The 2024 US presidential election had been widely characterized as one of the most consequential political contests in recent US history. Although turnout was high for a presidential election – almost matching the levels of 2020 – it is estimated that close to 90 million Americans, roughly 36% of the eligible voting age population, did not vote. This number is greater than the number of people who voted for either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris.
More than a month on from polling day, eligible US voters from across the country as well as other parts of the world got in touch with the Guardian to share why they did not vote.
Scores of people said they had not turned out as they felt their vote would not matter because of the electoral college system, since they lived in a safely blue or red state. This included a number of people who nonetheless had voted in the 2020 and 2016 elections.
While various previous Democratic voters said they had abstained this time due to the Harris campaign’s stance on Israel or for other policy reasons, a number of people in this camp said they would have voted for the vice-president had they lived in a swing state.
Lol this was a 1:1 repeat of 2016.
I voted and sat back as the Dems threw away their election by willingly ignoring their constituents in exchange for AIPAC money.
The idea that your vote doesn’t count in a strongly red or blue state is total propaganda to get people to not vote and make it so that they don’t have to spend money on campaigning in those places. There are way more people who don’t vote than there are people who voted for either candidate in most places. If everyone voted it could easily overcome any perceived majorities. Especially if city people voted. Problem is that there isnt enough capacity to vote. And cuts to funding that capacity in red states have been a big way to discourage voting in cities. Most people can’t afford to take an entire day off of work to wait in the lines and employers wouldn’t allow it. They’re only required to give 1 hour which is barely enough to get to a poling place and back with no lines. And that isn’t enforced so many don’t even give that hour. And mail in and early voting has been framed by Republicans as unreliable with fake movies and such as propaganda even though it works great in many Blue states.
“The Dems are out of touch on social issues, and have tacked too far to the left to appease a minority of progressives.”
Asshole.
For those who aren’t aware already, “a minority of progressives” means “queer people,” specifically trans people.
This asshole is saying the Dems went too far in trying to make things more equal.
And ignorant - they fell for the conservative talking points too
And us progressives feel ignored by the Dems. Wild
Progressivism is further-left than liberalism.
I despise humanity’s current timeline. Can it fuck off, please!?
Meteor 2028!
U guys need mandatory voting like what we got here in aus. And by mandatory it doesnt mean u have to pick someone (its ur right to spoil ur ballot) it simply means u have to attend a polling booth.
Voting is a duty not a right
We need laws that make it illegal to spread election misinformation. We can’t function as a society with this level of manipulation and outright falsities. Nobody knows what is up or down anymore and this is just the start of what AI and propaganda news media are gonna make possible in the very near future.
Who decides what is misinformation? The government who is in power and has a vested interest in maintaining power?
Internationally recognized 3rd party committee with elected members and strict regulations on conflicts of interests would be one option.
Or just stick with the current dumpster fire that could not possibly get any worse. (Well i suppose it could, and will)
Voting should also be easier.
We should be able to vote with our phones.
So wait, if your state wins, the excess votes don’t matter towards the presidential candidate?
Nope, they just go to the popular vote as bragging rights. It’s a stupid system.
i guess it’s similar to our system here in canada, however many ridings the party has dictates their position in the house. its really dumb because some reps might be great people, but the leader is a total dingus. I don’t know what party i am voting for because i have lost faith in all the parties in my county.
One guy said this “VP Harris failed to demonstrate she was ethically or intellectually capable of executing the office, repeatedly failing to detail out her policies…" It’s infuriating that people continue to believe Harris never detailed her policies despite the fact that all she talked about was policy. All they had to do was pay attention to her and she would talk about her policies, it seems like they just didn’t want to even pay attention to her. Or that because she didn’t detail alllll of her policies then that wasn’t enough. Add on that this person calls her intellectually incapable of talking about her policies, basically calling her stupid and it’s just exhausting.
This whole article continues to make me believe in the fundamental problem with Democrat voters which so many people have shown. The democrats have to run the perfect candidate with the perfect policies or the charisma of Obama who promise the world, while the Republicans can run a guy who says immigrants are eating cats and dogs and because the Democratic candidate wasn’t perfect, the Republicans win.
And then when the Democrats do promise signficant change and it doesn’t immediately happen, Democrat voters punish them for it, they lose the midterms, and any change that was in the process of happening gets stopped dead. But when Republicans promise the world and don’t deliver, Republican voters reward them for simply promising it.
“Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line.”
Institutional vs anti institutional. Dems are institutional and the institution sucks. Trump is a sledgehammer. He promised alot of sledgehammering. Not good, but that’s irrelevant. The Dems need to stop protecting the broken system of neo liberal economics that fucking Regan invented and chasing the phantom center right vote.
Aka. swing left or die.
I live in a blue state but that doesn’t mean I’d be justified in believing that I should sit it out. Even if that insane logic about not needing to was valid, there’s other shit on the ballot. And even if my vote for or abstaining against an uncontested incumbent is irrelevant, there’s still ballot measures that need to be understood.
Did they interview anyone in a swing state at all, or just people who lived in solid states and suggested that if they lived in a swing state they’d have voted?
The only reasons they gave were Israel and gesture vaguely in the direction of other policies.
Did these non-voters not consider the downballot candidates that dems also lost their asses on?
I didn’t find Harris compelling, just more of the same.
Well you’re sure not going to get more of the same now. Good job, shithead.
the problem is, we still gotta beat Trump.
I dont think anyone knows if actual leftist messages will actually work, but holy shit it’s gotta be better than diet, no caffeine, low sodium fun size Bill Clinton Zero.
Good job, shithead.
Yeah, keep blaming the people “not falling in line” instead of just running a candidate that supports them.
That’s how we got 2 Trump presidencies and people like you still haven’t learned from it.
If anything, this should teach people like you that expecting people to “fall in line” no longer works and you should support different tactics to prevent further conservative blowouts.
I don’t think people like you are capable of learning from this, though. You’re just going to get angrier and keep repeating the same mistakes expecting different results.
You’re right. I do blame people for “not falling in line” and letting a genocidal fascist dictator who made no secret of that gain control of a nation because they didn’t find the opposition “compelling.”
And as far from not having learned, I think what you haven’t learned is that 2024 was the last real election in the U.S. in your lifetime.
Harris lost. You got what you wanted. Be happy about it.
Yeah, you’re delusional and incapable of arguing in good faith.
And yet I did not insult you.
And if you think I’m delusional about what Trump is going to do, you’re in for a very rude awakening.
Yeah. You’re too distracted by the other guy being the antichrist to focus on how democrats would rather have trump than a progressive in office.
Until that culture changes, we shouldn’t expect our government to change.
Clearly you’re doing your part in making sure things stay exactly the same, while somehow expecting different results.
I think there’s a word for that, but I digress.
You’re right. I’m “too distracted” by the fascist dictatorship to play what if.
What part should I be doing? Insulting people on the internet? What else are you doing?
Well when you get Biden pardoning a judge who literally took bribes to send kids to jail to benefit a for profit jail, I’d question how compelling the Democrats are.
Instead of voting 3rd party and trying to change things, many Americans seems to be locked in a pointless argument over which party is the least shit.
Yeah fuck Biden for doing that, but try to stay on topic
Maybe you shouldn’t worry about them being compelling when the alternative was fascism.
How are you still arguing this?
Because it is all a lie to cover up the truth. They want everyone to think of them as righteous, good, and caring. Hell, they want to think of themselves that way. But deep down they know it’s not quite true. There’s something they hate that is more important than what happens to anyone else, and even to themselves. I suspect that for a lot of them it’s extreme sexism… Sure, they are all for a female president. As long as she is perfect. Says everything perfect, does everything perfect, and it would really help if she had a penis too. Or maybe they didn’t want an Indian or another black person… Whatever it was it was more important than their so called support for the Palestinians, support for the Ukrains, hate of fascists and Nazis, ect ect…
Whatever it was, the blood of the Palestinians, Ukrains, is a small price to pay… But whatever it is, it’s heinous and they know it. So, rather than admit to everyone, and even more importantly themselves, what they know is truly disgusting, they pretend that it was something that makes no sense. “She didn’t explain her policies, we didn’t like her policies on something even though her opponents were 100 times worse…”
It’s a smoke screen for the truth. Intellectual Dishonesty. They are lying to us and themselves.
At least the maga crowd has the guts to admit their hate. They come straight out and let you know that they are fine with the world burning as long as whatever they hate burns with it.Well then I guess you’ve gotten what you wanted. Enjoy the Trump administration and the all new domestic genocides.
Not all the people who didn’t vote for Harris are Trump supporters; there are a lot of leftists and progressives who believe that they can’t survive any more late-stage capitalism. They recognize that the only peaceful chance to stop the wealthiest 1% from ruling is to stop electing them and stop electing the people who are bought by them.
Corporate democrats are better on certain social issues but they’ll still put wealth over people, and they’ll never move left. It’s why we have the cruel health system we have today. It’s why the banks got bailed out and never got regulated. It’s why the Digital Millennium Copyright Act passed. Heck, 81 Congressional house democrats just voted for a military spending bill that denies medical care to trans kids.
Kamala Harris is a corporate democrat.
And like I told the person before you, she lost so you got what you wanted. Enjoy the fascism and the genocides.
I actually voted both third party and for Harris, so maybe don’t assume you know how people voted or what they want.
I’m not the guy you were responding to. I responded to your question about how he could still be arguing such an illogical argument.
And to reiterate, his entire argument is a lie. It’s a smoke screen to hide the real reason he didn’t want to vote for a woman, or a brown person, or whatever his hang-up is.Sorry, I agree with you.
How you still did not understand that this way of arguing won’t change anyone’s mind?
“Choose between slow sleepwalk to fascism or this rapid honest one”.
I can’t fathom why people put all the blame on the voters. Dems could a and should have done more. Harris got billion dollars for her campaign!
Biden pardoning his son is understandable, but a giant Fuck You to everyone else. He got his, now the rest will live with consequences.
DNC has fucked the USA again and again. How about some blame there.
I can’t fathom why people put all the blame on the voters
Unreal.
Most voters don’t have luxuries of having time or education to make deep dives into issues, and are swayed by some nonsense.
And think what you like, it’s usually not something they choose voluntarily or consciously.
I can’t fathom how people point out how ‘pulling yourselves up by the bootstraps’ is BS, and then they point to tired, underpaid, health issue ridden public and say: “you should know not to vote for this!!1!”.
Then Harris panders to the right and the same people don’t understand how she could lose. Really?
AOCs voters said they are tired of the status quo. Something we all know and understand. And we know the DNC will never let go of the status quo. Where does this lead to?
AOC’s voters said all sorts of insane, idiotic shit, when she asked why they voted for her but also Trump.
It was trivially easy, and took very little time, to inform yourself about the two options. There is no excuse. People need to take responsibility for their decisions, and blaming everyone but themselves is just copium.
Those are the people you have to convince to vote, that’s all.
If you keep ignoring them, nothing will change.
This attitude is what brought the results. Ignoring masses to pander to billionaires is not going to win democrats anything. Pointing fingers to other side and announcing ‘we are better than them’ worked only once.
Most voters don’t have luxuries of having time or education to make deep dives into issues, and are swayed by some nonsense.
Arguably most voters wouldn’t have needed to take a deep dive into issues to see Trump was the worse option, a shallow one at most. A swim would’ve been enough, really.
Why would I care about changing anyone’s mind at this point? America is going to be a fascist dictatorship. Any sort of semblance of a free and fair election are over.
By understanding the problem potential solutions may emerge.
Doomerism helps the owner class, they need you to feel helpless and isolated. Don’t let them win.
Do you know nothing about Project 2025? You’ve had a long time to learn about it. The whole point is to keep Republicans in power perpetually and remove any need for legitimate elections.
And you think you can vote your way out of that?
(By the way, I love how you’ve gone from “this sort of arguing won’t change anyone’s mind” to “why aren’t you trying to change people’s minds?!?!”)
Re:btw what do you mean? It’s the same thing: you should be trying to change people’s minds, and be better at that, and I’m bringing your attention to it. You are a prolific poster all over the fediverse, so you can have a big impact on people. And I think you are aware of it.
I’ve known about the P25 for a long time, I’m well aware of its consequences. Burying our heads and losing our hope is the only way they can get away with it.
Kings have fallen, and we all should do our best to not create them again. That includes understanding those who voted for them. Ignoring the problem or its root cause won’t change anything.
I keep repeating this line in my head:
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Fortunately Biden wasn’t on the ballot
No, but “i wont be fundentally different from Biden” Harris was.
The left is dealing Left-out. And journalism standards are very low.
What if we make not voting an official vote and, if it wins, all the parties have to try again with new candidates?
Well, they may have actual made it so about what they fear about their vote “not counting” by putting the fascists in power
It looks like the “they’re both the same” disinformation from the hexbear side of the internet made a pretty strong impression. I’m not going to call it determinative by any means but it put some weight on the scale.
I think attempting to court Never Trump voters and Haley voters was penalty the biggest mistake. They could’ve spent that time and energy trying to win workers, getting their messaging to be more “real person” instead of focus grouped.
Like, the real solution was for Biden not to run for re-election at least, and at most to resign in February 2023 or right after signing the Infrastructure Law or chips.
Its not disinformation to say the obvious, that people are completely dissatisfied with the Democratic Party’s ineptitude and corruption. They blatantly refuse to listen to the will of their voting base. I can also guarantee nowhere near 90 million eligible voters were influenced in any way by hexbear or related sites. Those users were just telling you what you refused to listen to. That the democratic party needs to change its tactics and stop their shady money laundering and pandering to corporate interests and ruthless support of imperialism, or they wont win. But keep blaming some random internet forum, and palestinians, and anybody but the ones who made the actual decisions during the election. Decisions that alienated tens of millions of eligible voters.
The large number of eligible non-voters is primarily a result of those individual’s responses to propaganda. This did not happen by accident. I don’t blame the person that got conned, I blame those running the con job.
What propaganda? Running a shitty candidate that doesn’t represent the interests of working people is not propaganda.
If anything, this derision towards those who refuse to “fall in line” reads like propaganda. It makes sense that people like you would peddle it without even knowing.
Not according to the article. Lots of voters in solid red or blue states didn’t see a point, and who am I to argue. Thanks to gerrymandering, this is often true even for local races. Why vote for a party that supports genocide when your vote is nothing but virtue signaling for a party bereft of virtue?
You have it backwards - not voting because of a single issue is the real virtue signaling. Voting for the lesser of two evils is simply pragmatic.
not voting because of a single issue is the real virtue signaling.
You’re just making assertions, not arguments. You’re also not paying attention because this makes zero sense as a response to my argument.
My entire point was that signaling is all than many voters can do because their vote is irrelevant. Skipping the presidential race is a signal too.
Also, fuck referring to the mass slaughter of civilians as just a “single issue”.
No - fuck handing the government to a criminal and his fascist cronies in order to prove a point. The USA is nearly completely lost to the oligarchs and we played right into their hands. The war in Gaza is diespicable and awful and we just elected a group who will strip away even more of the power we had to try and stop that atrocity and future atrocities.
fuck handing the government to a criminal and his fascist cronies in order to prove a point.
Know why Democrats lose so many damn elections? They don’t know how to fucking listen to what people are saying. That you think this has anything to do with my comment is absolutely bizarre. Neither I, nor the voter I’m talking about cost the Democrats a damn thing.
The USA is nearly completely lost to the oligarchs and we played right into their hands.
No fucking kidding. You’re half way to the truth. Now you just have to embrace the reality that “oligarchs” includes the Clintons, Obamas, Pelosis, Schumers, and (to a lesser degree) Biden’s. Then you will really understand how truly fucked this country is.
we just elected a group who will strip away even more of the power we had
Who’s “we”? The main difference between Republicans and Democrats is that the Republicans have no shame. Democrats feel kind of bad about screwing us for their handlers, so they throw us a bone from time to time. In that dynamic, what’s happening now was inevitable and it was just a matter of when.
We should have overthrown the Democrats in 2020 to create a new dynamic, but we missed our chance. Nobody knows when or if we will get another. The Republicans will never be any better than they are until they have to face an emboldened and left-populist Democratic party. The party we have is light years from being that.
In spite of your rather insulting way of putting things I actually agree with most of what you’re saying, and yet even still voting Kamala was the easiest and most obvious choice voters had to make in decades and somehow still failed.
Local elections matter a lot. If the government shits its pants and nominates total morons who literally have no idea how to perform their job, it falls to state elections and officials to pick up the slack. And if your state elects fucking idiots, your last line of defense are your city officials. And you better pray they are damn good at their job.
You only want the best state officials, and the best only get elected if people vote. Out of 8,000,000 people in our state, 54 decided an election for a massive role during nov 2024. Four of those were from family, so a difference of about a block or three changed the outcome for millions of people. And we are deep blue. 50 votes away from a red candidate.
