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Unfortunately the red team has been working to disenfranchise as many voters as possible. The country is far bluer than the electoral map would suggest, thanks

Unfortunately the red team has been working to disenfranchise as many voters as possible. The country is far bluer than the electoral map would suggest, thanks to years of voter suppression.

rayiner 6y ago
Are we watching the same election? We just had an election with historic turnout and easy voting and Biden will have won by less than Obama did twice. Against a historically unpopular President in the middle of a pandemic. Doesn’t that suggest the map is about as blue as we thought? Also, the “red team” has been actively helping expand voter access all over the country. The Republican Georgia Secretary of State and the Republican state legislature played a major role in expanding voter access in Georgia the last couple of years (obviously they’re the ones with the actual power to change the election laws): https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/voter-registration-surges-georgia-ahead-2020-elections/NVKOTit4KEtsTHoXtd6ddN/ https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/vote... > Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the increase in registered voters shows the success of automatic voter registration and highlights other ways election officials have improved voting access, such as absentee voting for anyone who requests a mailed ballot and three weeks of early voting.
- koolba 6y ago
  This election should be a wake up call to entire country and Democrats in particular. There was no blue wave, if anything Biden has barely squeaked past the post. If it were not for the pandemic I'm convinced the Trump turnout for this election would have produced results rivaling Reagan in 1984. Even with a pandemic he was able to drive more voters to the polls on election day than any point in American history.
  - toomuchtodo 6y ago
    Even the Trump campaign said their base of old, white voters were dying off [1]. In another 4 years, another 7.3 million older voters (typically conservative voters) will have aged out. The country will continue to turn blue [2]. Democrats still have a lot of work to do on messaging. This was high tide for conservative votes. [3] [1] https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/11/04/old-white-men-are-dying-so-trump-looked-elsewhere-for-votes-in-florida-1334166 https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/11/04/old... [2] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/03/20/a-wider-partisan-and-ideological-gap-between-younger-older-generations/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/03/20/a-wider-par... [3] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/29/gen-z-millennials-and-gen-x-outvoted-older-generations-in-2018-midterms/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/29/gen-z-mille...
    - LakesideDrive 6y ago
      If you can't convince the voters, import them. One of the remarkable things to come from this election is that Trump gained in practically every demographic except White men. Are White Americans finally seeing the writing on the wall and realising that they cannot vote their way out of this?
    - laverya 6y ago
      Trump appears to have done better with minority voters than any other Republican presidential candidate in recent memory, which will do something to counter the 'aging out' that you describe.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      - toomuchtodo 6y ago
        I haven’t dived into the exit poll data yet (by county, race, income, and age), but it really depends on which states those voters reside in. If they’re in states almost blue (Texas and Georgia, for example), it’s moot. Florida is likely a lost cause (between conservative minorities and the elderly), but you don’t need Florida to win national elections (clearly). If the electoral college is done away with, it’s also moot, as there is enough popular vote margin at the national level to always go blue.
        laverya 6y ago
        I don't understand your meaning. Texas and Georgia are almost blue at least partly because minority voters overwhelmingly vote blue, and the proportion of minorities has been increasing over time. Changing that vote share to 60-40 instead of 80-20 would do quite a lot to solidify republicans in those states. And with Trump showing that it's possible to increase the Republican vote share among minorities... I'd expect political strategists to focus more effort there in the future. A self-fulfilling prophecy, in a way.
        6y ago
  - ModernMech 6y ago
    > There was no blue wave, if anything Biden has barely squeaked past the post. Trump under-performed his 2016 margins in 38 states, including many deep red ones.
    - laverya 6y ago
      Yes, Trump underperformed relative to 2016 - and yet the Republicans made gains in the House, and maintained control of the Senate. The fact that the presidential race is close enough to still be under contention days after election night should be evidence enough that there wasn't a significant blue wave!
      - ModernMech 6y ago
        The Democrats maintained control of the House. There were 435 seats up for election, and a majority went to the Democrats. In 2018 they had their biggest House win ever, so it's not that surprising that a couple seats when back toward the Republicans. Senate control is still an open issue. There will be a runoff in GA in January to determine control. The only reason this was under contention days after the election is that PA wasn't able to start counting their mail in ballots until election day. This was a choice made by the PA legislature. I don't know why. If PA was allowed to precanvas, PA would have announced like FL on election night and this would have been over Tuesday.
        laverya 6y ago
        > so it's not that surprising that a couple seats when back toward the Republicans. My understanding is that Republicans were projected to lose even more seats this election - in the 10-20 range - and instead gained seats. So yeah, surprising. I'm not entirely sure how Georgia's senate runoffs work. > The only reason this was under contention days after the election is that PA wasn't able to start counting their mail in ballots until election day. This was a choice made by the PA legislature. I don't know why. If PA was allowed to precanvas, PA would have announced like FL on election night and this would have been over Tuesday. Well, maybe. PA still looks to be within 50k votes, and while it's possible that precanvassing would have allowed the election to be called on Tuesday night, the policy of accepting votes postmarked up to election night even if they arrived late would still leave things potentially up for grabs. And there's a LOT of close states this year. (And to answer "why", I believe it's to prevent vote counts from leaking before people actually go and vote) The more general point that "If there was a blue wave, we wouldn't be worrying about states with margins of under 50k votes or talking about how control of the senate will be determined later" still stands.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- barumi 6y ago
  > Are we watching the same election? We just had an election with historic turnout and easy voting and Biden will have won by less than Obama did twice. I won't comment on whether the US is red or blue or purple. However, it's quite clear that the Trump administration specifically and the Republican party in general have been engaged in actively suppressing voters in general, and the democratic party's electorate in specific. We're talking about an administration that, while fully aware that there was a disproportionate and significant amount of pro-Democratic party voters who depended on mail-in ballots to cast their vote, they did their best to: * sabotage the USPS's ability to process and ship mail up to the election, * enforce rules refusing to account for all mail-in ballots, * and prop up their own electorate to vote in person to avoid the risk of their votes being filtered out by their sabotage campaign. We're talking about a campaign designed to filter out votes to competing candidates, hoping to skew election results in your favor. This is not how a party that values basic democratic values operates.
neilsense 6y ago
Good god please do not go into the next election with that thought process. Admit what has happened and start to work out why.
- mmastrac 6y ago
  There is literal evidence of this happening. The Republican playbook for the last decade has been disenfranchisement of people who don't vote for them. Killing or hobbling USPS was this year's novel strategy. What I see is 4 million more votes for Biden than Trump. In any other electoral system this would have been a rout.
brnt 6y ago
The thing is that Republicans, or more precisely, those on the right, aren't even hiding this. They openly state it. Republic, not democracy is the latest form of this rallying cry. The financiers of the right are increasingly open about not wishing for a democracy in the US. The similarity here with the industrialists during the Weimar Republic is by the way striking.

Unfortunately the red team has been working to disenfranchise as many voters as possible. The country is far bluer than the electoral map would suggest, thanks to years of voter suppression.

rayiner 6y ago

Are we watching the same election? We just had an election with historic turnout and easy voting and Biden will have won by less than Obama did twice. Against a historically unpopular President in the middle of a pandemic. Doesn’t that suggest the map is about as blue as we thought? Also, the “red team” has been actively helping expand voter access all over the country. The Republican Georgia Secretary of State and the Republican state legislature played a major role in expanding voter access in Georgia the last couple of years (obviously they’re the ones with the actual power to change the election laws): https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/voter-registration-surges-georgia-ahead-2020-elections/NVKOTit4KEtsTHoXtd6ddN/ https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/vote... > Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the increase in registered voters shows the success of automatic voter registration and highlights other ways election officials have improved voting access, such as absentee voting for anyone who requests a mailed ballot and three weeks of early voting.

koolba 6y ago
This election should be a wake up call to entire country and Democrats in particular. There was no blue wave, if anything Biden has barely squeaked past the post. If it were not for the pandemic I'm convinced the Trump turnout for this election would have produced results rivaling Reagan in 1984. Even with a pandemic he was able to drive more voters to the polls on election day than any point in American history.
- toomuchtodo 6y ago
  Even the Trump campaign said their base of old, white voters were dying off [1]. In another 4 years, another 7.3 million older voters (typically conservative voters) will have aged out. The country will continue to turn blue [2]. Democrats still have a lot of work to do on messaging. This was high tide for conservative votes. [3] [1] https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/11/04/old-white-men-are-dying-so-trump-looked-elsewhere-for-votes-in-florida-1334166 https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/11/04/old... [2] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/03/20/a-wider-partisan-and-ideological-gap-between-younger-older-generations/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/03/20/a-wider-par... [3] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/29/gen-z-millennials-and-gen-x-outvoted-older-generations-in-2018-midterms/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/29/gen-z-mille...
  - LakesideDrive 6y ago
    If you can't convince the voters, import them. One of the remarkable things to come from this election is that Trump gained in practically every demographic except White men. Are White Americans finally seeing the writing on the wall and realising that they cannot vote their way out of this?
  - laverya 6y ago
    Trump appears to have done better with minority voters than any other Republican presidential candidate in recent memory, which will do something to counter the 'aging out' that you describe.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - toomuchtodo 6y ago
      I haven’t dived into the exit poll data yet (by county, race, income, and age), but it really depends on which states those voters reside in. If they’re in states almost blue (Texas and Georgia, for example), it’s moot. Florida is likely a lost cause (between conservative minorities and the elderly), but you don’t need Florida to win national elections (clearly). If the electoral college is done away with, it’s also moot, as there is enough popular vote margin at the national level to always go blue.
      - laverya 6y ago
        I don't understand your meaning. Texas and Georgia are almost blue at least partly because minority voters overwhelmingly vote blue, and the proportion of minorities has been increasing over time. Changing that vote share to 60-40 instead of 80-20 would do quite a lot to solidify republicans in those states. And with Trump showing that it's possible to increase the Republican vote share among minorities... I'd expect political strategists to focus more effort there in the future. A self-fulfilling prophecy, in a way.
        6y ago
- ModernMech 6y ago
  > There was no blue wave, if anything Biden has barely squeaked past the post. Trump under-performed his 2016 margins in 38 states, including many deep red ones.
  - laverya 6y ago
    Yes, Trump underperformed relative to 2016 - and yet the Republicans made gains in the House, and maintained control of the Senate. The fact that the presidential race is close enough to still be under contention days after election night should be evidence enough that there wasn't a significant blue wave!
    - ModernMech 6y ago
      The Democrats maintained control of the House. There were 435 seats up for election, and a majority went to the Democrats. In 2018 they had their biggest House win ever, so it's not that surprising that a couple seats when back toward the Republicans. Senate control is still an open issue. There will be a runoff in GA in January to determine control. The only reason this was under contention days after the election is that PA wasn't able to start counting their mail in ballots until election day. This was a choice made by the PA legislature. I don't know why. If PA was allowed to precanvas, PA would have announced like FL on election night and this would have been over Tuesday.
      - laverya 6y ago
        > so it's not that surprising that a couple seats when back toward the Republicans. My understanding is that Republicans were projected to lose even more seats this election - in the 10-20 range - and instead gained seats. So yeah, surprising. I'm not entirely sure how Georgia's senate runoffs work. > The only reason this was under contention days after the election is that PA wasn't able to start counting their mail in ballots until election day. This was a choice made by the PA legislature. I don't know why. If PA was allowed to precanvas, PA would have announced like FL on election night and this would have been over Tuesday. Well, maybe. PA still looks to be within 50k votes, and while it's possible that precanvassing would have allowed the election to be called on Tuesday night, the policy of accepting votes postmarked up to election night even if they arrived late would still leave things potentially up for grabs. And there's a LOT of close states this year. (And to answer "why", I believe it's to prevent vote counts from leaking before people actually go and vote) The more general point that "If there was a blue wave, we wouldn't be worrying about states with margins of under 50k votes or talking about how control of the senate will be determined later" still stands.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
barumi 6y ago
> Are we watching the same election? We just had an election with historic turnout and easy voting and Biden will have won by less than Obama did twice. I won't comment on whether the US is red or blue or purple. However, it's quite clear that the Trump administration specifically and the Republican party in general have been engaged in actively suppressing voters in general, and the democratic party's electorate in specific. We're talking about an administration that, while fully aware that there was a disproportionate and significant amount of pro-Democratic party voters who depended on mail-in ballots to cast their vote, they did their best to: * sabotage the USPS's ability to process and ship mail up to the election, * enforce rules refusing to account for all mail-in ballots, * and prop up their own electorate to vote in person to avoid the risk of their votes being filtered out by their sabotage campaign. We're talking about a campaign designed to filter out votes to competing candidates, hoping to skew election results in your favor. This is not how a party that values basic democratic values operates.

neilsense 6y ago

Good god please do not go into the next election with that thought process. Admit what has happened and start to work out why.

mmastrac 6y ago
There is literal evidence of this happening. The Republican playbook for the last decade has been disenfranchisement of people who don't vote for them. Killing or hobbling USPS was this year's novel strategy. What I see is 4 million more votes for Biden than Trump. In any other electoral system this would have been a rout.

brnt 6y ago

The thing is that Republicans, or more precisely, those on the right, aren't even hiding this. They openly state it. Republic, not democracy is the latest form of this rallying cry. The financiers of the right are increasingly open about not wishing for a democracy in the US. The similarity here with the industrialists during the Weimar Republic is by the way striking.