There is literally 0 chance the area I live in will be blue. Does me going out and voting actually do anything besides add to the popular vote tally?
Remember that the president isn’t the only thing on the ballot.
Don’t give up on fighting fascism from your school board up to your state reps. If you organize/join existing groups, you can make your voice heard.
Your vote is sending a signal to future elections. If Ohio has a 20-point red margin, it’s unlikely to get any attention from blue candidates. If it has a 5% margin, that changes, and suddenly the next campaign considers spending time & money to try and move the needle.
Remember the old Roman adage: “you’re not defeated until you admit defeat”. If you don’t vote: you’ve lost. If you vote, you might still lose that election but there’s a better chance to win in the future.
Always vote. Progressives lose elections because 30% of any population votes for the conservative at every single election, no matter what, like it’s a religion. Progressives need a culture that says: ALWAYS VOTE. It doesn’t fucking matter if it doesn’t fucking matter. Vote anyway. Let your kids see you voting like it’s actually important. Make it important.
One of the best comments I’ve seen here. Kudos
Yes because there are more options than just president, and increasing voter turnout is always advantageous to the left. There are more Democrats than Republicans in America, so 100% voter turnout means no more fascists in office.
I live in Nebraska and I feel the same way. I go out and vote in every election because that’s my civic duty, if the majority of people in your area with our same feeling actually went out and vote it is possible to become a swing state.
That being said my personal opinion is if you don’t vote you forfeit your right to complain about politics. You didn’t voice your opinion when it was important, so you shouldn’t voice it when it’s not.
Edit: spelling
Same! I’m in a red state but I have voted in every election since I reached the age to vote (a looong time ago). Yeah, my state always goes red for POTUS but I still vote Dem for POTUS so we don’t look like we’re a total shithole state. We have a Dem governor, a Dem House rep in DC, and my personal State senator and rep are Dems, too–I helped put them there. Dems are still quite outnumbered in the State legislature, but there’s been enough of them to keep the repubs from overriding the governor’s veto of some of their fascist bullshit bills. Every bit helps.
Yes! It’s the total votes statewide that determines the winner (POTUS and Senator), no matter which areas of the state they come from. Besides that, a showing of more blue votes in red areas makes a bigger statement to powers-that-be, campaign analysts, etc. than blue votes in blue areas. Represent!
And as everyone else is saying, vote blue for every office on the ballot. The state, county, and city levels are just as important as the national level if not more so. Vote in every election no matter what, even if no one you voted for wins, it matters how close the races are so Dems know where to concentrate their efforts.
It’ll stay red if people don’t vote
The more deeply and unanimously red your local lawmakers consider their electorate, the more confident they will be pushing right and far right legislation and building MAGA cultishness. It won’t change who’s elected, but it can change how your local lawmakers think about what their community wants.
If Ohio voted 15% blue last election and then votes 25% blue this election, that’s significant information that tells people there may be momentum for change.
There may not be a chance of winning this election , but every vote tells people what people want.
If you don’t vote, Ohio will always look like it will only ever vote red.
Elections aren’t just about the President. That’s arguably the least impactful person on the ballot. Look at your local reps running for state positions, find ones you like, they’ll have much more impact on your daily life.
Plus, it’s a good opportunity to pay a little closer attention to local politics. My town is getting pretty hot the last few years, with some major controversies
- siting for a new high school, with hundreds of millions in state and federal funding at stake, and a huge impact on the community for the next half century. They’re racing to open it in time for the coming school year, but the site is still controversial
- summer closure to vehicles of the shops and restaurant area was a huge hit during COViD period, but now some people want to “go back to normal”
- huge arguments for and against our strong mayor able to get things done
- the town bought contaminated land for Pennies but trying to figure out what to do with it means figuring out how to clean it up
- we have a great sports facility with a large number of astroturfed fields but “the carpet is scuffed and worn”. Can we afford to get it re-carpeted? Is there an advantage to going back to grass?
- were having a lot of population growth and want to encourage higher density housing in the center of town near shops and transit, but how much can/should we try to control that? A neighborhood near me just got a couple of six story apartment blocks thrown down in the middle of much smaller duplexes and three deckers: is that good or bad? Technically it’s still a walk to the town center and it’s on a new trail, so that’s good, but it’s way out of scale for the neighborhood and would be better closer in with other buildings that size, so I’m glad I don’t live there. I see this one house is now abutting a brick wall almost as tall as the house
For president?
Probably not.
But it might for down ballot races which are still important.
Like in 08 when Obama first ran. Dems made lots of gains in state governments because he drove turnout.
Always vote. There’s always someone analyzing trends, and you don’t truly know where it’s heading until you get there.
I do somewhat understand since I moved to Massachusetts: I’ll get my preference regardless whether I vote. But it does matter, even if it’s just a trend: I was a bit disappointed Biden didn’t quite get 2/3 last time around: he won with only 65.6%. We can do better! My county only voted 71.5% for Biden and there were at least three counties better. We can do better!
At least as importantly, it does give me more freedom to vote third party, in the comfort of knowing my state’s electoral votes will all go toward the sane option. Historically we’ve had reasonably strong showings for third party candidates, but last time was only 2%
This is why the people who try to register as a different party to advocate for lesser evils are ultimately shooting themselves in the foot.
If the Democratic Party sees a region with 70% of voters registered as Republican they’re just not going to waste their time on it. They have no way of knowing 30% of those chuckleheads would vote blue and make it an actual competition if they had the option.
Getting you to feel like your vote is meaningless is how they win.
Ohio’s Electoral College votes are cast for the winner of the state, not per district [1]. Of course you should vote for Biden (or whoever the ultimate candidate against Trump will be)!
[1] - “As a winner-takes-all state, the candidate that wins Ohio gets all 18 Electoral College votes.”, https://www.ideastream.org/community/2020-10-21/how-are-ohios-electoral-college-votes-decided
Thank you, this is the kind of info I was looking for. If county/district mattered. So all of Ohio is Talley’d up and all votes from the whole state are in the same pool?
Thats right. Your vote counts the same as one in Cincinnati or Cleveland or Athens etc. then the whole state goes one way or another. Thats why turnout is so important!
Also there might be down ballot races you vote for that move the needle. Everyone forgets about local elections but they actually matter way more to your life on a day to day basis.
In terms of the Electoral College votes, yes, it looks that way. But either way, I’d say to please vote. It matters.
All states except Maine and Nebraska tally votes cast statewide and allocate all electoral votes from that state to the winner. Specific concentrations of voters in those states aren’t factored into the allocation.
The popular vote tally is what matters on a state level. 48 states (Ohio included) use a state-wide popular vote and award all their electoral votes to the winner of a plurality (highest percentage even if no one gets more than 50%) in that vote.
Please always vote. Ohio isn’t so deeply red that it’s completely hopeless yet
