ELECTION 2016
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
EXIT POLL
Americans
cast ballots
while
holding
their noses
By NANCY BENAC
and EMILY SWANSON
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Americans held their noses as
they picked a new president
on Tuesday: More than half
of voters cast their ballots
with reservations about their
candidate or because they
disliked the others running.
That was true both for
those backing Democrat
Hillary Clinton and those
supporting
Republican
Donald Trump, according
to preliminary results of
exit polls conducted for The
Associated Press and tele-
vision networks by Edison
Research.
After a long, hard-fought
campaign, just 4 out of 10
voters strongly favored their
candidate.
That’s a marked shift from
2012, when about two-thirds
of voters said they were
voting because they strongly
favored their candidate.
The prospect of a Clinton
or Trump victory was
downright scary to plenty of
voters: Seven in 10 Clinton
voters said they’d feel scared
by Trump victory; 6 in 10
Trump voters felt the same
about a Clinton win.
Other findings from the
exit poll:
WOMEN’S
ISSUES
VS. EMAIL ISSUES
After all of the sound and
fury over Trump’s treatment
of women, it turned out the
issue bothered half of all
voters a lot — and women
were more concerned about
it than men.
About 6 in 10 women were
bothered a lot, compared to
about 4 in 10 men, the exit
poll found.
The partisan divide on the
issue was stark: More than
8 in 10 Clinton voters were
bothered a lot by the GOP
candidate’s treatment of
women, compared to about 1
in 10 Trump voters.
It turned out voters were
somewhat less concerned
about Clinton’s use of a
private email server as secre-
tary of state.
That issue mattered a lot
to about four in 10 voters,
including about 9 in 10
Trump voters. Less than 1 in
10 Clinton’s supporters were
bothered a lot.
Older voters were more
inclined to say they were
bothered by Clinton’s email
issue: About half of voters
age 50 and older were both-
ered a lot, compared with
about 4 in 10 younger voters.
TO BE HONEST ...
Neither
Trump
nor
Clinton gets bragging rights
when it comes to honesty.
About 6 out of 10 voters
said they don’t view Clinton
as honest and about the same
share felt the same way about
Trump.
Does anyone think both of
these candidates are honest?
That number was in single
digits.
Opinions were more
mixed on the question of
temperament.
More than half of Amer-
icans said Clinton had the
temperament to be president
and about a third felt the
same about Trump.
ABOUT THAT WALL
After all the talk during
the campaign about immigra-
tion, it turned out to be a low
priority for most voters: Just
1 in 10 voters said immigra-
tion was the most important
issue facing the country.
As for Trump’s plan to
build a “big, beautiful” wall,
more than half of voters
opposed the idea.
Further, 7 in 10 Americans
thought immigrants now in
the country illegally should
be allowed to stay, and just a
quarter thought they should
be deported. That despite
Trump’s tough talk about
removing those who are in
the country illegally.
Immigration was the top
issue for about a fifth of
Trump voters and less than 1
in 10 Clinton voters. Twenty
percent of Hispanics chose
immigration as the top issue.
Only about 10 percent of
other voters picked it as the
No. 1 issue.
East Oregonian
Page 9A
Long lines, machine snags —
but major voting problems scant
By CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY
and ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Voters around the country
faced long lines, occasional
broken machines and some
hot tempers Tuesday, but
as the polls began closing
from east to west, there
were no signs of the large-
scale fraud, intimidation or
hacking some had feared in
the run-up to the presiden-
tial election.
The scattered problems
mostly involved the sort
of glitches that arise in
every election, including
discrepancies in the voter
rolls, with no immediate
indication of a snag big
enough to meaningfully
alter the overall vote count.
“The biggest surprise
is how uneventful things
have been with this large
a turnout,” said Illinois
State Board of Elections
spokesman Jim Tenuto.
“Everyone was expecting
more problems than this —
and nothing.”
In Texas, a computer
malfunctioned at a polling
place in suburban Houston,
and voters were briefly
sent to another site more
than two miles away. In
key battleground North
Carolina,
a
computer
problem in the Democratic
stronghold of Durham
County triggered long lines
when election officials had
to rely on a paper check-in
process. Several precincts
there extended their closing
times up to an hour
A computer glitch in
Colorado forced in-person
voters to cast provisional
ballots, though there was no
evidence the network was
hit by hackers. Some people
in North Carolina and
Virginia complained they
were not on the rolls despite
registering through the
motor vehicle departments.
And in Dover, New
Hampshire, polls were
staying open for an extra
hour because the city
mistakenly sent an email
to voters with the wrong
John Sleezer/The Kansas City Star via AP
Voters stand in a long line at Berean Baptist Church in Springfield, Mo. on Tuesday.
Cristina M. Fletes/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP
Angela Kelley, a clerk, files absentee ballots at the St.
Louis County Board of Election in Maplewood, Mo.,
on Election Day, Tuesday.
closing time.
Outside
a
Florida
polling place, a woman
campaigning for Donald
Trump pepper-sprayed a
Hillary Clinton voter.
There were reports of
voters waiting for hours to
cast their ballots in such
states as Missouri and Utah.
Some polling places in the
Phoenix metropolitan area
had more than 100 voters
lined up at 6 a.m.
The voting unfolded amid
repeated but unsubstantiated
claims from Trump that the
election would somehow
be rigged. His exhortations
to followers to watch for
fraud at the polls gave rise
to fears of vigilantism and
harassment. There was also
anxiety that hackers might
attack voting systems.
“Overall, the story that
everyone was expecting —
mass reports of voter intimi-
dation — hasn’t happened,”
said Wendy Weiser, head
of the democracy program
at the Brennan Center for
Justice at NYU’s Law
School. “I’ve definitely
seen an uptick in it ... but
it’s not the overriding story
of the election, which
certainly ought to be a relief
to many.”
Trump again suggested
the election might not
be on the up-and-up. His
campaign said it was
seeking an investigation
in the battleground state of
Nevada over reports that
some voters were allowed
to get in line after poll
closing times.
In an interview on Fox
News, Trump would not say
whether he would accept
the outcome.
“We’re going to see how
things play out today and
hopefully they will play
out well and hopefully we
won’t have to worry about
it,” he said. Later in the
interview, he said, “It’s
largely a rigged system.”
Fears of voter intimida-
tion and fraud led to a flurry
of lawsuits in the run-up to
Election Day, and new voter
regulations in more than a
dozen states also held the
potential to sow confusion
at polling places.
In Philadelphia, one
of the places Trump had
suggested were ripe for
fraud, District Attorney
Seth Williams said that as
of the afternoon, there were
no substantiated reports of
voter fraud or intimidation,
and “no walking apocalypse
of zombies voting around
town.”
Meanwhile, state elec-
tion officials were guarding
against any attempt to
breach their computer
systems.
Forty-eight
states
accepted “cyber hygiene”
help from the Homeland
Security Department to
patch their networks and
root out problems that could
allow hackers in, and the
remaining two states hired
contractors to do the same,
officials said.
With voters casting
ballots in 9,000 jurisdictions
and more than 185,000
precincts, the decentralized
nature of the U.S. voting
system was seen as a major
protector against a hacker
having any sizeable effect
on the vote.
California, Massachusetts approve recreational marijuana
By PAUL ELIAS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP)
— California and Massa-
chusetts voters approved
measures allowing recre-
ational marijuana Tuesday,
handing the legalization
movement a huge victory in
the nation’s most populous
state and giving it a toehold
in the densely populated
Northeast.
Voters in seven other
states
also
considered
proposals to expand legal
access to the drug, which is
still forbidden by the federal
government.
A preliminary exit poll
conducted for The Asso-
ciated Press and television
networks by Edison Research
showed the proposal passed
handily in California.
California’s vote makes
the use and sale of recre-
ational cannabis legal along
the entire West Coast and
gives legalization advocates
powerful
momentum.
Massachusetts is the first
state east of the Mississippi
to allow recreational use.
The victories could spark
similar efforts in other states
and put pressure on federal
authorities to ease long-
standing rules that classify
marijuana as a dangerously
addictive drug with no
medical benefits.
“I’m
thrilled,”
said
Northern
California
marijuana grower Nikki
Lastreto. “I’m so excited that
California can now move
forward.”
California was the first
state to approve medical
marijuana two decades ago.
It was among five states
weighing whether to permit
pot for adults for recreational
purposes. The other states
were Arizona,
Maine,
Massachusetts and Nevada.
Florida, North Dakota
and Arkansas approved
medical marijuana measures.
Montana voted on whether
Florida OKs medical
marijuana amendment
Arkansas voters bring
medical pot to the Bible Belt
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida
voters approved a state constitutional
amendment Tuesday to legalize medical
marijuana, broadening access to pot beyond
the limited therapeutic uses approved by the
legislature two years ago.
Amendment 2 passed with 71 percent
approval, well above the 60 percent needed
to become law. Two years ago a similar
measure received 58 percent.
“We were confident going into the
election that it was going to pass but this is
truly historic,” said Ben Pollara, campaign
manager for United for Care.
Pollara said internal polling suggested
that over 70 percent would vote for the
amendment.
Currently, the law allows non-smoked,
low-THC pot for patients with cancer or
ailments that cause chronic seizures or
severe spasms. The ballot measure formally
legalizes medical marijuana, and broadens
access for diseases with symptoms other
than seizures or spasms.
Specifically the measure allows prescrip-
tions for 10 illnesses: cancer, epilepsy,
glaucoma, AIDS, post-traumatic stress
disorder, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,
Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s and multiple
sclerosis. It also allows doctors to prescribe
pot for any other similar kind of ailment.
The Department of Health will regulate
how medical marijuana can be distributed
along with mandating identification
cards for caregivers and patients. Many
rules and regulations — from how the
marijuana is grown to regulations on
how it can be transported for in-home
delivery — already have been passed by
the legislature under laws for limited use
of marijuana. Those regulations also will
apply to the constitutional amendment.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) —
Arkansas became the first Bible Belt
state to legalize medical marijuana on
Tuesday, a cultural tipping point that
advocates hoped would be proof of pot’s
popularity even in conservative parts of
the country.
Voters narrowly approved the consti-
tutional amendment legalizing the drug
for certain patients, despite the opposition
of several powerful industry groups
and the state’s Republican governor,
who once served as director of the Drug
Enforcement Agency. The move came
four years after a similar measure failed at
the ballot box.
More than half the states have legalized
medical marijuana, but Arkansas is the
first in the deeply conservative Bible Belt
to do so. Florida and North Dakota also
legalized medical marijuana on Tuesday,
and voters in Montana were considering
expanding access to the drug there.
Meanwhile, California and Massachusetts
legalized recreational marijuana use, and
three other states were considering doing
so.
Supporters of the Arkansas measure
said it would help patients suffering
from a number of conditions that can’t
otherwise be treated as effectively.
Opponents, including the state Chamber
of Commerce, the state Hospital
Association and Gov. Asa Hutchinson
said legalizing medical marijuana would
be a drain on state resources and make it
harder for employers to enforce drug-free
workplaces.
Opponents of the measure said they
would now focus on legislation next year
to help limit what they called the conse-
quences of the legalization measure.
to ease restrictions on an
existing medical marijuana
law.
In general, the proposals
for recreational pot would
treat cannabis similar to
alcohol. Consumption would
be limited to people 21 or
older and forbidden in most
public spaces. Pot would be
highly regulated and heavily
taxed, and some states would
let people grow their own.
State-by-state
polls
showed most of the
measures with a good
chance of prevailing. But
staunch opponents that
included law enforcement
groups
and
anti-drug
crusaders urged the public
to reject any changes. They
complained that legalization
would endanger children and
open the door to creation of
another huge industry that,
like big tobacco, would be
devoted to selling Americans
an unhealthy drug.
“We are, of course,
disappointed,” said Ken
Corney, president of the
California Police Chiefs
Association. Corney said his
organization plans to work
with lawmakers to develop a
driving-under-the-influence
policy.
The California proposal
sowed deep division among
marijuana advocates and
farmers. In Northern Cali-
fornia’s famous Emerald
Triangle, a region known for
cultivating pot for decades,
many small growers have
longed for legitimacy but
also fear being forced out of
business by large corporate
farms.
“I’m not necessarily
stoked nor surprised,” said
Humboldt County grower
Graham Shaw, reflecting
the ambivalence of the
region to the measure. “I
am very happy that the war
on cannabis in California is
finally over.”
If “yes” votes prevail
across the country, about 75
million people accounting
for more than 23 percent
of the U.S. population
would live in states where
recreational pot is legal. The
jurisdictions where that’s
already the case — Alaska,
Colorado, Oregon, Wash-
ington state and the District
of Columbia — have about
18 million residents, or 5.6
percent of the population.
Twenty-five states allow
medical marijuana.
According to national
polls, a solid majority of
Americans support legaliza-
tion.
Proposition 64 would
allow people 21 and older
to legally possess up to an
ounce of weed and grow six
marijuana plants at home.
Varying tax rates would be
levied on sales, with the
money deposited into the
state’s marijuana tax fund.
The exit poll of 2,282
California
voters
was
conducted for AP and the
television networks by
Edison Research. This
includes preliminary results
from interviews conducted
as voters left a random
sample of 30 precincts state-
wide Tuesday, as well as 744
who voted early or absentee
and were interviewed by
landline or cellular telephone
from Oct. 29 through Nov. 4.
Results for the full sample
were subject to sampling
error of plus or minus 4
percentage points; it is higher
for subgroups.