this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2024
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Explain Like I'm Five
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It's worth remembering that voter apathy is part of the process. The status quo is built on the idea that people don't change, but people change every day. If Democrats started showing up in Idaho, the way Republicans do in California, they'd get a lot more attention. The GOP spends a lot of time and effort buttering bread in Orange County, because even though they can't win a statewide election, they will provide constant pressure on the state and federal government (not to mention all the money).
Not just voter apathy, but voter discouragement. If districts were divided logically, Republicans wouldn't win many key areas through gerrymandering. Then there's manipulation of polling places in different ways to make voting more difficult or even frightening for some people to show up. A fair election doesn't work well for the GOP, so they make sure everything is done to help their results. And this time around they may be doing even more subtle things - see recent news of Steve Bannon's admission of having people in place to question voter authenticity. More scare tactics.
Pressure on the state to do what exactly?
Maintain the status quo.
https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/10/californa-veto-overrides/