this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2024
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Actually, the recent record turnouts should really be getting you to pay attention to how the elections are structured. It turns out, the way districts and the electoral college are organized means that where you get out the vote matters. Telling people to vote harder doesn't make those systemic obstacles go away.
This is on purpose, too. The farthest-right states also just so happen to have the lowest educations, incomes, healthcare, etc. They make it miserable for people who live there to organize AND so people from cities don't want to move there.
Which is also why they wind up filled with "small business owners" who seem to all be about making money off land they own.
The thing is, the record turnouts are still pretty bad. Something like 60% of eligible voters, I think? You're right that there are systemic reasons why it's not feasible for some people to vote. But if everyone who didn't have a systemic reason to not vote did, the turnout would still be much higher.
-Pew Research Poll on Voter Turnout
And it looks like a significant portion of the 30% who don't vote are white adults without a college degree who lean Republican.
70% of eligible voters participating in at least 1 of 3 elections is abysmal. That only 37% voted in all 3 demonstrates this.
I'm not sure how intense your off year elections are, but one of mine had only a single uncontested race, so I'm not sure I'd jump to considering missing some of the offyears "abysmal".
66% voted in the 2020 presidential election. That number sucks considering how high the stakes were.
Based on the numbers I'm looking at, the people who didn't vote were the ones that were likely Republican voters. The people that stayed home were likely Republicans who did not vote for Trump. I'm all for political engagement, but I'm not sure how invested I am in making sure Trump gets all the votes he told people not to cast.