ELI5: If Harris wins 3 quarters of Americans vote but loses the Electoral College from people who Trump put in place....how come she can still lose even after getting the majority of Americans vote? (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by Don_Dickle@lemmy.world to c/explainlikeimfive@lemmy.world

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[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 16 points 4 days ago

It's worth remembering that voter apathy is part of the process. The status quo is built on the idea that people don't change, but people change every day. If Democrats started showing up in Idaho, the way Republicans do in California, they'd get a lot more attention. The GOP spends a lot of time and effort buttering bread in Orange County, because even though they can't win a statewide election, they will provide constant pressure on the state and federal government (not to mention all the money).

[-] Rhaedas@fedia.io 7 points 4 days ago

Not just voter apathy, but voter discouragement. If districts were divided logically, Republicans wouldn't win many key areas through gerrymandering. Then there's manipulation of polling places in different ways to make voting more difficult or even frightening for some people to show up. A fair election doesn't work well for the GOP, so they make sure everything is done to help their results. And this time around they may be doing even more subtle things - see recent news of Steve Bannon's admission of having people in place to question voter authenticity. More scare tactics.