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this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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politics
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Considering the state of the US, it’s really amazing more people don’t vote.
Isn't the problem that there's only two options? Here in Norway we have 10 different parties that are all quite popular. To me having only two options seems only marginally better than 1.
Yes. They have FPTP elections everywhere from top to bottom. Even state houses and senates are divided in blue and red because of this, WTF. They could really do with an electoral system update.
Yes, but the problem is deeper than that because one party is demonstrably worse than the other. Dems are still too conservative, Republicans are literally tearing the country apart.
I always use this analogy when people say "but the Democrats aren't giving me everything I want:
You're on 8th Street and want to get to 1st Street. In front of you are two cabs. The Democrat cab will only take you to 3rd Street. Close, but not really your destination. The Republican cab will take you to 16th Street before locking you in the cab and setting it on fire with you inside.
By the way, not choosing in this analogy isn't an option. If you don't choose (don't vote), then a cab is chosen for you.
So is the Democratic cab perfect? Of course not. However, it's a lot easier to recover from being dropped off at 3rd Street than it is being set on fire all the way over on 16th Street.
Well the problem is we don't have ranked choice voting in most all places. So if you're not voting for red or blue you are kinda wasting your vote.
It might not be apathy; it could be the fact that for presidential elections, a vast amount of votes simply don't matter, and that fact bleeds into other elections, where their votes would matter.
What I mean when I say that the votes don't matter is that if a person is right-leaning in a solid blue state or vice versa, they can be reasonably sure that their vote is meaningless, because we let land masses vote for president, instead of people. Of course, this doesn't apply for local elections, but I think it's pretty plausible that this depresses turnout in them, anyway.
There should be a lot more engagement for an updated representative system. Nudge nudge from Europe. I recommend representative voting.
Do you mind elaborating on this? Do you mean Proportional Representation?
Yes, that's the accurate name! I'm not sure I would call FPTP representative given how alternative votes are lost. Like if I'm a socdem in a red district my vote is void, since the FPTP only have one seat. In a proportional system there are bigger districts with more seats so that lesser groups can get their votes distributed onto a seat.
Like instead of NY State being 102 Dem & 48 GOP, it would be 70 Dem, 10 Socdem, 10 Greens, 20 GOP, 10 Trump, 10 Libertarian etc.
That's what happens when you have a presidential election system like the electoral college instead of a popular vote.
Liberal voter in Arkansas? Your vote doesn't matter. Conservative voter in California? Your vote doesn't matter.
It's just the sad reality of a winner-take-all system that places more importance on the geographical size of a state rather than individual voters.