this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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and why doesn't everybody vote? I don't understand why it isn't mandatory i think everyone should have to, men, women, and children. If you can read the ballot, you should be able to vote. I know my nephew wouldn't have voted for trump and he's 10!

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[–] Dorkyd68@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You want children to vote?? Children will vote for whomever their parents vote for.

Jfc were beyond repair

[–] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Indoctrination. People would pop out kids for tax breaks and votes LOL

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Roughly, 40% of Americans simply didn’t vote. Of the remaining 60%, half (30%) voted for Harris.

That makes - roughly- 70% who didn't vote for trump.

A word of warning, we don’t know who that 40% would have voted for had they been forced to. I assume it would follow the same percentages as those who do vote, but there’s no way to know.

Edit: Also note, that’s of eligible voters. 32% of the US population is ineligible to vote (roughly 8% of the total population are adults that are ineligible.)

[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Of course, it's also important to realize that 70% of Americans were fine with Trump being president. 70% of America didn't vote for Harris when Trump was the likely outcome of the election.

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Some people also voted ideologically, like wanting to show that Stein, etc. had a following and that people dislike the 2-party system. That doesn't mean that they "were fine with Trump being president."

[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

So the electoral college complicates things somewhat - a voter for Stein in California probably thought their vote would have no impact anyways - but voters for Stein in more competitive states were absolutely fine with Trump being president.

Due to the vote shenanigans in 2020 I think it was wise in this last election to vote for Harris because had their been an electoral college/popular vote split with Harris winning the college Trump would absolutely try and overturn the results again... but I know most Americans are less politically aware.

[–] TootSweet@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Why do people say more people didn't vote for Trump than did?

Because more people didn't vote for Trump than did.

Trump got more of the popular vote in the U.S. in 2024 than any other candidate did, but he still didn't get 50% of the vote. He got like 49.80% of the popular vote. And that isn't even considering those who didn't vote.

[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 3 days ago (3 children)

why doesn’t everybody vote?

Same reason why most people want to get out of jury duty 🙄

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago
  • restrictive voting laws making it impossible (usually targeting minorities. I.e. voter id laws.)
  • lack of time. People work. Roughly 2/3’s can’t get time off, the others are sleeping or are stay at home parents (and kids at a polling place? Nightmare fuel.)
  • lack of available early or mail in voting
  • frequently fucked up poling locations, making it an all-day thing in some places (which works with lack of time,)
  • general voter apathy (“both sides!!!”)
[–] Tm12@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Are employers mandated to give a half-day for voting? That’s been the case for me in Canada.

[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 days ago

I believe you can't be retaliated against for taking off time to vote but your employer isn't required to compensate you for time spent voting.

[–] Ziggurat@fedia.io 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The real question is why the hell Americans (including Canadian it seems) don't vote on Sunday like the rest of the world ? So people do not work, problem solved

[–] shani66@ani.social 2 points 2 days ago

People work on Sunday tho?

[–] fediverse_fremont@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

but jury duty can take weeks, voting only takes an afternoon and you can skip work for it

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Depending on where you are… it can take an entire day in some places.

Also, for the record we’ve had Nazis showing up armed for a few elections now… and bomb threats were a new novelty.

[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Statistics can be interpreted differently. The following numbers are all rounded back of the envelope math: approximately 77 million people voted for Trump. About 74 million for Harris. Combined they are about 151 million and they represent about 64% of all people who could've cast a ballot. So 100% is about 236 million people eligible to vote. So 236m-151m=85 million didn't bother. You could add this to either total for the candidates and say the majority didn't vote for the opponent. Because not casting their ballot for whatever reason can also be seen as voicing an opinion. It's a bit of statistical gymnastics if you want to make a point, albeit not a good one.

Making the vote mandatory is a philosophical question. In Australia it is mandatory. But in most countries that have elections that deserve to be called that it is not. If you interpret freedom to mean you're also free not to go and vote you cannot make it mandatory. I agree with you that everyone who is eligible should go and vote. But I also believe the choice should be up to the individual. So we should find ways to motivate eligible voters to make use of their (fixed typo) right. With regards to children I'm not sure it's a great idea. If they're very young they may just double the tally that their parents add to. In Europe, some countries lowered the age in some elections to 16, which I think is okay. But I wouldn't go lower than that.

[–] Tetsuo@jlai.lu 5 points 3 days ago

I keep up with US news for years by now and I'm some French dude who shouldn't care about it. The US is a preview of the next issues my country will encounter so I think it matters to follow some American news.

I think it doesn't matter really why American elected Trump twice. It just raises the question on what can we do to change that. And there is nothing else really to do that trying to reach out and convince the other side.

My main philosophical question out of this is what can you do if your country decides unequivocally and democratically to be racist or Xenophobic or commiting war crimes?

It also doesn't really matter as to why a large group of human beings can agree to be racist but I think it definitely says something about humanity. In some way it makes climate change more "acceptable" in my mind. Maybe we do deserve to go extinct if after all this progress and intellectual collaboration all we get is deciding to become racist or discriminatory, to morally fail, to prey on the weak and powerless.

That's how bad the US looks for me right now. It's depressing in general about us humans and not just America. It's a testament to our ability to be evil and to collaborate to be evil or mean to others.

We usually get one or two people saying to look for the helpers in time of crisis. There is no helper for this crisis. Good luck living in a dictatorship I guess.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

As George Carlin once said, imagine the average American, then realize half of them are stupider than that.

[–] fediverse_fremont@lemmy.world -5 points 3 days ago (3 children)

so you dont think everyone should vote?

[–] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

How did you get that conclusion?

[–] SolidShake@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Dude what is your point here?

My son is 12. Can read. You think he has the mental capacity to do his own research and vote on a fucking ballot over national issues that he doesn't even realize are happening around him?

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 days ago

I don't think most adults have that capacity, but doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed to vote.

[–] shani66@ani.social 1 points 2 days ago

God no, most people probably shouldn't, in fact. The average person is way to stupid and uninformed to lead their own life much less the lives of literally everyone else.

[–] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago

Turnout was one of the highest at 64%. (2020 was the highest recently at 66%) It's hard to get everyone to do anything.

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2024-11-15/how-many-people-didnt-vote-in-the-2024-election

Turnout over time