‘What a circus’: eligible US voters on why they didn’t vote in the 2024 presidential election
‘What a circus’: eligible US voters on why they didn’t vote in the 2024 presidential election
Nearly 90 million Americans didn’t vote – which is more than the number of people who voted for Trump or Harris
The 2024 US presidential election had been widely characterized as one of the most consequential political contests in recent US history. Although turnout was high for a presidential election – almost matching the levels of 2020 – it is estimated that close to 90 million Americans, roughly 36% of the eligible voting age population, did not vote. This number is greater than the number of people who voted for either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris.
More than a month on from polling day, eligible US voters from across the country as well as other parts of the world got in touch with the Guardian to share why they did not vote.
Scores of people said they had not turned out as they felt their vote would not matter because of the electoral college system, since they lived in a safely blue or red state. This included a number of people who nonetheless had voted in the 2020 and 2016 elections.
While various previous Democratic voters said they had abstained this time due to the Harris campaign’s stance on Israel or for other policy reasons, a number of people in this camp said they would have voted for the vice-president had they lived in a swing state.
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I didn’t find Harris compelling, just more of the same.
Well you're sure not going to get more of the same now. Good job, shithead.
Well when you get Biden pardoning a judge who literally took bribes to send kids to jail to benefit a for profit jail, I'd question how compelling the Democrats are.
Instead of voting 3rd party and trying to change things, many Americans seems to be locked in a pointless argument over which party is the least shit.
Maybe you shouldn't worry about them being compelling when the alternative was fascism.
How are you still arguing this?
Because it is all a lie to cover up the truth. They want everyone to think of them as righteous, good, and caring. Hell, they want to think of themselves that way. But deep down they know it's not quite true. There's something they hate that is more important than what happens to anyone else, and even to themselves. I suspect that for a lot of them it's extreme sexism... Sure, they are all for a female president. As long as she is perfect. Says everything perfect, does everything perfect, and it would really help if she had a penis too. Or maybe they didn't want an Indian or another black person... Whatever it was it was more important than their so called support for the Palestinians, support for the Ukrains, hate of fascists and Nazis, ect ect...
Whatever it was, the blood of the Palestinians, Ukrains, is a small price to pay... But whatever it is, it's heinous and they know it. So, rather than admit to everyone, and even more importantly themselves, what they know is truly disgusting, they pretend that it was something that makes no sense. "She didn't explain her policies, we didn't like her policies on something even though her opponents were 100 times worse..."
It's a smoke screen for the truth. Intellectual Dishonesty. They are lying to us and themselves.
At least the maga crowd has the guts to admit their hate. They come straight out and let you know that they are fine with the world burning as long as whatever they hate burns with it.Well then I guess you've gotten what you wanted. Enjoy the Trump administration and the all new domestic genocides.
I'm not the guy you were responding to. I responded to your question about how he could still be arguing such an illogical argument.
And to reiterate, his entire argument is a lie. It's a smoke screen to hide the real reason he didn't want to vote for a woman, or a brown person, or whatever his hang-up is.Sorry, I agree with you.
Not all the people who didn't vote for Harris are Trump supporters; there are a lot of leftists and progressives who believe that they can't survive any more late-stage capitalism. They recognize that the only peaceful chance to stop the wealthiest 1% from ruling is to stop electing them and stop electing the people who are bought by them.
Corporate democrats are better on certain social issues but they'll still put wealth over people, and they'll never move left. It's why we have the cruel health system we have today. It's why the banks got bailed out and never got regulated. It's why the Digital Millennium Copyright Act passed. Heck, 81 Congressional house democrats just voted for a military spending bill that denies medical care to trans kids.
Kamala Harris is a corporate democrat.
And like I told the person before you, she lost so you got what you wanted. Enjoy the fascism and the genocides.
I actually voted both third party and for Harris, so maybe don't assume you know how people voted or what they want.
You voted twice?
I have ranked choice voting. 🙂 I even had to vote for it three times for my damn state government to recognize the will of the voters and implement it. Currently I think only Alaska and Maine have it. I really hope other states push for it, but judging by the last election cycle where several states voted against it, it's not looking good.
This is part of the terrible fallout of people not voting; people across several states stayed home when they literally could have voted for a better system of voting. It's crazymaking.
How you still did not understand that this way of arguing won't change anyone's mind?
"Choose between slow sleepwalk to fascism or this rapid honest one".
I can't fathom why people put all the blame on the voters. Dems could a and should have done more. Harris got billion dollars for her campaign!
Biden pardoning his son is understandable, but a giant Fuck You to everyone else. He got his, now the rest will live with consequences.
DNC has fucked the USA again and again. How about some blame there.
I can't fathom why people put all the blame on the voters
Unreal.
Most voters don't have luxuries of having time or education to make deep dives into issues, and are swayed by some nonsense.
And think what you like, it's usually not something they choose voluntarily or consciously.
I can't fathom how people point out how 'pulling yourselves up by the bootstraps' is BS, and then they point to tired, underpaid, health issue ridden public and say: "you should know not to vote for this!!1!".
Then Harris panders to the right and the same people don't understand how she could lose. Really?
AOCs voters said they are tired of the status quo. Something we all know and understand. And we know the DNC will never let go of the status quo. Where does this lead to?
AOC's voters said all sorts of insane, idiotic shit, when she asked why they voted for her but also Trump.
It was trivially easy, and took very little time, to inform yourself about the two options. There is no excuse. People need to take responsibility for their decisions, and blaming everyone but themselves is just copium.
Those are the people you have to convince to vote, that's all.
If you keep ignoring them, nothing will change.
This attitude is what brought the results. Ignoring masses to pander to billionaires is not going to win democrats anything. Pointing fingers to other side and announcing 'we are better than them' worked only once.
Yes, and them not voting is one of the reasons we are where we are. So you agree.
Yes, obviously in democracy you need people to vote for you.
And in order to achieve that, you need to convince them to vote for your cause. If you don't, it's not their fault. They vote for what they believe, no matter how crazy and stupid it may be. That's also part of the 'rule of the people'.
I can see that you will do everything you can to keep yourself convinced that people who voted third party, or chose not to vote at all, bear no responsibility for the consequences of their actions.
I hope you're able to one day acknowledge what's happening, and accept that you fucked up and take responsibility for your action (or inaction).
Most voters don't have luxuries of having time or education to make deep dives into issues, and are swayed by some nonsense.
Arguably most voters wouldn’t have needed to take a deep dive into issues to see Trump was the worse option, a shallow one at most. A swim would’ve been enough, really.
Why would I care about changing anyone's mind at this point? America is going to be a fascist dictatorship. Any sort of semblance of a free and fair election are over.
By understanding the problem potential solutions may emerge.
Doomerism helps the owner class, they need you to feel helpless and isolated. Don't let them win.
Do you know nothing about Project 2025? You've had a long time to learn about it. The whole point is to keep Republicans in power perpetually and remove any need for legitimate elections.
And you think you can vote your way out of that?
(By the way, I love how you've gone from "this sort of arguing won't change anyone's mind" to "why aren't you trying to change people's minds?!?!")
Re:btw what do you mean? It's the same thing: you should be trying to change people's minds, and be better at that, and I'm bringing your attention to it. You are a prolific poster all over the fediverse, so you can have a big impact on people. And I think you are aware of it.
I've known about the P25 for a long time, I'm well aware of its consequences. Burying our heads and losing our hope is the only way they can get away with it.
Kings have fallen, and we all should do our best to not create them again. That includes understanding those who voted for them. Ignoring the problem or its root cause won't change anything.
I keep repeating this line in my head:
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Please do name the absolute monarch that fell because people had a vote and the monarch said, "fair enough," and stepped down.
And I like how your only two options are "vote expecting elections to be fair" and "do nothing."
They already got away with it.
They have not. As long as we fight, they will not get away with it.
If it doesn't change a person's mind, it's because they don't understand it.
Fortunately Biden wasn't on the ballot
No, but "i wont be fundentally different from Biden" Harris was.
Yeah fuck Biden for doing that, but try to stay on topic
the problem is, we still gotta beat Trump.
I dont think anyone knows if actual leftist messages will actually work, but holy shit it's gotta be better than diet, no caffeine, low sodium fun size Bill Clinton Zero.
Good job, shithead.
Yeah, keep blaming the people "not falling in line" instead of just running a candidate that supports them.
That's how we got 2 Trump presidencies and people like you still haven't learned from it.
If anything, this should teach people like you that expecting people to "fall in line" no longer works and you should support different tactics to prevent further conservative blowouts.
I don't think people like you are capable of learning from this, though. You're just going to get angrier and keep repeating the same mistakes expecting different results.
You're right. I do blame people for "not falling in line" and letting a genocidal fascist dictator who made no secret of that gain control of a nation because they didn't find the opposition "compelling."
And as far from not having learned, I think what you haven't learned is that 2024 was the last real election in the U.S. in your lifetime.
Harris lost. You got what you wanted. Be happy about it.
Yeah, you're delusional and incapable of arguing in good faith.
And yet I did not insult you.
And if you think I'm delusional about what Trump is going to do, you're in for a very rude awakening.
Yeah. You're too distracted by the other guy being the antichrist to focus on how democrats would rather have trump than a progressive in office.
Until that culture changes, we shouldn't expect our government to change.
Clearly you're doing your part in making sure things stay exactly the same, while somehow expecting different results.
I think there's a word for that, but I digress.
You're right. I'm "too distracted" by the fascist dictatorship to play what if.
What part should I be doing? Insulting people on the internet? What else are you doing?