In many states it is near impossible to vote unless you are unemployed or retired due to long lines, terrible hours, and voting locations. It makes me happy to live in a mail-in ballot state where I get my ballot weeks before election day, I have plenty of time to research everyone on the ballot (including judges) and make the best choice available. That's Colorado for you, but we are not alone in that.
And that's a big reason why Republicans are criticizing mail in ballots. If it became that easy to vote, then many more people would vote and they would have a harder time winning elections.
So Republicans will still claim mail in ballots are full of fraud despite there being no evidence of any voter fraud on a significant scale. (Definitely nothing that would sway a federal or state level election. Likely not even enough to sway a local election.)
PA mail-in ballot represent!
Considering the state of the US, it’s really amazing more people don’t vote.
Isn't the problem that there's only two options? Here in Norway we have 10 different parties that are all quite popular. To me having only two options seems only marginally better than 1.
Yes. They have FPTP elections everywhere from top to bottom. Even state houses and senates are divided in blue and red because of this, WTF. They could really do with an electoral system update.
Yes, but the problem is deeper than that because one party is demonstrably worse than the other. Dems are still too conservative, Republicans are literally tearing the country apart.
I always use this analogy when people say "but the Democrats aren't giving me everything I want:
You're on 8th Street and want to get to 1st Street. In front of you are two cabs. The Democrat cab will only take you to 3rd Street. Close, but not really your destination. The Republican cab will take you to 16th Street before locking you in the cab and setting it on fire with you inside.
By the way, not choosing in this analogy isn't an option. If you don't choose (don't vote), then a cab is chosen for you.
So is the Democratic cab perfect? Of course not. However, it's a lot easier to recover from being dropped off at 3rd Street than it is being set on fire all the way over on 16th Street.
Really is frustrating with the amount of apathy going around, it only hurts ourselves
It might not be apathy; it could be the fact that for presidential elections, a vast amount of votes simply don't matter, and that fact bleeds into other elections, where their votes would matter.
What I mean when I say that the votes don't matter is that if a person is right-leaning in a solid blue state or vice versa, they can be reasonably sure that their vote is meaningless, because we let land masses vote for president, instead of people. Of course, this doesn't apply for local elections, but I think it's pretty plausible that this depresses turnout in them, anyway.
There should be a lot more engagement for an updated representative system. Nudge nudge from Europe. I recommend representative voting.
I recommend representative voting.
Do you mind elaborating on this? Do you mean Proportional Representation?
Yes, that's the accurate name! I'm not sure I would call FPTP representative given how alternative votes are lost. Like if I'm a socdem in a red district my vote is void, since the FPTP only have one seat. In a proportional system there are bigger districts with more seats so that lesser groups can get their votes distributed onto a seat.
Like instead of NY State being 102 Dem & 48 GOP, it would be 70 Dem, 10 Socdem, 10 Greens, 20 GOP, 10 Trump, 10 Libertarian etc.
If the elections were on a weekend, like Saturday or Sunday then I turn out would be greater. But the puritans evangelists say that Sunday is for their imaginary little man living in the skies 🙄
Ooo we should make it a national holiday! Have public transportation for everyone to get there and fully support mail in voting across the country.
When would the bus drivers vote, then? Just do away with voting day and have a voting week instead.
“Voters who were more favorable to Republican candidates turned out at higher rates compared with those who typically support Democrats,” the report’s authors write. “Shifting preferences among individual voters – though likely consequential in some races – was a much smaller factor in the 2022 midterms compared with turnout.”
I'm not American but the last 2 elections that they had I definitely wouldn't of bothered voting . Trump vs Hilary and Trump vs Biden . In both cases I really didn't care who won . I don't think any of them actually care about the average American so why bother .
2016 led to a massive removal of civil rights. 2020 was a vote for or against democracy itself. There was an enormous reason to vote.
2024, is going to be the same thing as 2020 as trump still has a chance, desantis out here just getting demolished by trump while RFK Jr is just trying to disenfranchise the democratic party as none of his views fit democrats nor do they fit moderate republicans.
I still think the GOP requires a third party to drive votes away from Democrats to win.
I don't think you're entirely wrong about none of them truly giving a shit about average Americans, but I would love it if you would reconsider the utility of voting at all. I'm a woman in Ohio with a trans kid, and the outcome of the last few state elections has directly affected us. Just like they weren't playing around when they said they were coming for our rights, please know that they're not kidding when they talk about banning pornography and birth control.
It's one thing to not be actively helping as much as they promised (which is absolutely a thing that democrats do, I'm totally with you on that!), but it's another thing entirely to be actively working to turn the United States into some kind of christofascist oligarchy. Please, please vote.
I’m also a woman from Ohio and a little worried about how few people I’ve talked to recently are aware of/ understand the magnitude of the upcoming special election.
For anyone who’s interested: https://www.commoncause.org/ohio/democracy-wire/background-on-issue-1/
Issue 1 would essentially take away majority representation in the state and only allow for special-interest and more polarized issues to come through.
Missouri resident here. We only got medical and recreational marijuana legalized through ballot initiatives because we have a backward state leglistaure like you! Minority rule sucks.
Caring for average Americans is one thing, but assembling a government that is honest, inclusive and benefits the vast majority of citizens is most important; and there are HUGE differences between the candidates you mentioned! It's this line of thinking that is causing so much apathy in our world today, and ultimately this will be humanity's downfall.
Yes both sides are bad but republicans are still way worse..
It's not like Biden is an amazing president but he's doing a lot better than trump did and he's fixing some of the stuff trump fucked up.
Interesting. That’s certainly not the view of most non-Americans I know. To what extent do you actively follow politics?
Which tells me you either weren't paying attention or truly didn't understand what a nightmare Trump and his ilk are.
I really don't understand how the extreme emotions involved with politics in our society can result in apparent apathy. Their are conservatives who are willing to kill people over their political differences, but they still don't vote. Progressives get angry about hate-filled legislation and our steady loss of civil rights but won't spend a few hours to vote the people doing it out of office.
Most races are now decided by tiny percentages. Either party has the potential to suddenly take over the government by an overwhelming majority. Convincing less than a tenth of the people who don't vote to show up would do it!
Is saving the country from chaos really not worth a few hours?
Remember that Republicans have also deliberately done their best to make it much more difficult to vote for a lot of people, as well as opposed any measures which would make it easier to vote.
Standing in line for 11 hours on a workday without access to water would deter most, and that works as designed.
Which means if everyone who didn't vote instead voted for SpongeBob, he would have handily taken the election
Couldn't vote in the last primary because I was registered as an independent. Not making that mistake again
Voting is irrelevant now. It can’t stop what’s happening. Not to say you shouldn’t vote, if you’re informed. But the population is not civically educated, by design. And they’re not educating themselves, that’s the role of the government, which is captured. So the solution is… wait. Wait for the fascism, the war, the collapse. Bernie was proof that reform is impossible.
Hopeless take my dude. I know it feels like we're on a train careening towards a cliff, but don't forget that there are lawyers, judges, and even a small subset of politicians that are still fighting the good fight, and they need to know that we're still behind them.
They may be in a minority, but I think as more and more people wake up, look around, and get involved politically on the local and state levels, we can still turn this ship around. We have access to more information right at our fingertips than we ever have in the past. It's important for us to strike down fascist and extremist viewpoints, shout them down, and ensure that the younger generations see more level headed approaches.
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