37% turnout in NC election

[BSdetect]

Now there is a sad fact.

What the fuck will it take to get people to vote?

[splunge63]

1. pathetic*

[fierywoman]

2. vote by mail?

[JI7]

12. i believe they had early voting where the Democrat led. it was election day turnout in rural

areas which helped the Republican.

[Funtatlaguy]

3. NC Dem party needed a better GOTV game.

[Hoyt]

4. In NC, one can vote by mail, there were weeks of early voting, etc. 37% voted. No Excuse.

[awesomerwb1]

5. That's pretty sad.

I don't care how, but the Dems have to UP UP UP their GOTV game.

Figure it out FFS!

[gordianot]

6. Case in point why we are descending into Fuedalism.

[Deuce]

7. Perhaps mandatory voting might be a possible solution...I just don't know!

[CrispyQ]

8. That's pathetic.

We need to teach civics in school. Government impacts every aspect of your life. My 5th grade social studies teacher hammered that into our heads, & then we heard it again in 9th grade civics.

Only people who don't have the best interests of everyone want to limit voting.

[RandySF]

9. NC is ground zero for voter suppression.

[apnu]

10. Special elections always have a miserable turnout

Mid-Terms also usually have a low turn out, compared to POTUS years. And that's with all kinds of media hype for months. Heck, even in POTUS years, at least 40% of eligible voters don't get to the polls nationally.

[defacto7]

11. That's no excuse. These are crisis times and people

just sit there in apathy thinking it doesn't matter. We really are a dying species.

[apnu]

15. America is in decline yes.

I wasn't making any excuses, only citing facts. In 2008, a cycle considered as "huge" turnout, only saw 58.2% of the electorate showing up at the polls. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_the_United_States_presidential_elections

The "Turnout statistics" table at the bottom shows a depressing trend. Essentially for decades, 40% of the electorate simply won't show up at the polls.

[defacto7]

20. Nothing personal. I was just venting at facts.

[Brawndo]

13. Election days need to be made into Federally recognized holidays

along with a return to paper ballots.

[apnu]

14. I agree

Given how we celebrate our democracy so much, why we don't have a holiday to exercise our democracy is a mystery to me.

[Brawndo]

16. It's no mystery, repugs benefit from low voter turnout

I would even like to have mandatory voting, like they've got in Australia. It would show whether or not it truly is 40% of our population that prefers fascism.

[bdamomma]

23. +10000

nt

[elocs]

18. Low turnout by the Left here in WI in the 2010 midterm election

flipped the state from total Democratic control to total Republican control and allowed them to gerrymander the state when they took power in 2011.

[apnu]

19. Yes I remember 2010 well.

I'm still fuming about it.

Census year, Dem party went through that cycle on auto pilot. Republicans knew it, and pounced. We're living with the ramifications of 2010 today.

I wasn't keen on the ACA prior to 2010 strategically. It was a dicey move that backfired on the Dem party. Yes the Dems finally controlled both Congress and the White House, they didn't think about solidifying that power before picking up a lightening rod topic like health care. I know they expected the ACA to be a signature item to run on in 2010, but it was an albatross at the time. Combine that with lower turn out in mid-terms plus a loss of the youth excitement level that powered Obama in 2008, the Dems had a steep hill to climb and I don't think party leader ship knew it at the time.

Census years are critical to defining congressional seats and districts. Because the GOP made large gains in 2010 on the state level they gained in control of the election map that won't really change until 2020.

Everything we've suffered since then has been a result of the GOP flipping the electoral count and re-drawing districts to lock in their power.

2018 was extraordinary for me to watch. The math was terrible for Democrats. We had to deal with gerrymandering in every red state, plus the worst Senate defense I can remember. Yet we flipped the House.

I only hope the Democratic party is ready to dig in like that in 2020. It will be one of the biggest elections of our life time, 2020 is a POTUS and Census year. Like 1980, 2020 will define our politics for a decade.

[Amishman]

21. Yup, 37% is actually pretty good for a special election

[elocs]

17. When the Left chooses to self suppress their vote

it makes life real easy for Republicans.
But hey, we can always blame the Russians or Republican gerrymandering. The truth too often is that we have met the enemy and it is us.

[edbermac]

22. We don't vote, we don't win.

[dalton99a]

24. Kick