We are a nation obsessed with politics and the related battles have drawn our attention like no other reality show ever (including sports). And during this election, (for once) the obsession actually got us off the couch and to the polling place. “At least 48.5 percent of eligible voters participated in this year’s midterm election cycle, reversing a more than half-century decline in voter participation during the midterms, starting in 1964.” Vice: Americans turned up in a big way to this year’s midterm elections — in numbers not seen since the 1960s. And from Vox: Early numbers suggest voter turnout soared in the 2018 midterms.

+ The impact of that larger turnout was not exactly what you might have expected. Here’s a pretty amazing look at the new math from The Atlantic: “The reality of the numbers: America is a country where the government is much more closely divided than the voters are. Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate to 51 seats—though 10 million more people voted for Democrats than Republicans. Democrats took the majority in the House, picking up 25 seats; that’s more tide than wave, though 3.5 million more people voted for Democrats than Republicans.”

+ How to explain that Democrats can have over 10 million more Senate votes and still lose.