Tallying the Non-Voters

Now that almost all the ballots have been counted, it’s time to pat ourselves on the back, somewhat.  Not over who we elected and what ballot issues we voted for or against, but the very fact that we voted.  America has been a piss-poor example of “freedom” when it comes to voting, as our overall turnout for elections is, to put a political spin on it, “sucky.”  The percentages have been going down, down, down for years.  But we turned the tide in 2020.

Overall, more than two-thirds who were eligible to vote in 2020 cast a ballot, either at the voting booth or by mail.  That’s the highest percent since 1900!  Back then, it was 74% compared to this year’s 67%.  And participation by state varied, of course.  Here in Oregon our rate was 75.5%, fifth highest in the nation (take a bow, Minnesota).  In addition, nearly 82% of those registered to vote in Oregon cast a ballot.  Again, compared to previous, these are great numbers.

But think about it another way.  Here in Oregon we have vote by mail, and have had it for more than twenty years.  They mail you both a ballot AND a “voter’s pamphlet” with information on all the candidates and ballot measures.  All you need to do is fill out the ballot and mail it back – POSTAGE PAID.  It’s probably the easiest thing you can do; easier than paying your bills.

And yet, nearly 1 in 5 Oregonians didn’t do this.

The way I like think of it is this:  think about a group gathering, like when you used to get together with family for Thanksgiving (for gawds sake don’t do it this year!).  In the Exinger clan gathering at my grandmother’s this would be about 20 people.  Now I sit and think – of those twenty, FOUR didn’t vote – which ones?  Aunt Marylin, probably.  Aunt Dorcus.  Cousin Karen (natch).  One more…Cousin Kathy’s husband Eric?  He always looks disinterested when we talk politics (Uncle Bill used to work for Governor Milliken a long while ago).  Of course, Eric looks disinterested when we talk about damn near anything except football.

So that’s one group I just don’t get – people who looked around, saw what’s been happening over the last four years and said, “Nah, I’ll sit this one out.”  Or, more likely, “Nah, I’ll sit this one out…too.”

This is 2016.  Don't freak out.

But there’s another group that’s even more puzzling to me.  In 2016 there was the bitching that “Clinton would’ve won had some of the millions of non-voters been interested enough to vote.”  Well, the good news is that many non-voters saw the light and cast ballots this time, and Joe Biden amassed MORE votes than ANY OTHER Presidential election winner.  As of this writing, he has more than 79 million votes, compared to Clinton’s 65.8 million.

The thing is, Donald Trump also received more votes this time.  In 2016, he won despite only receiving just under 63 million votes.  This time around he got 10 million MORE people to vote for him (and still got his ass handed to him in the process).

Think about that – he improved his vote tally by more than 16% - a remarkable achievement – and yet still trailed Biden by almost 6 million voted (and lost the Electoral College by, as they said in 2016, “a landslide”).   And also thing about this – those 10 million “new Trump voters” would have, like their non-voting brethren, considered the state of the union, the higher-than-2016 unemployment, the tax cut that only benefited the rich, the coddling up to dictators, the rising deficit, the continual lying and golfing and tweeting nonsense, and almost 250,000 dead from a disease Trump did little to stop or slow down.  Considered the shit-show we call 2020 and said,

“No more sitting on the sidelines for me – I’m gonna vote for the guy who fucked all this up!”

Yeah, so that’s another group I just don’t get.