- cross-posted to:
- notvoting@slrpnk.net
- cross-posted to:
- notvoting@slrpnk.net
Graph via Data is Beautiful on Reddit
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Did not vote includes a significant number of disenfranchised people who were denied the ability to vote through having the right to vote taken from them, voting suppression barriers such as lines that were 8+ hours long, removal from voter registries, bullshit ID requirements, and other malicious actions.
Democracy!
And the same people claiming to be victims of voter fraud are the ones perpetrating the election fraud.
Before the 2000 presidential election, Florida’s legislature ordered the removal of deceased registrants, and citizens with felony convictions from rolls – Florida imposes a lifetime voting ban on ex-felons. But it was later reported that at least 1,100 legitimate voters were mistakenly removed from the rolls, according to The New York Times, while some reports project thousands more legitimate voters than that number were prevented from casting a ballot. It is the 2000 election in which President George W. Bush won by a 537-vote margin in Florida.
The actual stolen election.
Clinton/Gore was the first election I was eligible to vote but I was not yet responsible enough to register and actually figure out voting. I never voted until W’s second term, I disliked him enough to finally vote and have not missed an election since.
I’m not from the US and don’t know much about your politics, please explain to me how the party with less votes can win.
The U.S. was founded by slavers, and in order to preserve the rights of white men to own slaves, they built several anti-democratic institutions into the constitution of the new country. Northern states had fewer slaves and more voters, while southern states has more people but most of them weren’t allowed to vote. A one-person one-vote system that included slaves would result in the end of slavery. A one-person one-vote system that excluded slaves would give most of the political power to the north, and would probably end slavery. So to make sure people could continue to be deprived of their humanity, the electoral college was invented.
All states were given votes in the college proportional to their population, with slaves counting as 3/5 of a person. This gave greater power to the plantation owning whites who were responsible for ratifying the constitution, and insured nothing short of a civil war could end their reign of terror.
After the civil war the electoral college remained, and continues to distort the popular vote.
We reallyyyy need ranked choice voting
@Masta_Chief @Five not if the other 40% would actually show up and vote …
You’re right! I, too, would love if that 40% actually voted, AND we need ranked choice voting.
Consider disenfranchised voters may be more likely to vote if they can vote for a candidate they actually like without it being a waste.
So if voting matters so much in the presidential election, why in 2016 did Hillary get 29% of the vote yet lost, and Trump only got 28% but won?
Please, I’m genuinely not understanding but would really like to. Can someone please explain, like I’m 5, why my vote matters at all in the presidential election.
Depends on your state’s electoral college votes. In a way, if you’re in a state “safe” for a party your vote for the opposite is almost meaningless as your vote doesn’t count thanks to the EC being what actually counts in the national election. If you’re in a battleground state your vote is very important as a win in that state can shift which party gets the EC vote.
Populous states have more EC votes, however there are more states that have far, far less population that tend to overwhelm the EC votes of the populous states.
Say for instance California has 54 EC votes (pop ~40 mil); IN, NC, TN, MO have 48 EC votes in total and around 24 million in population combined. Let’s say the latter four are safe “red” states. Now along comes Ohio, a “battleground state” with 17 EC votes and population of 12 million. If Ohio republicans votes win the state, that means the EC votes total 65 for the republicans, a win for them with 36 million people total even though California has 40 million people who voted for the Dems. That’s how you get a minority of individual votes going to a party yet they still win the election.
This is really a simplified version and limited of what happens on a national scale. Some big states are populous and “safe” for one party or the other but tend to lean democrat, giving the Dems large EC votes, most less populous states vote Republican giving the republicans a nearly matching total. That’s why the votes in battleground states like Ohio are incredibly important as they can win or lose an election. It’s how the republicans can lose the popular vote yet still win the presidency.
IOW thanks to the electoral college less populous states can total more EC votes and win the election. If you live in a state that is solidly one party or the other your opposition vote means little. If you live in a battleground state your vote is incredibly important as we’ve seen that a minuscule percentage of votes can swing an election.
I don’t know if that was simple enough, but I hope it helped.
An important historical context for this I would like to add as well. There’s a chance I may be wrong about the specifics but this is my best understanding of it.
When this concept was developed during the constitutional convention. They wanted to protect “states rights”, which has always been a soft language for slavery. The Electoral College is in the same section of the constitution as the 3/5ths compromise, which said that slaves count as 3/5th of a person when being counted as population to have representatives/Electoral college votes.
So modern Republicans are benefiting and have more power than the general population actually voted for, based on a structure used to protect the institution of slavery. This is a key example of “institutional racism(*edit)” and helps me understand the obsession with things like critical race theory. Because understanding the structure, delegitmizes the power Republicans hold. The most obvious example to me right now is the Supreme Court. A mixture between the consequences of institutional racism and modern GOP political rat fuckery is doing so much harm to America.
That’s so disappointing. As a citizen it is your right and duty to vote. You cannot complain about the state of your country if you didn’t vote, as you aren’t doing anything to change it
