I would also like to see a similar graph for mid-term elections. Do the winners even get 10% of the eligible votes?
this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2024
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Data Is Beautiful
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The percentages for 2016 only add up to 97, and the 40% bar is longer than the 41% of 2012.
Just like the sub on reddit, the data in DataIsBeautiful apparently doesn't actually have to be beautiful.
Also, sometimes it say "won" or lost" behind the candidates, sometimes there is an asterisk, but for many entries, there is no information who won and who lost?
The asterisk is explained up top, and they only indicate who won when it is backwards from the popular vote total.
I've never understood why there is a voting system where the one with most votes can lose.
It was a compromise so the smaller states were willing to join the United States. Same reason there are two senators for each state.
Also worth noting: Republicans have only once won the popular vote since the turn of this century, in 2004 for George W. Bush's reelection, when he had both the incumbent advantage and was still riding the post-9/11 patriotism wave
or put another way, the democratic candidate have won the popular vote on 5/6 presidential elections this century
It's funny because here being incumbent usually is a disadvantage because you get blamed by all the crap that's happening, even the little that isn't their fault.
The median voter is woefully uninformed and largely votes on vibes and name recognition. Many fail to understand exactly what kind of power the president actually holds.
Personally I blame this in part on the death of journalism. Local newspapers keep going out of business which removes any accountability for local authorities, and the only way you know of anything happening is based on Facebook gossip dripping in all of the biases the individuals who are there when something happens. And the local news that still exists keeps getting bought up by larger entities that may or may not be politically motivated to try to sway opinions and set the conversation across the country. Or worse in some cases independent news outlets are simply threatened into not investigating or reporting on certain topics
There should be a tax incentive for voting or something
Step 1: make voting compulsory
Step 2: move it to a weekend
Step 3: easy access to prepoll or postal voting for people who can't make it on the official day
Bonus step: change voting system to IRV, or even better, to something proportional like MMP or STV
There you go. America has a functioning electoral system.
This makes me kinda ill. Like I almost cried a bit looking over these numbers. And I’ve seen some shit.
How many are illegible due to prior convictions?
The chart says it's only looking at eligible voters
But looking it up shows around 4.6 million were disenfranchised in 2022 because of convictions. In semi-good news, it's gone down recently in part because more states are starting to allow people to vote after they've served time. So if people keep pushing in other states, it can hopefully keep going that way
We really need to have a compulsive voting law where the fine is like $1000 dollars. To make it easier though voters should get a federal holiday for elections, a choice of mail in voting, and be rewarded with $50 dollars for doing it. For all of you people who hate the idea of being compelled to vote, jury duty is mandatory but you get a small stipend for your time (at least in CA) and it's necessary to keep a functioning government.
Now if only we can get rid of the electoral college and implement ranked choice voting...