C I V I L    M A R R I A G E    I S    A    C I V I L    R I G H T.

A N D N O W I T ' S T H E L A W O F T H E L A N D.


Friday, November 11, 2016

100 Million Americans Did Not Vote - Why?

The brown-nosing and sucking-up begins:
People magazine glorifies Trump on the cover of its next issue.
(Do I really have to point out the divine-halo effect for you guys?)
A summary of the popular and electoral votes from Wikipedia.

Some quick stats for you all to chew on: Nationwide turnout was, as of yesterday's estimates, only 56.9 percent of eligible voters (U.S. citizens over age 18), or by my calculation, 65.8 percent of registered voters. So about a third of the registered electorate just sat out the election, which is pretty much what has happened in every presidential election for the last fifty years.

Let me make the point one more time, for clarity:  out of the 220 million-plus Americans who are old enough to vote, 60 million and a smidgeon voted for Clinton, and 60 million and a speck voted for Trump, and about 100 million did not vote at all.  That is the staggering fact.

If 80 or 90 percent had voted, would we still be living in the nightmare of a Trump victory today? I can't answer that, but you all can meditate on the figures and links below if you can stand to.

Voting-age population characteristics from the United States Census Bureau,
posted on their website Oct. 28, 2016.  Click to enlarge.

Vox:  Trump was elected by a little more than a quarter of eligible voters

Heavy: Over 90 Million Eligible Voters Didn’t Vote in the 2016 Presidential Election


Politico: America hits new landmark: 200 million registered voters

United States Elections Project: 2016 November General Election Turnout Rates, by states

The American Presidency Project: Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections, 1828 - 2012

Pew Research Center: Behind Trump’s victory: Divisions by race, gender, education

Pew Research Center: How the faithful voted: A preliminary 2016 analysis

(This last link has some very interesting items:  60 percent of white Catholic voters checked the box for Trump, as did 24 percent of Jewish voters.  Why, why, why?)


3 comments:

Davis said...

Because the Democratic candidate was demonized for the past 25 years and if you say something often enough it becomes its own reality.

Russ Manley said...

Persistently applied, the Big Lie is always so effective, isn't it?

Frank said...

As for Catholics, they have become closer to evangelicals than ever and the abortion issue is #1; same-gender marriage is lower on the list, most can tolerate it but many still cannot. Most of the older Religious Sisters and anyone who took Vatican 2 to heart are pretty liberal probably voted for Hillary.

Related Posts with Thumbnails