My state was not even close to being in contention. I could have voted the very bottom of the ticket if I felt like it and not have had any qualms, then or now. If this state’s 2nd and 3rd largest cities had all voted the other way (by which I mean a shift of the vote equivalent to the population of those two cities) there still would have been no change, by a comfortable margin.
Which, in truth, is fucked up. It shows that about half of my state are effectively disenfranchised by the other half. In a large part of the country this is true toward one side or the other. And we wonder why America constantly shows such low voter turnout :rolleyes:
The highest voter turnout is in presidential election years. Voting for state-wide offices, like governor or US Senator, doesn’t typically make for larger voter turnout in so-called off years, and that can’t be blamed on the kind of disenfranchisement you are talking about. So I’m not seeing that a change in the system would result in a change in voter turnout. Maybe, but the data we have says it’s not likely.
I was thinking the same thing at first but on reflection the same disincentive is at work in many off-years. In Texas, all the statewide elections are going to a Republican whether it’s a Presidential year or not.