Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 37. Sunrise is 6:45 AM and sunset 4:33 PM for 9h 47m 39s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 76.5% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1833, Great Meteor Storm of 1833 takes place:
Although it has been suggested the Leonid meteor shower and storms have been noted in ancient times, it was the meteor storm of 1833 that broke into people’s modern day awareness – it was of truly superlative strength. One estimate of the peak rate is over one hundred thousand meteors an hour, while another, done as the storm abated, estimated in excess of 240,000 meteors during the nine hours of the storm, over the entire region of North America east of the Rocky Mountains.
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Jennifer Rubin offers 7 reasons to be optimistic about the future of democracy. Her first three stand out:
First, courts have proved adept at heading off election-related shenanigans. For example, democracy defenders in Arizona succeeded in obtaining an injunction against right-wing groups menacing drop box locations. Other courts issued a flurry of decisions to strengthen voting rights and free and fair elections before Election Day.
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Second, massive early voting demonstrated the ability of voters to adjust to new election rules. Ultimately, nearly 47 million early votes were cast this year. Media outlets, candidates and voters have become accustomed to the extended process of ballot counting, dampening claims that delays equate to voting fraud. Lo and behold, Republicans have largely conceded the races they lost — without fuss, as they are supposed to do.
Third, low turnout in competitive midterm contests is no longer the norm. The Post reports: “Turnout was especially high for a midterm in several battleground states, where expectations of a close contest appeared to boost voter participation. Voter turnout in Pennsylvania is on track to exceed 2018 by four percentage points. Nearly 6 in 10 eligible voters in Wisconsin and Michigan cast a ballot.” While the nationwide vote total might not surpass that of 2018, it nevertheless remains relatively high.