There is literally 0 chance the area I live in will be blue. Does me going out and voting actually do anything besides add to the popular vote tally?

  • @Wahots
    link
    222 months ago

    Absolutely. Voting in federal, state, and local elections makes big differences. I’ve lived in red and blue states, and my votes have personally swayed policy for red and blue states. Some of the stuff I voted for passed on margins as slim as 1,200 votes, in a city of hundreds of thousands of people (guess how many of them voted?)

    As a direct result of me voting, my life dramatically improved because my cut bus lines were restored, the feds rebuilt parts of my city, and people were no longer getting arrested on bullshit charges.

    Further civic action saved one local park from redevelopment.

    So few people actually vote, even fewer with bad takes. So voting can have a profound impact on your life and other’s lives. Some of my friends got the right to marry. Some others lost their ability to access healthcare and were forced to move states to access it again. It makes a difference.

    This doesn’t end with Americans either. You guys worldwide have had a number of extremely close elections, see the list below. Do your civic duty and vote! It can take an hour or less with a bit of research, and has a surprisingly big impact on your life.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_close_election_results

    • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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      fedilink
      32 months ago

      Great list!

      Let me highlight the 1988 Massachusetts democratic primary:

      Herbert L. Connolly lost to Robert B. Kennedy by one vote, and it was his own. Connolly arrived at his precinct a few minutes after the polls closed and wasn’t able to vote. Kennedy won the following general.[74][75]