• PunnyName@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    If your vote didn’t count or matter, they wouldn’t try making it harder to do so. And this is a step to block making voting easier for everyone in Michigan.

    Vote 🔵🔵🔵

  • Atelopus-zeteki@kbin.run
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    4 months ago

    How about, and work with me on this: 1. Every citizen over 18 y.o. is automatically registered to vote. 2. DItch 1st past the post elections and instead have some form of ranked choice voting. I know, so radical, but that’s my solution.

      • Delusional@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Nah optional is good but at least make it a holiday so everyone has the option to vote. Many don’t because they’re working all day and the nearest voting center is two hours away because Republicans closed down as many voting centers as they possibly could and waiting in line to vote takes hours.

        Honestly, they’re real shit people constantly trying to stop people from voting. Republicans hate it when people vote.

        • toasteecup@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          optional voting

          Republicans hate when people vote and try to avoid having people vote

          The lines are a problem that can be dealt with. I fail to see why optional voting is considered ideal given the second quote.

        • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          Fuck that. Mandatory.

          Being a citizen isn’t free. I expect the absolute best from my government ( lots of work to go on their part), and I accept the personal responsibility of being a proper citizen. (Pay taxes, sit as a juror, vote, etc).

      • Bob Robertson IX@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I like the idea on the surface, but no, I don’t want to be forced to vote for a few reasons:

        • A lack of voter engagement is it’s own outcome of a vote.
        • Freedom of speech means being able to refuse to speak, and voting is one of the most powerful forms of speech most people have.
        • I’m not a fan of the government forcing me to do something I might not believe in.
        • There are many people who don’t want to vote for trump but refuse to vote for Democrat and if forced might hold their nose and vote trump.

        Making election day a Federal holiday and guaranteeing everyone has the option to vote would be more effective and have a better outcome.

        Edit: Several replies are basically saying the same thing: you can turn in an empty ballot. But the exact same thing can be accomplished much easier by staying at home. You can’t force people to go somewhere, or even mail in a ballot… they have a hard enough time getting people to do the census. Also, a candidate such as trump would refuse the results of any election they lost that didn’t have 100% turnout, especially if the margin of loss is less than the percentage that didn’t vote.

        Again, I do like the spirit of the idea, but in order to make it work it would take more effort than it is worth since staying home accomplishes the same thing as a blank ballot.

        • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          I wouldn’t mind a default vote option.

          Like when I hand in a ballot, my vote is exactly as I submit, to include abstentions.

          But if I don’t turn in a ballot for any election I’m eligible to vote in, my vote just defaults to a solid down-ballot of the party I’m registered as, or following a custom party ranking to auto-fill ranked choice ballots.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        No no, just make non-votes into a vote of no confidence. No ballot means “none of the above/fuck off”

        If the voter participation rate is ever lower than 50% they have to redo the election.

  • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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    4 months ago

    JD Vance abridged: “I am a Veteran, my mommy was poor and swears a lot, I am a ‘Hill-Billy’ like all of you, I was a Marine.”

    The GOP: “We want to be associated with marines, we don’t want them to vote or be alive.”

  • tal@lemmy.today
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    4 months ago

    Hmm. I’d think that Trump would tend to do better that Whitmer among vets. I guess that that might vary by state.

    kagis

    Okay, here’s a Pew article that’s just a couple months old.

    https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/partisanship-by-family-income-home-ownership-union-membership-and-veteran-status/

    Partisanship of military veterans

    Voters who are military veterans favor the Republican Party: 63% identify with or lean toward the GOP, while far fewer (35%) are Democrats or Democratic leaners. Bar chart showing that among registered voters, military veterans are more likely to associate with the GOP by a wide margin. The Republican Party’s relative advantage among veterans is seen among both older and younger voters. Aamong Black voters there is no difference in the partisanship of veterans and non-veterans.

    Non-veteran voters tilt more Democratic: About half (51%) associate with the Democratic Party, while 46% affiliate with the Republican Party.

    I suppose that there might be more going on here than just that. I understand that a higher proportion of older voters tend to vote, and older voters also tend to vote more-Republican so generic get-out-the-vote efforts might favor the Democrats.

    looks further

    Ah. It’s not just veterans.

    https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/-/media/Project/Websites/Whitmer/Documents/Exec-Directives/ED-20236-signed.pdf?rev=a2278328062d4fb7823a8713eca6575c&hash=7A1E593F41B2E960FCE3B81A0404CDEC

    Disabled people:

    Michigan Rehabilitation Services of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity’s Office of Employment and Training;

    Bureau of Services for Blind Persons of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity’s Office of Employment and Training;

    Low income housing:

    Michigan State Housing Development Authority.

    etc.

    • Crackhappy@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      There’s nothing quite as American as going out and intentionally voting against your own interests.

      • tal@lemmy.today
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        4 months ago

        Kagi is a search engine. Like “googles” for “uses Google to search”.

        I started using them a while back because they make their money via user subscriptions rather than data-mining users.