Author: Payden H Volbrecht
Source: AP
The election of 2008 where Barack Obama won his first presidency was a critical election for Virginia. A critical election is an election where the voting patterns of a region completely switch from one party to another and maintains the new voting pattern for a few elections. So in 2008 when Virginia voted for Obama it marked a change in the voting patterns for the state. This democratic trend continued in 2012 when they elected Obama again. While both the 2008 and 2012 election represent a critical election both elections were for the same candidate, meaning that the state hadn't switched to the a democratic state but simply liked Obama. The 2016 election is what solidified the fact that Virginia has become a democratic state when it voted for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. In Virginia 1,916,845 or 50% of voters voted for Hillary, while only 1,731,156 or 45% of all voters voted for Donald Trump.
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
News for the Week of 10/25 - 11/1
Author: Payden H Volbrecht
Source: Virginian Pilot
Source: Virginian Pilot
The Race for the Third Congressional District
The race for the the third congressional district continues as current Democratic Representative, Bobby Scott, defends his position against the Republican challenger, Marty Williams. Marty Williams is a retired Chesapeake Police officer who is in favor of lowering taxes on businesses to help create jobs and increase spending of citizens which will in turn create more tax revenue. While Scott wish to raise taxes to help fund early education for children. Scott argues that improving early education will help lower incarceration rates in the long run. While the two candidates differ on most issues they both have pledged to keep their campaigns civil respectful.
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Virginia State Presentation
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1C4XfkQB6UL9-tLb5A3Y5I0ifX6QC_Rp3iHxw4xzhh4o/edit?usp=sharing
Monday, October 24, 2016
News for the Week of 10/18 - 10/25
Author: Payden H Volbrecht
Source: Virginia Pilot
Source: Virginia Pilot
The Predictive Power of Halloween Masks
Tensions about this upcoming election have been high for quite awhile and with the November 8th election quickly approaching tensions are only going to increase. So I felt it would be fun to summarize a Halloween - Political article that I found in the Virginia Pilot. This article looks at how the Halloween costume industry index has successfully picked the winning president based off of sales of candidates Halloween masks. The candidate with the most sales seems to always win the presidential election. However, experts fear that this might be the year that the Halloween costume may be wrong. Costume retail managers are saying that many of the presidential masks that are being bought this year are for the purpose of mocking that candidate. One customer bought a Hillary Clinton mask to go with a prisoners outfit, while others are buying Trump masks with a license to grope accessory. With the big costume buying rush coming up nest week it will be interesting to see what the Halloween Costume Index predicts.
Author: Carter James
Source: The Washington Post
There is a movement going on in Virginia right now that is trying to ban guns at polling places where they are currently allowed. The only places they aren't allowed are places like schools which already have state laws banning guns. With the way this election cycle is going, some pollsters are worried about violence at the polls and want the guns to be out of the situation. State Representative Robert G Marshall shut down the movement pretty quickly. He told the voting board that hey have no power to do such a thing. Some people in the Prince William area have already said that they will be voting absentee out of fear of violence occurring. So while there is a movement in Prince William County to make voting polls a gun-free zone, it's not looking like it's going to happen.
A link to the article can be found here.
Author: Carter James
Source: The Washington Post
There is a movement going on in Virginia right now that is trying to ban guns at polling places where they are currently allowed. The only places they aren't allowed are places like schools which already have state laws banning guns. With the way this election cycle is going, some pollsters are worried about violence at the polls and want the guns to be out of the situation. State Representative Robert G Marshall shut down the movement pretty quickly. He told the voting board that hey have no power to do such a thing. Some people in the Prince William area have already said that they will be voting absentee out of fear of violence occurring. So while there is a movement in Prince William County to make voting polls a gun-free zone, it's not looking like it's going to happen.
A link to the article can be found here.
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
News for the Week of 10/11 - 10/18
Author: Payden H. Volbrecht
Source: The Virginian Pilot
Virginia's online voter registration website experienced high levels of activity on October 17th, the final day of online voter registration. The high levels of activity put a strain on the servers and forced them to shut down for a couple of times throughout the day. The Virginian Department of Elections worked tirelessly to fix the glitches and allow voters to register for the November elections. Spokespersons from both the Clinton and Trump camp have praised the hard work of the Department of Elections for working to allow as many people to register as possible.
The source of this article can be found here.
Author: Liene Riekstiņa
Source: USA Today
Only 3 weeks are left till the election day. Presidential candidates show their readiness to fight till the end. Clinton and Trump are reallocating their resources from one state to another. When Clinton announced $2 million spendings in the state of Arizona (state with a traditional support for Republicans), Trump's team decided to invest $2 million an 19-member leadership team in Virginia to catch up Clinton in polls.
The source of this article can be found here.
Author: Carter James
Source: The Washington Post
During this election cycle, a major issue that is being talked about a lot in Virgina is "right-to-work". Not only does it have to do with ge candidates running this year, Virgina is voting on an amendment to their constitution that according to Tefere Gebre, the senior executive of the nations largest labor group, would weaken labor unions. Virginia is one of five states that are voting on these right-to-work laws this election cycle. Virginia has been a right to work state since 1947 and the amendment wouldn't repeal the current law but would weaken it. In Virginia it is expected that the vote will be a close one.
The source of the article can be found here
Source: The Virginian Pilot
Virginia's online voter registration website experienced high levels of activity on October 17th, the final day of online voter registration. The high levels of activity put a strain on the servers and forced them to shut down for a couple of times throughout the day. The Virginian Department of Elections worked tirelessly to fix the glitches and allow voters to register for the November elections. Spokespersons from both the Clinton and Trump camp have praised the hard work of the Department of Elections for working to allow as many people to register as possible.
The source of this article can be found here.
Author: Liene Riekstiņa
Source: USA Today
Only 3 weeks are left till the election day. Presidential candidates show their readiness to fight till the end. Clinton and Trump are reallocating their resources from one state to another. When Clinton announced $2 million spendings in the state of Arizona (state with a traditional support for Republicans), Trump's team decided to invest $2 million an 19-member leadership team in Virginia to catch up Clinton in polls.
The source of this article can be found here.
Author: Carter James
Source: The Washington Post
During this election cycle, a major issue that is being talked about a lot in Virgina is "right-to-work". Not only does it have to do with ge candidates running this year, Virgina is voting on an amendment to their constitution that according to Tefere Gebre, the senior executive of the nations largest labor group, would weaken labor unions. Virginia is one of five states that are voting on these right-to-work laws this election cycle. Virginia has been a right to work state since 1947 and the amendment wouldn't repeal the current law but would weaken it. In Virginia it is expected that the vote will be a close one.
The source of the article can be found here
Sunday, October 9, 2016
News for the Week of 10/4 - 10/11
Author: Payden H Volbrecht
Source: Virginian Pilot
Friday the 7th of October a video of Donald Trump was released showing Donald saying many vulgar and disrespectful things about women. The following day the Virginia Chairman of Donald Trump's campaign was quoted saying this in Donald's defense, "[Donald] acted like a frat boy, as a lot of guys do." Cory A. Stewart, the Virginia Chairmen, also says that, "Obviously people are going to be bothered by his comments, but I don't think it will make a difference in how people vote". Mr. Stewart is a candidate for the next upcoming Virginia Governors election.
The source is posted here.
Author: Liene Riekstiņa
Source: The Washington Post
After the disclosure of a 2005 video of Trump making lewd comments about women, Republican representative of Virginia Barbara Comstock called for Donald Trump to drop out of the presidential race. Comstock said: "I cannot in good conscience vote for Donald Trump and I would never vote for Hillary Clinton."
She suggested for D.Trump to drop out and allow Republican party to replace him with another Republican nominee Mike Pence.
You can find more info here.
Author: Carter James
Source: WDBJ (Roanoke)
Virginia has an October 17th voter registration deadline and many politicians in Virginia are trying to get potential voters to register, especially among veterans. Earlier this month, the national director of the Veterans for Trump organization visited the Roanoke Valley. He believes that veterans will be the difference makers in this election. He said that 34,000 veteran Virginians didn't vote in 2012 and he believes that a small percentage increase in turnout could mean the difference for Trump in Virginia. The Clinton campaign however believes it also has strong support from the veterans.
The article can be found here
Source: Virginian Pilot
Friday the 7th of October a video of Donald Trump was released showing Donald saying many vulgar and disrespectful things about women. The following day the Virginia Chairman of Donald Trump's campaign was quoted saying this in Donald's defense, "[Donald] acted like a frat boy, as a lot of guys do." Cory A. Stewart, the Virginia Chairmen, also says that, "Obviously people are going to be bothered by his comments, but I don't think it will make a difference in how people vote". Mr. Stewart is a candidate for the next upcoming Virginia Governors election.
The source is posted here.
Author: Liene Riekstiņa
Source: The Washington Post
After the disclosure of a 2005 video of Trump making lewd comments about women, Republican representative of Virginia Barbara Comstock called for Donald Trump to drop out of the presidential race. Comstock said: "I cannot in good conscience vote for Donald Trump and I would never vote for Hillary Clinton."
She suggested for D.Trump to drop out and allow Republican party to replace him with another Republican nominee Mike Pence.
You can find more info here.
Author: Carter James
Source: WDBJ (Roanoke)
Virginia has an October 17th voter registration deadline and many politicians in Virginia are trying to get potential voters to register, especially among veterans. Earlier this month, the national director of the Veterans for Trump organization visited the Roanoke Valley. He believes that veterans will be the difference makers in this election. He said that 34,000 veteran Virginians didn't vote in 2012 and he believes that a small percentage increase in turnout could mean the difference for Trump in Virginia. The Clinton campaign however believes it also has strong support from the veterans.
The article can be found here
Monday, October 3, 2016
News for the Week of 9/27-10/4
Author: Liene Riekstina
After the first Presidential debate on 9/26, no dramatic changes have occurred - Mrs.Clinton is still winning in most states. If we look at the Battleground states, Mr.Trums is doing better than Mrs.Clinton in Ohio, Iowa and Arizona.
Virginia has increased it's support for Mrs.Clinton. As polls show, the week before the debate, Mrs. Clinton was 3.5% ahead of Mr.Trump in Virginia. Almost one week after the first debate, Mrs. Clinton is 8.2% ahead, so she has gained 4.7% support in Virginia.
The graphic below shows how the support for the candidates has changed between 9/19 and 10/3.
Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/va/virginia_trump_vs_clinton-5542.html
Author: Carter James
Source: WJLA (Arlington)
Over the week, a new concern about the election has been increasing in Virginia and that is fraud voting. According to the Virginia Voters Alliance, 1046 undocumented illegal immigrants voted in the 2012 Presidential Election in just one of Virginia's localities.
The Democratic Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, has addressed the concerns and said that Conservative Groups and Politicians are just "trying to create doubt about the election results."
The commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections has also come out and stated that these concerns lack a basis and are "nonsense."
The link to the article can be found here
Author: Payden H Volbrecht
Source: Virginia Post
Today, Tuesday the 4th of October, is a big day for a the little town of Longwood, Virginia as the Longwood University prepares for the only 90 debate between the two Vice Presidential Candidates, Democrate Senator Tim Kaine and Republican Governor Mike Pence. The debate has taken a lot of time and effort by the University community. An 8 foot fence has been constructed around the central campus area for security purposes, the tennis and basketball courts have been taken over by news media trailers, and all of the students in a 10 floor residence hall have been relocated until after the event. Despite the difficulties of preparing for this event, much of the community is excited about what this debate could do for the reputation of the university.
The article for this review can be located HERE.
After the first Presidential debate on 9/26, no dramatic changes have occurred - Mrs.Clinton is still winning in most states. If we look at the Battleground states, Mr.Trums is doing better than Mrs.Clinton in Ohio, Iowa and Arizona.
Virginia has increased it's support for Mrs.Clinton. As polls show, the week before the debate, Mrs. Clinton was 3.5% ahead of Mr.Trump in Virginia. Almost one week after the first debate, Mrs. Clinton is 8.2% ahead, so she has gained 4.7% support in Virginia.
The graphic below shows how the support for the candidates has changed between 9/19 and 10/3.
Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/va/virginia_trump_vs_clinton-5542.html
Author: Carter James
Source: WJLA (Arlington)
Over the week, a new concern about the election has been increasing in Virginia and that is fraud voting. According to the Virginia Voters Alliance, 1046 undocumented illegal immigrants voted in the 2012 Presidential Election in just one of Virginia's localities.
The Democratic Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, has addressed the concerns and said that Conservative Groups and Politicians are just "trying to create doubt about the election results."
The commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections has also come out and stated that these concerns lack a basis and are "nonsense."
The link to the article can be found here
Author: Payden H Volbrecht
Source: Virginia Post
Today, Tuesday the 4th of October, is a big day for a the little town of Longwood, Virginia as the Longwood University prepares for the only 90 debate between the two Vice Presidential Candidates, Democrate Senator Tim Kaine and Republican Governor Mike Pence. The debate has taken a lot of time and effort by the University community. An 8 foot fence has been constructed around the central campus area for security purposes, the tennis and basketball courts have been taken over by news media trailers, and all of the students in a 10 floor residence hall have been relocated until after the event. Despite the difficulties of preparing for this event, much of the community is excited about what this debate could do for the reputation of the university.
The article for this review can be located HERE.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
News for the Week of 9/20-9/27
Author: Liene Riekstina
Source: The Roanoke Times
You can read more about Trump's visit in Roanoke here: http://www.roanoke.com/news/politics/roanoke/trump-stages-roanoke-encore/article_7807c296-7ee2-54e8-a394-c28220a72499.html
Author: Payden Volbrecht
Source: CNN
Last Saturday, 9/24/2016, CNN posted an article that shows Donald Trump either gaining or increasing his lead in many of the battle ground states. Virginia in particular was very surprising due to the fact that the former governor of Virginia, Time Kaine, is Mrs. Clinton's running mate. Mrs. Clinton had such a commanding lead in Virginia that advertising for the democratic candidate in that state had stopped. Unfortunately for Mrs. Clinton, this proved to be a questionable decision as the newest polls show that her lead has fallen too only a 6 point lead. The Quinnipiac University survey that created these polls say that there is a 3.8 point margin of error for the Virginian poll. With Mr. Trump visiting Virginia frequently, Mrs. Clinton may want to start advertising in that state again.
The article that I obtained this information is posted below,
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/22/politics/quinnipiac-university-poll-colorado-virginia-hillary-clinton-donald-trump/
The interesting thing is looking at the millennial vote breakdown. In a head to head poll, Clinton has a commanding lead of 52-30 percent but with the full ballot, Clinton is at 34 percent, Johnson at 27, and Trump at 23. Other data taken from the poll include things like women in Virginia prefer Clinton to Trump at a 2:1 ratio and military voters prefer Trump 48-39 percent.
Source: The Roanoke Times
This Saturday on 9/24 Donald Trump was visiting Roanoke city in Virginia. This was his second appearance in the last two months.
Trump gave a 30-minute speech to a crowd of about 8,000 people. He started his remarks with a shout-out to the Virginia Tech football team, which won against East Carolina University team earlier in the day.
The rest of his speech covered such topics as college debt, opioid abuse, over-regulating the energy industry and the notorious topic about building a border wall between the United States and Mexico.
Latest polls show that 42% Virginians might vote for Trump, so the race is tight. That is why Trump plans to be back in Virginia every week until the election in November.
You can read more about Trump's visit in Roanoke here: http://www.roanoke.com/news/politics/roanoke/trump-stages-roanoke-encore/article_7807c296-7ee2-54e8-a394-c28220a72499.html
Author: Payden Volbrecht
Source: CNN
Last Saturday, 9/24/2016, CNN posted an article that shows Donald Trump either gaining or increasing his lead in many of the battle ground states. Virginia in particular was very surprising due to the fact that the former governor of Virginia, Time Kaine, is Mrs. Clinton's running mate. Mrs. Clinton had such a commanding lead in Virginia that advertising for the democratic candidate in that state had stopped. Unfortunately for Mrs. Clinton, this proved to be a questionable decision as the newest polls show that her lead has fallen too only a 6 point lead. The Quinnipiac University survey that created these polls say that there is a 3.8 point margin of error for the Virginian poll. With Mr. Trump visiting Virginia frequently, Mrs. Clinton may want to start advertising in that state again.
The article that I obtained this information is posted below,
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/22/politics/quinnipiac-university-poll-colorado-virginia-hillary-clinton-donald-trump/
Author: Carter James
Source: WDBJ7 (Roanoke, VA)
A poll was conducted recently by the Watson
Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University. The poll shows that
currently among likely voters in Virginia that Hillary is currently beating
Donald Trump in the state. In a head to head contest between the Republican and
Democratic nominees, Clinton is winning 48-38 percent but among the 5
candidates that will be on the Virginian ballot, the tally is Clinton 39,
Trump 33 and Johnson 15. Green Party nominee Jill Stein and independent Evan
McMullin each take 3 percent. The poll also found that 54 percent of voters
dont trust Hillary and 53 percent of voters find Donald Trump to be racist.
The interesting thing is looking at the millennial vote breakdown. In a head to head poll, Clinton has a commanding lead of 52-30 percent but with the full ballot, Clinton is at 34 percent, Johnson at 27, and Trump at 23. Other data taken from the poll include things like women in Virginia prefer Clinton to Trump at a 2:1 ratio and military voters prefer Trump 48-39 percent.
Monday, September 19, 2016
How is Virginia going to vote?
Author: Liene Riekstina
Main source: www.270towin.com
Main source: www.270towin.com
Virginia is one of the original 13 colonies and birthplace of 4 of the first 5 U.S. presidents, including George Washington. In 1792, Virginia controlled 15.9% of all electoral votes which is the largest concentration in U.S. history. From the post-Civil War Reconstruction period through 1948, Virginians almost always sided with the Democrats in elections. However, from 1952 through 2004, Virginia was reliably Republican. Again in 2008 Virginia changed its voting habits by voting for Democrat candidate, Barack Obama. Figure 1.1. shows a graphs depicting the voting history of Virginia.
Virginia voting history
(Figure 1.1.)
 |
Yellow:
winning candidates from party other than Democratic or Republican.
Red:
Republican party
Blue:
Democrat party
2016
is colored green until after the election.
|
In order to
become President 270 ellectoral college votes are required, Virginia
has a higher number of electoral college votes with 13. It is likely
that in 2016 elections Virginians will vote for Democrat candidate
Hilary Clinton. Latest polls show that 46% might vote for Clinton,
while 42% might vote for Trump.
The presidental race is going to be tightenting nationally but polls
are already indicating that Clinton is more likely to get the
required 270 votes. Figure 1.2 is a map that shows the current poll
standings for each State.
If no
candidate receives 270 electoral votes, the House of Representatives
will pick the president. Each state delegation gets one vote,
regardless of the number of congressional districts it has. 26 votes,
representing a majority of the states, are required to win.
 |
| (Figure 1.2.) |
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
News for the Week of 9/13 - 9/20
Author: Payden H Volbrecht
Source: The Virginian Pilot
September 9th 2016 Hilary Clinton's Running Mate, Tim Kaine, gave a speech at the Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. It was a 22 minute speech that highlighted a few of the more debated and recent issues that have been brought up about the two front runners of this election, Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton. The most notable criticisms that Kaine gave towards Republican Candidates was to criticize them for their support of the Russian President Vladimir Putin. In addition to also calling Trump out for criticizing military service members, their families and the Pentagon.
With regards to Hilary Clinton, Kaine spoke about her military policies specifically the US Navy. Kaine told the crowed that Hillary Clinton did not support automatic budget cuts which would limit the funding for many parts of the military. He continued on in support of Clinton by reassuring the audience that she acknowledges her mistake of combining her work email with her personal email and that she learned from this mistake and is striving to do better in the future.
After the speech Kaine answered a few questions for The Virginian Pilot about his next step in the campaign process. Moving forward Kaine is preparing for his debate with the Republican Running Mate, Mike Pence, the 4th of October and continuing to spread Hillary's message to citizens of the USA.
A link to the article can be found below:
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8
Author: Carter A James
Source: Fairfax City Patch
On Friday the 16th at George Mason University, First Lady Michelle Obama spoke at a Hillary Clinton event. It's the first time she has spoken on Hillary's behalf since the Democratic National Convention in July. Michelle avoided talking about the Republican candidate Donald Trump by name but talked about the negativity surrounding the campaign.
Michelle talked about the important characteristics a president needs to have that she believes Hillary does have, that it's about the poise of the candidate, not about being the loudest. Lastly, Obama encouraged the students in attendance heavily to register to vote and mentioned that Barack only won Virginia by 150,000 votes in 2012. The latest poll in Virginia as of Thursday has Hillary up by 3 points.
A link to the article can be here.
Source: The Virginian Pilot
September 9th 2016 Hilary Clinton's Running Mate, Tim Kaine, gave a speech at the Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. It was a 22 minute speech that highlighted a few of the more debated and recent issues that have been brought up about the two front runners of this election, Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton. The most notable criticisms that Kaine gave towards Republican Candidates was to criticize them for their support of the Russian President Vladimir Putin. In addition to also calling Trump out for criticizing military service members, their families and the Pentagon.
With regards to Hilary Clinton, Kaine spoke about her military policies specifically the US Navy. Kaine told the crowed that Hillary Clinton did not support automatic budget cuts which would limit the funding for many parts of the military. He continued on in support of Clinton by reassuring the audience that she acknowledges her mistake of combining her work email with her personal email and that she learned from this mistake and is striving to do better in the future.
After the speech Kaine answered a few questions for The Virginian Pilot about his next step in the campaign process. Moving forward Kaine is preparing for his debate with the Republican Running Mate, Mike Pence, the 4th of October and continuing to spread Hillary's message to citizens of the USA.
A link to the article can be found below:
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8
Author: Carter A James
Source: Fairfax City Patch
On Friday the 16th at George Mason University, First Lady Michelle Obama spoke at a Hillary Clinton event. It's the first time she has spoken on Hillary's behalf since the Democratic National Convention in July. Michelle avoided talking about the Republican candidate Donald Trump by name but talked about the negativity surrounding the campaign.
Michelle talked about the important characteristics a president needs to have that she believes Hillary does have, that it's about the poise of the candidate, not about being the loudest. Lastly, Obama encouraged the students in attendance heavily to register to vote and mentioned that Barack only won Virginia by 150,000 votes in 2012. The latest poll in Virginia as of Thursday has Hillary up by 3 points.
A link to the article can be here.
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