• solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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    4 months ago

    it really says all it needs to that dems are trying to get MORE people to vote, and GOP are trying to PREVENT as many people as possible from voting

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Lets all remember that time one of the largest pop stars in the world gave a message to her fans on stage to remember to vote, and was instantly targeted by the GOP for being anti-american, and they started a beef with her that would drive thousands of people against the right.

      How does anyone not see it and get what’s happening? I feel like you would have to have eaten ALL the crazy pills for this to make sense.

      • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        How does anyone not see it and get what’s happening? I feel like you would have to have eaten ALL the crazy pills for this to make sense.

        I keep repeating this, and people don’t like to hear it, but 75% of American Adults identify as religious, 68% as Christian.

        The majority of Americans are willing to discard logic, reason, and evidence in favor of believing in an imaginary man in the sky. These aren’t usually simple spiritual belief systems either, these are complex religious, historical, and social belief systems the rely entirely on “faith” to believe - or to believe it because you were told to, not because there are any real-world reasons to give these beliefs validity. The beliefs that the majority of Americans believe in range from “demonstrably false” to “having no evidence”, and yet people believe in these things with their whole hearts.

        With the most devout (read: immovably stubborn) Christians concentrated on the right, it is no surprise at all that the far-right is completely divorced from reality. Republicans treat their political views like they are a matter of faith already. They believe, despite the lack of any evidence of it, that Jesus Christ personally supports their party and their candidates.

        Now, inevitably someone will chime in here to say “but Todd, I believe in the almighty skydaddy, are you saying that I am stupid?”. Yes, I certainly am. My point here is that the further disconnected from reality we get, the worse our decisions get, and if you believe that there is a supernatural entity watching you from the sky deciding whether or not to torture you with fire, you are disconncted from reality and I trust you less than I would someone that doesn’t believe obviously fake shit.

        • ameancow@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          I don’t see it changing anytime soon. If I may go off on a tangent.

          If any of us have gained anything of material use from the “AI revolution” it wouldn’t be plagiarized drawings of Taylor Swift as an anthropomorphic fox with six breasts, it would be the dawning realization that we’re not so special.

          If so many of us can be tricked with a predictive text app into believing something is aware and alive, a technology in its infancy, what are the next several decades going to look like?

          I don’t believe in the AI hype, the “singularity” subreddit is packed with the most delusional people in the world. And they sound exactly like Christians, Trump supporters or scientologists or any other cult.

          It’s inherent to our experience here, that our brains trick us into thinking that thinking is special, that our conscious experience is somehow separated from the universe.

          The harsh reality is it’s not separate from the world. Most of our decisions are made up to an hour in advance, most of our life is rehearsed by parts of your brain that don’t talk, that don’t narrate. You are made of thousands of layers of “entities” that sort and assemble information and then make you think you’re able to control the world around you with something called “choice.”

          So now, understanding these hard truths about the human condition… when will it get better? When will we start to set aside superstition and fear and mythology to make us feel better about that gnawing fear we all have, the one lingering in the backs of all our minds that we can’t quite touch, the fear that we really aren’t in control, we really aren’t that special. We made cities, but can ants. We travel in space but so can fungus. We go to war with each other but so do chimps.

          We are not letting go of religion or mysticism. Not in our current form. Maybe if we’re really, really lucky some of the most delusional techbros are right, and we will have a system in our lifetimes for “upgrading” our brains and expanding our ability to comprehend and understand each other. I am not holding my breath though. These are the same people who tried to convince us that NFT’s were the future.

    • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Right?!

      Like…even if you had no idea what either party stood for, or what positions they took on the various specific issues that concern the population in the present, all you really need to know is how a democracy works in theory, how presidential elections work in the US in practice (and by extension, how these two things differ, thanks to the Electoral College)…and where each party stands on voting rights, voting access, districting (and gerrymandering)…and as a dark horse…public education.

      One side wants as many people as possible to get out and vote (and while they obviously hope they’ll vote Democrat, most of their messaging, to their credit, is focused not on ‘go vote for us’, but instead ‘the most important thing is that you get out there and vote’), wants to make sure that everybody who wants to vote is able to do so, has no roadblocks, hoops to jump through, bureaucratic red tape, etc., wants every voter across the country to have a voice equal to every other voter, and wants everyone to have a good (and improving) baseline of education, as a foundation upon which to make an informed decision about their voting.

      The other side wants to suppress the vote, wants to disallow voting by default unless the individual takes steps to prove themselves, wants to introduce obstacles to voting access, wants to maintain and perpetuate a system where some voters have disproportionately more impact than others on the overall results (a system which, by the way, has much of its origins in the political maneuverings of slaveholders)…and most telling (and disturbing) of all, in the long term, actively, directly, and overtly makes efforts to reduce and degrade the quality of public education, literally seeking to reduce access to quality education for anyone not fortunate enough to be born into a family with the means to provide for a private education.

      Seen to its logical conclusion, one side is literally seeking to revert decades if not centuries of progress on education and return to a situation where an education (and the opportunity it provides) is a privilege reserved for the children of affluence, where wealth, opportunity, class mobility, and professional occupations are reserved and exclusive to the wealthy, and in effect secured to them and their future generations indefinitely. And the best part (for them) is that once this happens, the future generations of uneducated lower and middle classes won’t have the education to understand what’s being done to them, or how it might be different.

      • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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        4 months ago

        i couldn’t have said it better.

        but don’t forget to include that one side chose to employ fake electors

        one side staged an insurrection at the capitol to try to overturn the entire election process

        even ignoring all the fraud, adultering, rape, pornstar hush money, criminal negligence, theft of classified documents, and everything else their wannabe dictator cult leader did, the 2 things above really tell you all you need to know about republicans

        • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          And the side that actually, verifiably tried to use fake electors to subvert the will of the people (even against the stacked deck of the electoral system that benefits their side)…is also the side that loves to spread constant (and constantly disproven) lies about their opponents’ voter fraud.

          Like…even if I agreed with their platform on the issues, the GOP would still not get my vote based on the way they try to get that vote…in order to gain power…to realize their goal…of getting to a point where my vote loses its power.

  • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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    4 months ago

    If all of the people who didn’t vote because “It would never make a difference” actually voted, we could have had a constitutional amendment by now removing the electoral college.

    • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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      4 months ago

      Seriously

      I love how the takeaway from this is “yeah fuck politics amirite” and not “dude it is THERE FOR THE TAKING for anyone who is inspiring enough to actually get people voting for them”*

      (*and who feels like overcoming the significant hurdles of the media and the DNC cooperating to do their best to tank their campaign which they will definitely do if you are inspiring enough for people to want to vote for you)

      THERE FOR THE TAKING I tell you

        • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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          4 months ago

          democracy may not be available in all areas, ask your local TV conglomerate whether democracy is right for you

      • Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Nah. There’s always going to be those, “They’ll never win”, “they’re not a practical choice”, “Voting third party is a waste” types.

        Democrats and Republicans can only agree on one thing. They don’t want more competition. I think that’s why voter apathy is so bad

        • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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          4 months ago

          I have a former roommate that her reason for not voting is that she doesn’t think it effects her. She thinks she can live an apolitical life because she just doesn’t want to deal with it. Meanwhile she can’t afford anything because our state makes it really hard to get food stamps

        • reddithalation@sopuli.xyz
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          4 months ago

          voting third party will just split the vote for the side you want though (and thats a big problem when the opponent is literal evil or whatever, and the margins are so tight), we need to switch to a better voting system like ranked choice voting to allow more than 2 options.

    • Wes4Humanity@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Has someone run on that platform before? Can’t vote to change the system if no one is running (allowed to run) who plans to change the system.

    • joostjakob@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Just having the vote on a non working day or giving (almost) everyone obligatory paid leave that day is way easier and could already have quite an impact.

      • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 months ago

        Everyone was also at home/working from home/on flex schedules due to covid in 2020. People had time to vote, they had time to research things and take part in political discourse. Everyone always forgets that little historical tidbit.
        2024 may hit record low voter turnout as the nazi’s ratchet up anti voter laws, removing polling places, and companies keep putting the economic screws on their workers with stagnant pay and forced return-to-office so citizens don’t have time to think about the political process.

          • uis@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            Another confirmation that Russia is European country.

            Also, US, please fix yet another thing you are worse at than Russia.

            • infeeeee@lemm.ee
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              4 months ago

              Who debated that. Historically, culturally Russia is European. Most of the population of Russia lives on the western side of the Urals.

              But using it as a good example of elections, well… In the US you can choose from 2 candidates. In russia you can select from 1…

          • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            4 months ago

            Yeah, I’d love voting on a Saturday tbh. There’s still a lot of people working service schedules who wouldn’t be able to, but that could also be fixed by universal vote by mail, or make it two separate days even… really the answer is just to make it a damn mandatory holiday and call it.

        • veroxii@aussie.zone
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          4 months ago

          Can Biden just say fuck it and declare a national holiday? Would that help at all? What about making voting mandatory like we have in Australia? You get a small fine if you don’t vote which is usually enough incentive.

          • Takumidesh@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            It wouldn’t really help I think, I think what needs to be done is a change in the verbage and communication, nov 5th should be communicated as the deadline, and early voting should be renamed to just be the voting period.

            In my state early voting starts on Oct 17th, meaning you have more than two week for in person voting.

            Absentee ballots (mail in) can be cast as soon as you get it, which is typically almost 2 months in advance.

            Besides, the people who would get ‘national vote day’ off as a holiday are the people who probably already have the means to get to a ballot box.

          • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            4 months ago

            Having a national work holiday would do wonders for voter turnout. Most people in states who are required to vote in person can’t get the time off to visit a poll booth while they’re open.

        • ⸻ Ban DHMO 🇦🇺 ⸻@aussie.zone
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          4 months ago

          People had time to vote, they had time to research things and take part in political discourse

          Which is precisely why it should be mandatory, otherwise politicians can just go about making life difficult for people to suppress votes. There is no place for political disengagement in a democracy

          • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            4 months ago

            The problem I have with mandatory voting is, besides the fact that it would require a national holiday and changes to timing that would already drive up voter participation… given current political behavior in the US it’s going to drive a lot of apathy voting to just avoid the consequences that could be more harmful than not.

            I absolutely think every citizen should be voting, but it’s also not really right to just force them to do it- Give them the resources (time off) and the reason to actually do it, and we’ll have turnout of 70%+.

            • ⸻ Ban DHMO 🇦🇺 ⸻@aussie.zone
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              4 months ago

              we’ll have turnout of 70%+

              That’s not good enough. Are you afraid of people having their opinions be heard? Without 100% participation you do not have democracy. Voting should be done on the weekend or on a public holiday or held over the course of a week or two. If people don’t want to vote they are most welcome to move to Russia. American democracy is hanging on by a thread anyway. If Harris wins January 6th might happen again and the MAGAs will know what they’re doing this time. If Trump wins he’ll abuse his power and set back international relations (I would like him to tear up the AUKUS “deal” because it sucks for Australia). And with the assassination attempt against Trump we might have the crazies from the other side take matters into their own hands.

              Both sides think America is over if the other guy wins. I’m lucky I don’t have to deal with this shit in my country (though we are certainly on that path)

          • tyler@programming.dev
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            4 months ago

            That’s why Colorado is on the 2016 chart with such good turnout. It’s incredibly easy to vote here. You’re automatically registered. You automatically receive a blue book weeks ahead. You automatically get a mail in ballot. And there’s thousands of drop-off locations. Mine is literally two streets over. Takes like 4 minutes to walk there, I don’t even bother to mail it in because it’s almost just as much work to do that as drop it off.

      • Ech@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        2020 was the highest US voter turnout in over 100 years (percentage wise), and it was still atrocious. Also worth noting, trump got the second most votes of any presidential nominee in US history, thankfully beat by Biden, but it’s not like all of the new voters were purely against trump.

    • Norah - She/They@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      4 months ago

      I think the most interesting thing about these two maps, is that Georgia kind of proves the people wrong who don’t vote “because it wouldn’t make a difference in my state”.

  • NelDel@lemmy.one
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    4 months ago

    Since I moved from a red state to Colorado it’s been mind blowing how painless and accessible it is to vote in this state.

    Before every election all registered voters automatically get a mail-in ballot, as well as a detailed book explaining every issue & candidate on the ballot with sample arguments for & against. You can then either mail the ballot or drop it off in very convenient drop boxes that are usually less than 10 min from your place. In some ways it’s difficult to not have at least some idea of the political landscape for most voters.

    • abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      Since I moved from a red state to Colorado it’s been mind blowing how painless and accessible it is to vote in this state.

      I think that is something we need to stress here: A lot of people in America don’t vote not because they are apathetic but because, well, they often don’t have access because they have to work and can’t get time off, and it doesn’t help that certain states cut and limit the amount of voting places to prevent people from voting.

      I remember seeing the images from Georgia in 2020 where there were queues around the block, hell, some fucking states have laws preventing people from offering water for people waiting in line, knowing that people will be waiting in line for a long time. And the fact the places where those polling stations tend to be set up in ways to stop certain demographics from voting is another thing. There’s laws there to prevent students from voting in some states, there’s laws making it hard to vote by mail, you fucking name it.

      Meanwhile in the UK, I just had to fill in a PDF form and send it to my local valuation office and I could get a postal vote. No restrictions on who can do this, you can just apply.

      • NelDel@lemmy.one
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        4 months ago

        Yep! It’s real bad, I had to wait in a line around a building on a Tuesday morning the first election I voted in. One of the big things too is that there are fewer polling centers in the city, and usually more in the suburbs (proportional to the amount of people there).

        So while you have a quarter of the eligible voting population in a city go to a single voting center, in the suburbs you have a much smaller group with a less crowded (& usually more convenient) polling area.

      • Match!!@pawb.social
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        4 months ago

        in Colorado you don’t even have to apply for a postal vote, it is the default voting mechanism (though in person ballot boxes are also available)

      • Noobnarski@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Thats insane, here in Germany voting is always on sunday and (at least in my state, we may have some small time variations in others) I can go vote from 8-18:00, or I could do a postal vote, although I never bothered to do that because its just easier to vote in person, the lines were never really long or even existant at all.

        Right now I just have to walk 200m to the next primary school and vote there, its very easy and relaxed.

        • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz
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          4 months ago

          In New Zealand we have a “voting day” which is a Saturday, but you can vote before the day, there is no restriction. You can vote for a week before the election.

          The last two elections, I cast an early vote because it fit better with my schedule.

        • abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          4 months ago

          So fun fact: In the UK, elections and votes are always on a Thursday because it was the furthest day from Saturday (when people went to the pub) and Sunday (when people went to church, this rule was instituted when people were more religious).

          Now my local polling place was my local school (which changed with Covid because they didn’t want to interrupt education even more) so when I was a kid when there was an election we always got election day off. :)

    • TrippyFocus@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      Colorado has so many props on the ballot as well since I believe anything affecting taxes has to be voted on that way. I really like the direct democracy.

      • NelDel@lemmy.one
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        4 months ago

        One odd holdover from TABOR (giant tax structure from the 90s that is still around in one way or another) is that any issue affecting taxes MUST BE PRINTED IN ALL CAPS FOR THE ENTIRE TEXT. It’s so funny to see

    • tyler@programming.dev
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      4 months ago

      You’re also automatically registered to vote here as well. There’s a reason that Colorado is on the first chart.

  • A_Very_Big_Fan@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I never knew Hillary won the popular vote by so much. Remind me, why the fuck does the electoral college exist???

    • Weirdfish@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      To give a disproportionate amount of voting power to rural areas.

      People look at a map and go “Oh my god look how much square footage is red” and can’t comprehend the population density of large cities, so feel they are under represented.

      Same principle as two Senators per state, and Congressmen are supposed to balance that out by representing population, until the artificial cap on number of Congressman.

      Between that, and the insane gerrymandering, Red rural votes are just weighed higher than Blue urban votes.

      • lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        That isn’t why it existed in the first place but it is part of why it still exists today. Afaik nobody has made a serious effort to get rid of it but it’s time. The electoral college needs to go

    • Asidonhopo@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      While she did win the popular vote by a wide margin the chart shows how many electors each candidate (including No Vote as a candidate) would get rather than directly representing popular vote by state.

  • Wes4Humanity@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    What if “didn’t vote” counted as “voted against both options, please try again with less shitty candidates.”?

    I think we’d have a better world

    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Hot take: voter suppression would be far more widespread, as it would stalemate the current “interim” government into power. Permanently. The current system, for all its flaws, doesn’t have that weakness.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      What if “didn’t vote” counted as “voted for both options, they’re equally wonderful and we’d be happy either way”?

        • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz
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          Not really, did not vote is exactly the same as voted for the winner. In a FPTP not voting is saying whoever wins, that’s what I wanted.

      • hightrix@lemmy.world
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        I’ll take one good option. That’s all I ask, someone to vote for, not as a vote against the other person.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          The problem with a Presidential system is that there are plenty of eligible candidates. There just aren’t any “electable” ones. Even within a given state, you often only have one “electable” option, because your state is going to tilt 5-30pts towards that person anyway.

          One of the appeals of a small-district parliamentary process (as seen in pretty much every other functioning liberal democracy) is that you don’t need to choose between Old Racist Fuck and Coconut Lady. You can focus your attention on local politics and send up an MP aligned with a regional party willing to form coalition on the condition they can bring back some benefits to their community.

          But that requires you to have elected officials you can actually meet in your neighborhood, rather than minor aristocrats who govern from impenetrable gerrymanders spread across a 50 mile territory.

    • dirtbiker509@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      And also ranked choice voting, so there can be more than just 2 people running. F the 2 party system.

  • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
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    4 months ago

    …okay, you’ve convinced me. As someone from a beige state that’s been presidentially blue for over 30 years (meaning my vote means dick-all due to EC shenanigans), I will continue to show up and vote to make sure it stays that way.

    Maybe one day I’ll even get an inspiring candidate to vote for.

    • Zorque@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I’m assuming you’re showing up for more than presidential elections, though, right? Where your vote counts even more?

      If you think presidential participation is low, you should see state and local numbers. Or don’t, if you’re prone to depression.

      • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
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        4 months ago

        Yes. Unfortunately I live in a nepo congressional district where the mob boss’s — I’m sorry, party power broker’s — little brother has a seat for life and runs unopposed every primary. And said “power broker” is VERY deeply embedded in the state dem machine (and much of the business dealings in and out of the public view), to the point where court action was needed to stop the ballot placement fuckery.

        It’s also next to impossible to dig up information on county commissioners, township committee, and school board candidates. “John Doe was born in neighboring Othertown but has lived and worked in Hometown for decades. He has three children in the local school system with his wife Jane. ‘I care very deeply about policy and I think things should be good, not bad.’ John likes to go for long walks in the local park when he’s not hang gliding at his mountain vacation house.”

        Unfortunately techniques like this work, as (at least) one of the Moms Against Liberty types got voted onto the school board last term. The term before that, they were all mask-off for the standard conservative Covid crap and lost… but not by much. They scrubbed their online presence to be as generic as possible… and the only POC on the board lost her seat.

        And yes, I am prone to depression.

      • Pronell@lemmy.world
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        No, they were saying they didn’t bother since their party was winning anyway. Easy to misread though.

        • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
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          I did vote in 2000. “Wait… so the son of the VP during Regan’s Reign of Dementia is really a for real candidate?” Didn’t matter, state went blue, Florida did not because some guy named Chad Brooks hung his brother in front of SCOTUS.

          I did vote in 2004. “Well this guy is completely forgettable but at least junior is going to follow in daddy’s footsteps and be a one pump chump.” Didn’t matter, state went blue, I begin to question reality.

          I did vote in 2008. “I have no idea who this guy is but he talks a good game and he pisses off the bigots.” Didn’t matter, state went blue, record numbers came out to vote, and my mom suddenly cared about politics because she’s a racist piece of shit.

          I did vote in 2012. “Let’s keep this rolling please and thank you.” Didn’t matter, state went blue, Bain Capital went on to kill both KayBee Toys and Toys R Us as revenge.

          I did not vote in 2016. “These choices are bullshit, what the hell.” Didn’t matter, state went blue, large areas of empty space went red, and the oval office went orange despite almost three million more people voting for Buttery Males over Fraud Inc.

          I did vote in 2020. “This election smells of mothballs and Icy Hot but at least I don’t have to stand in line.” Didn’t matter, state went blue, record numbers came out to vote, fascists went mask-off.

          I will vote in 2024 (and already voted in the primary, which… didn’t matter). “I truly believe we are living in some sort of simulation, how can this possibly be real life?”

          Pass the coconuts.

          • Match!!@pawb.social
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            4 months ago

            hey, maybe it doesn’t feel like it matters, but the margin of popular vote victory does mean something for the effectiveness and legitimacy of the ruling party (especially in the face of coup attempts)

          • Pronell@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Yup, that was the point. They used to do that but now realize they might actually be needed.

  • Teodomo@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I’m not an American so I’m not sure I understand. Wikipedia says voter turnout in 2016 was 59.2% of the voting-eligible population. Even if we count is a percentage of the voting-age population (i.e. including people with felonies or without citizenship or barred from voting for other reasons) it’s still 54.8% voter turnout.

    But that bar at the top of the graph makes it look like only around 15% voted.

    Can someone explain?

    • WIZARD POPE💫@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Does the top graph not just show that all the gray states had people that did not vote be the largest percentage.

      So if for example 30% voted for Biden and 31% for Trump, you still have 39% that did not vote thus making the non voter ‘candidate’ win.

      In this case the voter turnout is 61% yet the non voters represent the biggest share.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      It’s cause by FPTP. If the largest share of voters in a given state were people that didn’t vote, all the electoral college votes should go to “did not vote.” That doesn’t happen IRL because they just ignore low voter turnout.

      • takeheart@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        It’s true but for the broader picture one should add that many people don’t bother to vote if their state is predicted to be a landslide victory for either candidate.

  • LordJer@beehaw.org
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    4 months ago

    I live in deep red Utah. A lot of people I know do not vote because they do not see the point. These people, who stem from all political spectrums, believe “republicans will always have control over state and local political offices.”

    • Crikeste@lemm.ee
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      I live in deep blue Utah with connections to the punk scene. The political apathy that has been expressed to me, while simultaneously wearing badges of pride and shit makes me want to vomit. Pure aesthetic bullshit, made even more hypocritical under the banner of ‘punk’.

  • kandoh@reddthat.com
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    4 months ago

    An interesting idea, unless the majority of people in your state voted you get no electors to send. Force states to drive participation

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      The problem there is that the Constitution says the state legislators get to pick how electors are selected. They don’t even have to hold popular elections, even though all 50 states currently do. In fact, the Supreme Court hinted in its decision in Bush v Gore that state legislature can change the rules between the November elections and the actual election in December.

      That is: Republican legislatures can decide to ignore the election results and send Republican electors if they don’t like the results.

      Texas already passed a law allowing the Texas Secretary of State to overturn elections in Harris County (Houston).

  • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    We should count non-voting eligible voters like this, and if not voting wins in your state you don’t get any delegates for the electoral college.

    Then just scrap the “first past the post” system and whoever gets the most delegates wins. In 2016 it would be Clinton with 51 vs. Trump’s 16.

    • psud@aussie.zone
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      You’d have states mandating voting, and passing laws that businesses must give staff time off to vote. That’ll never get up

  • Crisps@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    This is why voting needs to be really easy. If a phone app/website is good enough for banking, it is good enough for voting.

        • Norah - She/They@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          Yeah, I think it’s the best detailed, but beginner-friendly, overview of why electronic voting is a bad idea. Heck, I’m Australian too, and we treat pens as too high-tech for our elections because they could be switched for ones with disappearing ink.

          IMO analogue is just better for elections. Whether mail-in or not, there’s a physical object with your vote attached, not just a few bytes in a computer. It is far, far harder for a bad actor to control an election when they have to contend with faking thousands of bits of paper.

    • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      How would that not just make them vote due to whatever bullshit commercial they saw the day before?

      • thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        How is that any different to now, beyond just more people being disenfranchised from voting due to not being able to stand in line for hours?

        • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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          Its different in that they actually have to take effort to vote so that would tend toward more educated voters and ones that actually care and are not just swayed for a moment while laying in bed.

          • thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            more educated voters

            Yeah, no - that’s not how it works in the US.

            There is only one political party intent on making it harder to vote (GOP), as they have long deduced that they are unable to win when voter turnout-out is high. Reminder that the only time a Republican president won the popular vote in the last 30+ years was in 2004 - and required both 9/11 and the incumbency advantage to get it done.

            Conservatives don’t want educated voters, they just want to incense their (gullible) base and disenfranchise everyone else from voting.

            • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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              4 months ago

              If conservatives are the ones that dont want educated voters, why do the democrats directly seek to get younger people to vote and even want to lower the voting age?

              • graeghos_714@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                No one is trying to get the voting age lowered. Could some people be talking about it and some media hacks focus on that talk? Sure, but not anyone with any power to do anything. It’s like those on the right who want to increase it again to 21. Are there some talking about it? Sure. Will anything be done about it? Not anymore chance than it would be lowered to under 18. It’s a BS media talking point click bait

                • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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                  4 months ago

                  Sorry man but you are wrong. It was a couple years ago, but they had an actual vote on this and about half of house democrats voted to lower the age, and virtually no republicans did. Democrats would like to lower the age because they would get more votes. I can look it up if you wish, but its a thing they want.

                • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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                  4 months ago

                  I CORRELATE age with knowing what is going and being deceived less. So now see above question.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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      I disagree that we need to cater to the laziest people in the country to get their vote. Voting is already very easy, especially in states with a mail-in ballot. If you can’t even be bothered to open a letter, fill in a couple of bubbles, sign your name, and drop an envelope in your mailbox, then idk that we actually want your opinion on who should run the country.

      By “you” I just mean anyone, not actually you.

      • JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Disabled people exist so it wouldn’t just be “catering to lazy people.” And like you pointed out, not all states have mail in ballots. An online option would be good for people who literally can’t stand in line for hours.

        • UnpledgedCatnapTipper@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          As someone who works in IT, an online option is a terrible idea for a number of reasons. Instead, every registered voter should get a mail in ballot automatically sent, and if you prefer to vote in person you can do that instead.

          • JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            I like your idea better. It makes waaay more sense and more people would probably vote that way honestly

  • millie@beehaw.org
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    Which is why we need to spend our energy this election on motivating voters who are already on side but think voting is pointless, rather than bothering to convince fence sitters who aren’t already convinced by a Trump’s behavior.

    Get your friends in swing states to vote! Get them to get their friends to vote! Harris has this, especially if we can motivate even like 5-10% of non-voters!

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    4 months ago

    If it didn’t help other global powers, i.e. Russia, I’d say this is a reason to have New England be it’s own country.