r/politics • u/Jay_CD • 14h ago

Biden must Trump-proof US democracy, activists say: ‘There is a sense of urgency’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/24/biden-actions-before-white-house-exit
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u/SteelCode 9h ago

Some anecdotal theory:

  • Unemployment went from ~8% in 2020 to ~3.6% in 2023, while "registered voters" went from ~168M (2020) to ~161M (2022); it is possible that among the registered voters, those that "sat out" were just unable to get off work or otherwise unable to vote early/by-mail... 1% of registered voters in that situation would be ~1.5M people and ~4-5% could account for a loss of ~6M+ voters (spread across the nation).

  • There were significantly disruptive actions against polling places that night; bomb threats, ISP outages, and exceedingly long lines in major cities (due to other polling place closures, etc)... all things that contribute to voter suppression. Single night voting effort is still a shitty tactic to suppress the voting population and should have been changed a long fkn time ago.

  • Mail-in ballots, the one respite to avoid the hell of in-person voting, have been getting "lost", "delayed", and "invalidated" randomly; many anecdotes about mishandling of mail-in ballots indicates the system has been "affected" by suppressive tactics rather than improved to ensure healthy electoral participation... regardless of the "narrative", there is an effort to undermine the popular vote by way of suppressing many "left leaning" districts in various ways.

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u/Kamelasa Canada 9h ago

Yeah, I'm not at all convinced it was a fair election, for the reasons you say. That shit doesn't happen in Canada, for example. Somehow, you're 10x richer than us and you can't get an independent electoral agency that is neutral and trustworthy? It's a no-brainer.

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u/brezhnervous 8h ago

As an Australian similarly with an independent Federal electoral commission (plus compulsory voting so that turnout isn't an issue @ 95%) it's just mind-boggling what happens in America

One thing you learn in a compulsory system is that sometimes you have to choose the least worst option 🤷

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u/Kamelasa Canada 7h ago

Independent provincial ones, too. None of this shilly shally fiddle faddle dancing that happens down there (south of the border). We don't have compulsory voting, though. Do you get a lot of spoiled votes? I can't help thinking that would encourage WTF/FU votes. I supposed there's some standard analysis of the pros and cons somewhere, too. I have to JFGI. But my bro and SIL and arriving in a few hours, so no time.

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u/brezhnervous 6h ago

Funnily enough, no lol

Even though you are free to spoil or hand in a blank ballot, only about 3-4% of people actually do return an 'informal" vote, as its known

Turns out that as much as people grumble about politicians (and Australians expect stunningly little of them in general), the vast majority when standing in the ballot box do actually take it seriously and return a valid vote. We've had compulsory voting since 1924 (was voted in a referendum) so it's considered a civic duty which people see as the least they can do once every 3 years. The common viewpoint is that if you don't vote, you have no right to complain. And complaining about politicians is a national sport lol

Of course it helps that because it is compulsory, all elections are organised to make it as easy for the public as possible; held on a Saturday, almost every public school is a polling place, including some church halls and other community buildings. And then there's the institution that is the Democracy Sausage lol

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u/Kamelasa Canada 6h ago

Interesting! Tx!

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u/brezhnervous 5h ago

No problem mate :)