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U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

pewresearch.org

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Re: U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

#11

Post by KingOfCoders »

jahaja wrote: post #7
docdeek wrote: post #5

Interesting that % of registered voters that vote in the US is incredibly high (86%) even if the number of registered voters is low (hence the low % of eligible voters actually voting). 86% is right up there with countries like Belgium and Australia where voting is compulsory and the obligation to vote (or turn up at a polling place…) is enforced. Switzerland seems odd on the face of it to me - what explains low turn…

Why do people even need to register to vote? In Sweden every eligible voter receive their "voting card" by mail a couple of weeks before an election.

Same in Germany, always astonished about the US system.

Re: U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

#12

Post by 082349872349872 »

docdeek wrote: post #5

Interesting that % of registered voters that vote in the US is incredibly high (86%) even if the number of registered voters is low (hence the low % of eligible voters actually voting). 86% is right up there with countries like Belgium and Australia where voting is compulsory and the obligation to vote (or turn up at a polling place…) is enforced. Switzerland seems odd on the face of it to me - what explains low turn…

My explanation for swiss voter turnout: if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Two anecdotes:

- the presidency rotates among members of the executive committee, on a yearly basis. Cynically, the president exists so if a foreign head of state wants to have dinner, they have someone with whom to do it.

- when a referendum comes to the ballot, we don't just have to vote it up or down. The government gets a chance to say "yes, we agree this is a problem, but we'd suggest solving it this other way". Those are two options. The third (and I believe this is most popular) is "meh, it's working fine as it is".

Anyway, compared to US politics[1], swiss politics is wonderfully sedate. I'd like to think that's because the politicians are here to make the country run more smoothly, so the rest of us have better things to do.

Edit: and yes, we receive all balloting material by mail, and return it by mail. No problem. It works.

[1] is this because there are no center parties?

Q. Why is US politics like the Cupid Shuffle?

A. To the right, to the right, to the right, to the right / To the left, to the left, to the left, to the left

Re: U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

#13

Post by willis936 »

jahaja wrote: post #4
zrail wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you want a system that actually allows politicians to work for their voters The people in power don’t actually want this.

Trump said it out loud didn't he? That the republican party would cease to exist, or similar, if voting-by-mail were widely allowed.

It’s what we all know: current GOP ideals do not line up with majority representation. The GOP would be forced to change its policy to fall in line with the people’s will: a true tragedy, I know. We currently have a tyranny of minority.

Re: U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

#14

Post by [deleted] »

docdeek wrote: post #5

Interesting that % of registered voters that vote in the US is incredibly high (86%) even if the number of registered voters is low (hence the low % of eligible voters actually voting). 86% is right up there with countries like Belgium and Australia where voting is compulsory and the obligation to vote (or turn up at a polling place…) is enforced. Switzerland seems odd on the face of it to me - what explains low turn…

[deleted]

Re: U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

#15

Post by ShorsHammer »

docdeek wrote: post #5

Interesting that % of registered voters that vote in the US is incredibly high (86%) even if the number of registered voters is low (hence the low % of eligible voters actually voting). 86% is right up there with countries like Belgium and Australia where voting is compulsory and the obligation to vote (or turn up at a polling place…) is enforced. Switzerland seems odd on the face of it to me - what explains low turn…

> Switzerland seems odd on the face of it to me - what explains low turnout

They have a large number of single issue referendums multiple times a year.

There were 10 in 2018: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Swiss_referendums

Re: U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

#17

Post by standardUser »

klmadfejno wrote: post #6

This should surprise nobody. I live in a blue state. My vote is practically meaningless because of the electoral college system. Yes, there's some signalling to be done, but on affecting the short term outcome? Nada. MLK has a great quote, "“Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will." That's exactly what our current presidential race offer…

There's primaries and state and local elections and in many states there are referendum. Thinking of voting as something that is only done every four years for president is one of the problem with voting in the US.

Re: U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

#18

Post by stefan_ »

docdeek wrote: post #5

Interesting that % of registered voters that vote in the US is incredibly high (86%) even if the number of registered voters is low (hence the low % of eligible voters actually voting). 86% is right up there with countries like Belgium and Australia where voting is compulsory and the obligation to vote (or turn up at a polling place…) is enforced. Switzerland seems odd on the face of it to me - what explains low turn…

It's hilarious how deeply ingrained the insanity is. Registering to vote is just not a thing outside the US. The percentage of people who come to vote, then vote is all of them.

Re: U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

#19

Post by klmadfejno »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #9
klmadfejno wrote: post #6

This should surprise nobody. I live in a blue state. My vote is practically meaningless because of the electoral college system. Yes, there's some signalling to be done, but on affecting the short term outcome? Nada. MLK has a great quote, "“Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will." That's exactly what our current presidential race offer…

Voting is a citizen act and never meaningless.

It is useful for signalling. It is meaningless on the actual election outcome. If everyone disenfranchised voted for people they thought were good but unlikely to win, you'd maybe get enough of a signal to change the party line in future elections. But that's incredibly hard and similarly meaningless at small scale. Getting people to vote for first order effects is difficult. Try getting them to vote for second order effects. There's no political machine to get out the vote for virtuous ideas that have no chance of winning in the right now.

Re: U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

#20

Post by nocturnial »

docdeek wrote: post #5

Interesting that % of registered voters that vote in the US is incredibly high (86%) even if the number of registered voters is low (hence the low % of eligible voters actually voting). 86% is right up there with countries like Belgium and Australia where voting is compulsory and the obligation to vote (or turn up at a polling place…) is enforced. Switzerland seems odd on the face of it to me - what explains low turn…

In Belgium _every_ citizen is automatically registered.

I feel you are comparing apples to oranges. If every citizen in the US was registered, then how do the numbers compare then?

The other registration, ie. not the automatic one, in Belgium applies to foreigner who live in Belgium and want to have some say in local elections. I can't even see how this kind of registration even compares to the voter registration in the US. Well, they both have the word "registration" but it isn't even remotely the same.

If you need help interpreting the numbers of registration vs voting, let me know. I can search the real numbers and break them down to citizen (auto-registration) and non-citizens (who could register but didn't) and non-voters (both categories combined but didn't show up at the election)

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