Massive Voter Apathy - The Undiscussed Factor in 2016

[MineralMan]

In more than one demographic category, but primarily among millennials and POC, turnout was lower in 2016 than in 2012.

For whatever reason, apathetic eligible voters stayed home, skipped the presidential section of their ballot, or voted uselessly for a third party candidate.

In Wisconsin, for example, the number of votes received by Jill Stein, a candidate with absolutely no chance of being elected, exceeds the margin between Trump and Clinton. Even more people voted for Johnson or skipped the presidential race on their ballots.

While it's convenient to say that it's because the two major party candidates were unpopular, that doesn't change the results.

You know who turned out more voters in 2016 than in 2012? Rural areas. Those voters made the difference in several crucial states. How sad that is, it seems to me.

We'll be analyzing this election for the next four years, and pundits will write reams of pages about what happened. None of that will matter, though. The bottom line is simply that not enough people in enough states voted for Hillary Clinton. Apathy decided this election. Too many people didn't care enough to cast a meaningful vote or cast no vote at all.

I'm fearfully waiting to see what the impact of that apathy will be.

[muntrv]

1. In Michigan, there were about 90,000 ballots without the presidential section filled out.

https://shugerblog.com/2016/11/29/recount-michigan-has-over-80000-blank-votes/

[MineralMan]

2. Yes. Every state has many of those ballots.

It's one of the problems that apathy causes. Despite there being a binary choice between two very, very different candidates who could win, many people simply didn't vote for President at all. Their non-votes made a huge difference in the final outcome, as did the votes for third party candidates who had no chance of winning.

In a sense, people who did any of those things are slitting their own throats, in the end. Amazing!

[TonyPDX]

26. If you count voter preferences another way, it was actually a landslide for "None of the Above."

[Mz Pip]

3. 45% didn't vote.

This was probably the most important election in the country maybe ever. With all of the media coverage there certainly isn't any excuse for that many people not knowing about it.

I've become cynical in my old age. How can I possible continue this level of outrage over this election when so many people just didn't give a shit?

[MineralMan]

4. That is true.

Tons of people never vote in any election. They get what they get. Nothing is going to convince that group to take the time to vote. They simply won't do it.

[Mz Pip]

14. 80% turn out in my neck of the woods.

It's possible.

I guess we get what we deserve but those of us who are engaged don't deserve this. It's pretty easy to be pissed at the people who didn't show up. IMHO this is on them.

[TheBlackAdder]

30. Look at the areas that didn't turn out, much were in conservative areas. The Indy & X-Over Reps.

.


While HRC and the Democratic institution primarily secured the Democratic voter, Sanders appealed to Change oriented Democrats, Independents by a huge margin and attracted many cross-over Republicans who were left-leaning or Never Trumpers.


If the ticket was Clinton-Sanders, they would have probably secured close to a 60-40 electorate.

But Clinton failed to follow the lesson of Reagan-Bush. Instead of joining forces, she placed too much faith in people going binary and either selecting Trump or herself. Since Trump is a vile creature, that seemed to have merit to some degree. Also, too much pwas placed on the woman vote, when the past 40 years always showed a frm 45% evengalical/orthodox paternalistic vote.


Reagan and GHWB literally hated each other, and there was a schism forming in the Republican party. I mean, they detested each other. But, they came together and won three straight presidential elections from that. If that schism endured, Carter wold have been re-elected.


Clinton's choice of Tim Kaine ensured a close election. While she gained popular votes, divisions in a lot of states or regions that fall under Republican control were mainly affected. There was an audible national gasp when Kaine was selected over Sanders. While the Democratic Party folks accepted it, many outside of it walked or just gave up. There is a strong hatred outside of the Democratic Party for Clinton, and Sanders would have brought balance to her ticket. But, she chose someone with no Independent or Cross-over appeal. Most of the Sanders folks voted for Clinton, and the ones that didn't were negated by the Never Trump folks.


People gave a shit until it looked like it was business as usual.


.

[mitch96]

37. I read that it was more like 50%

And of that less than ½ voted for the turd... So less than 25% of the population is gonna control the Gub'ment...
As the saying goes if you don't vote, you get the government you deserve.... or something like that
m

[marybourg]

5. Apathy - or "They're both terrible",

courtesy of Faux News lies about HRC. My admittedly small millennium sample. My POC sample went enthusiastically for HRC,

[yeoman6987]

6. Although true. Faux new has about 2.5 million watchers

Something else is convincing them.

[marybourg]

8. Well some medium is spreading identical memes

to all the tRump voters I bump up against. 'Cause they all seem to know the latest ones. And I don't 'til I read them here on DU. Once in a while NPR reports on one. But they're all tuned into something that I'm not.

[yeoman6987]

11. Yeah the entire media is changing. It is sad to watch.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. If someone has bothered to vote but didn't fill out part of the ballot

for president, that's not apathy; that's not liking either candidate. Not liking Trump doesn't require a whole lot of analysis but not liking Clinton is another issue. I get it that 25 years of negative propaganda from the right wing took its toll, but even if people were influenced by that and didn't like Hillary for the wrong reasons (or even the right reasons, for that matter), how could they not see that Trump was a thousand times worse? There's always a lot of complaining about having to vote for "the lesser of two evils," but why would anyone vote for the greater evil? (Note: I am not saying Hillary is evil or that I even think she's evil, but that's been the GOP claim since forever).

Where apathy comes in, though, is when voters are so put off by the whole process that they don't even bother to show up. I think the intense negativity of this campaign certainly had that effect on some - the whole "A plague on both your houses" feeling; to hell with 'em all, fuck the whole process. The Dems in particular need to take a close look at why many of their usual supporters stayed home this time. The GOP know that whenever voter turnout is low, they win.

That is why they've been trying so hard in some states to keep certain voters (and we know who those voters are) from voting. Some of what might appear to be apathy could be attributed to voter suppression in some places. It's no coincidence that one of the highest turnout states, Minnesota, is also one of the easiest states to vote in; and Minnesota has voted for the Dem candidate every year since 1972. But this year, even though Clinton won here, it was a squeaker (that narrow margin was itself unusual), and the GOP picked up seats in the state legislature. So even with easy voting and little evidence of apathy here, something else was going on. I have my own theory, but that and $2.50 will get me a double-skim latte at Starbucks so I won't mention it here.

Point is, voter apathy isn't the whole problem, but whatever it was the Dems need to get their shit together.

[MineralMan]

10. It's an election. You have choices on the ballot.

Make a choice. If you do not, you have no voice. If you don't vote, you don't care who wins.

How does that make any freaking sense at all. Spite was not on the ballot in 2016. Clinton and Trump were. We now know who won.

If you didn't choose, others chose for you. That's the way it freaking works. Every time.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. You have no argument from me.

My point was, if you took the trouble to showed up to vote but left the president section blank, you must have cared about some aspect of the election. Maybe you cared only about the down-ballot candidates, but it wasn't necessarily a case of "Oh, just fuck it all!" I wonder how many people showed up to vote and then couldn't bring themselves to vote for either major candidate, and why that was.

There was an off-year election in Minneapolis some years ago in which both of the candidates for mayor were, in my opinion, hopelessly awful. I voted in the election, filled in the ballot for the various council critters and judges, but didn't vote for mayor. That's the only time I have ever left any part of a ballot blank, and my attitude at the time was something like, "Yuck, is this the only choice we have?" But I didn't feel bad (or apathetic) about not voting for either of those tools; the mayor of Minneapolis does not have access to the nuclear launch codes, and actually doesn't have a whole lot of power at all. I don't even remember who won, but the city chugged along pretty much the same, regardless. I do not understand not voting for president, though.

[Mosby]

9. I have been posting about this topic

And people don't want to hear it for some reason. I get that it's boring but it's a profoundly important issue, voter apathy is the deciding factor in all American elections not just the recent one.

In 2014 only 16% of 18 to 29 year olds voted, 21% of Hispanics. Not only does this make it easy for Republicans to win but it encourages our dem candidates to move to the middle for votes. Is it any wonder that so few dem leaders are actually progressive anymore?

[MineralMan]

12. Many people treat elections as some sort of wish fulfillment,

instead of a binary choice between options. If they don't like the choices, they don't bother to vote, one way or another. There is still a result they will have to live with, but they can't be bothered to make a choice.

When you don't vote, you have no voice at all in the decision.

Why would anyone fail to choose? It makes no sense at all.

[Mosby]

16. I don't get it either, but then I have voted in every election since I was 18.

I like the idea of making election day a national paid holiday, but I don't see the Republicans supporting that since they know that would help with turnout.

The only way to fix this is a national grassroots effort to get liberals/progressives registered to vote and follow up with them before every election. Something along the lines of neighborhood watch, interested voters could elect to "adopt" several streets where they live and go around and find out who are liberals and whether they are registered, then follow up with a phone call near the election.

[MineralMan]

22. I couldn't vote until I was 21, in 1966.

I voted that year for the first time, and haven't missed an election since, even when I was in the USAF.

[Kingofalldems]

39. Reported by whom? Links please.

[Garrett78]

17. The 2016 vote totals are damn close to the 2012 vote totals.

Clinton did a little worse than Obama, though not all votes have been counted as of yet. Trump did better than Romney by about 1.5 million.

Of course, Obama didn't have to contend with the ramifications of the Shelby County v. Holder decision of 2013, which enabled massive voter suppression. And, yes, Obama was/is more popular than Clinton.

Of course there's some variance in terms of who turned out. There always will be. The blame goes to Republicans and right wing hate, as well as a horrifically bad ratings-focused media. Millennials can be frustrating for sure, but this election result is on the likes of those who support or enable the likes of Trump.

[otohara]

18. Apathetic or Vindictive?

I'm going with vindictive - I'll show them factor...worked.

[MineralMan]

23. There were some who voted out of spite.

I have another thread on that topic.

[flamingdem]

19. Half of the millenials were especially silent

when they have the most to loose long run.

They'll get to see the impact of Trump policy on the environment and it will hurt, and hurt some more. Plus, they may loose part of medicare and social security..

[otohara]

24. It's Official re: Millennials

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/12/02/yes-you-can-blame-millennials-for-hillary-clintons-loss/?postshare=5361480700973585&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.265d8d432306

Potus said it too in recent Rolling Stone

[flamingdem]

25. It might help

if we could vote with our cellphones!

[RKP5637]

29. I just dont get it. Often those having the most to loose sit and let others determine their future,

which well might be dystopian.

[iscooterliberally]

20. I think we discourage voting in this country.

Between the voter ID laws and closed primaries, we turn people off from voting. If you're an independent and you actually do like a candidate early on, you have to know how closed primaries work (if you live in a closed primary state). Apparently even Trump's children didn't vote for him in the primaries. I have a couple of friends who wanted to vote for Bernie in the primary, but they didn't register in time. One had his address at the UPS store and was denied because of that. In my little bubble of South Florida, it's mostly Democrats, but it was pretty scary at the poles. During the primary there were no signs for Bernie Sanders. There were a few for HRC, but Trump signs were everywhere. People were lining up along US1 with Trump signs on weekends. When I went to vote for HRC in the general, it was almost all Trump signs and even less for HRC. I was not surprised on Wednesday morning when my wife told me Trump won. Perception is reality, and there have been so many false conspiracy theories leveled at HRC for decades that people believe them without evidence. I don't think that many people realize that voting is a right, not a privilege. Maybe if we offered some sort of tax incentive for voting and made it a national holiday it might get better?

[RKP5637]

28. Well said!!! Many just don't seem to understand the importance of voting and especially as an

intelligent informed voter. I often think many voters just listen to TV ads and then vote. And others, sadly, just find it to be too much effort and think things will just roll along OK. I'm fortunate to have lived now for a number of years where we've had voting by mail. It is so damn simple to vote by mail. IMO it should be the rule of the land.

[iscooterliberally]

32. I agree although I have never tried voting by mail.

I was going to resort to that after the 2004 elections, but Florida went back to a paper ballot. I forgot to mention that we do have to do our homework before voting too. So many people don't get that. Thanks for the kind words!

[RKP5637]

33. ...

[BainsBane]

21. Don't mistake voter disenfranchisement and suppression for apathy

Certainly there was and always is apathy, but hundreds of thousands of voters were denied their right to vote through mechanisms the GOP put in place to limit the franchise.

[sweetroxie]

34. Disenfranchisment has another face

Many citizens have figured out that neither party pays attention to their wants and needs. They may not be able to spell it, but they understand in their guts that this is a plutocracy and no one at the top gives a shit about them. I have always voted, but it often feels like an exercise in futility. So many say "Why bother?" Until we have a government that is responsive to the people and not just to moneyed people it will be like this.

[BainsBane]

36. Now they can see the consequences of that false equivalency

Last edited Sun Dec 4, 2016, 05:32 AM - Edit history (1)

that their willful ignorance will have serious consequences for their lives and the millions of Americans they clearly don't give a shit about.

But my post was about the millions of people of color purged from voting lists and otherwise denied the franchise, people robbed of their constitutional rights. The ones making false equivalency arguments about plutocracy enable that disenfranchisement, just as they have enabled a fascist to rise to the presidency.

That you can even make that argument given developments since the general election is stunning. It takes an lot to maintain that level of ignorance.

[RKP5637]

27. A point of apathy for those that do vote is failing to review and vote for judges where such is the

case. RW'ers and often obnoxious religious groups with authoritative interests will often vote in block for horrific Judges they want knowing that many voters often don't bother to vote for the judges or do not understand the intent/agenda of a judge. Finding background information on judges often takes a lot of searching.

[MineralMan]

38. There were at least 20 judges on my ballot.

None were opposed. That's typical. It's a pro forma vote. We did have a contested Supreme Court race, but the incumbent won with 80% of the vote. Unless there is some sort of scandal, judges just get reelected. Most voters don't even Mark their ballots for them.

[RKP5637]

31. It's often hard to soar like an eagle when one is forced to fly along with a bunch of turkeys. n/t

[cwydro]

35. Yeah, we can hate the "rural, redneck" voters all we want.

But they get out and vote. Apathetic voters piss me off.

I work in a very red county, and believe you me, those that spoke to me about it - all made sure they made time to vote.

As an aside, I've not caught any flak or "gloating" from any of them. Small town area where I work, and my car with its Hillary sticker is well known.