Why aren’t democrats winning statewide races then? If it was all about gerrymandering they would have two Dem senators and a Dem governor who could veto the gerrymandering.

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 54 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Not everyone registered actually votes.
Assuming those percentages are correct, there's still 15.73% not registered with either party.
You don't have to vote for your registered party in the general election.
You don't have to vote for every seat or item on a ballot, you can leave answers blank.
Many people don't care as much about local and state elections, some will only vote for federal things. It's one of the main reasons midterms have markedly lower turnout, which tends to favor Republicans nationwide.

[–] vzqq@lemmy.blahaj.zone 39 points 2 weeks ago

I feel like not mentioning voter suppression high on that list is a major omission.

There’s a reason the Roberts court gutted the voting rights act.

[–] Bldck@beehaw.org 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Here’s the 2024 senate election results:

Candidate	Ted Cruz	Colin Allred
Popular Vote	5,990,741	5,031,249
Percentage	53.05%	44.56%
Party Turnout	90.77%	61.84%

If you believe the registered Democrats number from the meme, this shows a serious turnout issue.

[–] vzqq@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Yeah, it’s hard to win when a third of your guys stay home. But I’m sort of wondering whether the party registration is a consistent sign voting intentions.

In the past, there were a lot of pre-southern strategy registered democrats that started voting consistently Republican from the 1970s on, but these would all have to be over eighty years old. So that can’t explain the whole gap, even if they count twice (one less Dem, one extra gop).

My guess is that Texas is neatly segregated by race thanks to aggressive redlining in the past, and it’s very easy to do voter suppression operations that target black folk with surgical precision.

These things were always really hard to fight. Now, thanks to the VRA getting demolished, it’s perfectly legal.

REMEMBER THIS WHEN YOU SAY PEOPLE IN RED STATES GET WHAT THEY VOTE FOR.

[–] yessikg@fedia.io 18 points 2 weeks ago

Texas would be a democratic state, if it didn't have such pathetic voter turnout for local/state elections

[–] hypna@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

Texas doesn't include party in voter registration. I guess this is based on party primary participation? Texas is not secretly a blue state, even if the red lean has been magnified with partisan bullshit.

[–] xia@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Or... hear me out... maybe Republicans are less likely to declare their party (e.g. to vote in a primary)?