- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/22680392
Thinking of red states vs blue states is busted. Plenty of good visualizations of this over the years, but this election in particular feels really important to point out “We” did not chose this.
When I say we I mean registered US voters, but even less so citizens, and even less so again residents.
Even of the voters who did vote for the GOP candidate, who can say how many really wanted him or his policies vs they just didn’t want more of the status quo Dems.
The popular vote tallies in this graphic are out of date too, He definitely didn’t win in a landslide the way it can appear with red and blue maps. His win in the popular vote was also pretty small now that more votes have been counted. https://www.thenation.com/…/donald-trump-vote-margin…/
So, what if Biden used broad immunity SCOTUS granted to declare a crisis of democracy - That between massive disinformation campaigns by enemies both foreign and domestic, voter suppression, as well as many other factors, the will of the people can’t be discerned from our recent presidential election. That it would be a dereliction of duty both to the people and to his oath to defend the constitution to hand over power to someone whose clear and declared intent is abuse the power of the office to fundamentally reshape or demolish our republic based on this highly suspect and incomplete result (remember, most people didn’t even vote)
Here is my off the cuff proposal for what to do after that
A new election, everyone must vote. Trump and Harris on the ballot, but each major party must offer 2 candidates, and we’re using Ranked Choice Voting. 1st place gets presidency, 2nd place gets VP.
Biden almost certainly won’t do anything like this. He is clearly a coward with a stupid sense of optimism - a “things will be just fine, no need for any drastic measures” ever, mentality, and despite some rhetoric has shown no signs that he thinks there is anything to actually be concerned about from the party which has veered hard towards fascism. But, hey, a guy can dream.
How many of the non-voters would vote if online voting was an option? I am sure there are many technical hurdles for online voting, but surely it would increase turnout and is not too far out of the realm of possibility?
It’s a terrible idea the more you look into it. Seems great at first for sure, but you do not want it. Too easy to mess with it.
Paper creates a better physical trail to avoid tampering. The time commitment should be reduced by allowing voting by mail, even better if it’s mandatory. Easily enforced with a tax break for participating and just sending back a receipt of vote recorded accurately.
Its pretty difficult to do… Cleo Abrams has an amazing video about this exact thing. If you want the shorter version of the video, here you go.
Online voting for the US election allows for much much easier tampering from foreign and domestic powers. It’s a method with way to many severe issues to use on a massive scale, as convenient as it would be.