experiment continues.
