We are living through a global pandemic and to gather in large crowds is to take a risk to your life a risk that grows greater with your age. Wisely, many states, though not all, have issues orders and guidelines for the population to stay in their homes, to avoid close proximity to other people, and take other precautions to void becoming infected or passing the virus to others. 2020 is also an election year and recognizing the importance of both our electoral and health civic duties many states have postponed their primary and other elections while also instituting procedures allowing people to vote by mail ensuring that both duties are honored.
Except for Wisconsin.
Wisconsin held an election this week, April 7th, 2020 to be precise. The Governor, Tony Evers, a Democrat, had called the legislature into a special session to deal with the electoral issue during their pandemic crisis. The Republican controlled body gaveled themselves into session and then immediately disbanded the session without taking any action or debate at all. They were equally unwilling to make voting by mail any easier even as the virus continues to spread throughout the nation and their state. Milwaukee normally has 180 polling station for an election, due to people fears of coming out and gathering in large numbers so many volunteer polls quit that the city was forced to conduct its election with just five polling stations.
The GOP sees this election as critical. The state is filling a spot on the Wisconsin Supreme court and if the conservative can win the seat it will cement a conservative majority on the panel. It is axiomatic for conservatives that low turnout elections benefit the Republican party and apparently, they are willing to do anything to depress turnout and win including placing the voting population in peril of a deadly infectious disease.
Here is Wisconsin Speaker of the Assembly Robin Voss and how he appeared at a polling station to advise the public it was ‘incredibly safe’ to show up to vote.
Photo from CNN
This portends badly for the November elections. The popular vote has been trending against the GOP for several elections and rather than adjusting their stands to conform with the public they would rather disenfranchise and kill voters. I hope this blows up in their face. I hope that in Wisconsin the voters brave enough and committed enough to show up and stand for hours with other people are the ones dedicated to seeing the perversion of democracy ended. Only time and the vote total will tell.
The National Conference of State Legislatures has great data on a lot of things, but compilations of total votes of all State elective offices doesn’t seem to be one of them. Understandable, considering that would number thousands of individual elective offices.
But it is telling what the high water mark of the 2018 election “blue wave” resulted in, for the State elections. The turnout for those State elections was at a fifty year high, yet the result was a hardening and entrenchment of each party’s control of State legislatures, not a flip to Blue majorities. Considerably more population of the U.S. now resides in States with Republican majority control of State legislatures than of Democratic control. That isn’t a perfect metric for popular vote totals, but it’s pretty close and reflects trends that have been growing for decades.
On the other hand, the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives does record total votes of each House and U.S. Senate race, and break them down by party for all races combined. A much easier task since it only involves 535 races.
I looked at the Republican vs Democratic total popular vote for all House races from 2004 to 2018, plus 1992 and 1994, and boy is that an interesting story. Many truths were revealed.
The only time a party held a majority of the House, while only winning a minority of the popular vote, was the election of 2012. Every other election the majority popular vote winner also won a majority of House seats. If gerrymandering was ever a factor in majority control of the House, it was only for 2012.
The 60.3 million votes for Democrats in the 2018 House “blue wave” elections was fewer either party won in the House elections of 2016, and much less than the number of votes the Democrats won in the House races of 2008.
Another interesting factor was the dramatic growth in total votes for House races over time, a total of 34.7 million votes for Democrats in 1992 vs 61.4 million votes in 2016. If anyone is suppressing the Democratic vote, they are doing a terrible job of it.
And Brad in the segment you quoted I it referred to ‘popular vote’ and your link has nothing to do with or to say about the popular votes totals. I did not say they were losing elections so your point is no point at all.
“The popular vote has been trending against the GOP for several elections…”
Has it?
https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/midterms-greatest-consolidation-of-party-control-in-state-governments-in/article_af67ddee-e6b4-11e8-b9ce-e7ddaa04c73b.html
Rick:
I’ll be okay. I live in a state where I am not forces to chose between voting and exposing myself to the contagion. I was a member of the GOP for more than 20 years what they have become is a violation of moral decency. What was done in Wisconsin was a violation of the public trust and if the GOP’s most loyal voter did turn out they are the ons most vulnerable to the disease, the senior citizens. They could have delayed the election, they could have opened access to vote by mail. They did neither.
Bob,
I like and respect you. Sadly, however, I disagree. I don’t want to kill you.
Rick