This Just In –Like everyone else, I watch the election results this week with shock and disbelief. There’s one part of it that I just can’t seem to shake loose. Where did everybody go?
I accepted long ago that many millions of people would vote for the dark dystopia offered by the Trump campaign. I mean, I guess I understood that his devoted followers were going to ignore the warnings of the people who worked most closely with him in his first term.
Here’s what I can’t wrap my head around: I’ve been watching the turnout for weeks in early voting and on Election Day. Setting aside the issue of winning and losing, I can’t make the math work to explain why across many states there was reported to be record-smashing early voting. There were live reports from across the country on Election Day of people waiting in long lines to vote.
Like most people I was delighted to see that. The very heavy turnout in early voting took a lot of pressure off Election Day voting, helping to make sure everyone got there in the voting booth.
In some states with extra-long ballots, that’s a really important feature because it takes a long time to vote.
Across Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona there were false bomb threats originating in Russia throughout Election Day, requiring evacuations of polling places and delays.
Thankfully, the FBI reported this publicly in real time so that people would know there were no devices found and no danger to the public. Was that enough to discourage voters in those key states? I don’t know, but Trump won four out of five of them (as of this writing, Arizona isn’t called yet, but leaning Republican).
Back to the turnout, according to the results this time around Trump won the popular vote and he did so after receiving fewer votes then he did four years ago by a couple of million. How is that possible? According to the numbers, Harris received about 15 million fewer votes than Joe Biden did in 2020.
So to be clear, I can accept that people change their minds about who they’re gonna vote for, but this is about more than 15 million people who did not vote at all.
How did they manage that while we were all looking at coverage of record-breaking early turnout and election day turnout? Where did they go?
I realize there are votes yet to be counted, but between these outstanding votes and just allowing for population growth among the electorate, I don’t believe these numbers. I think political scientists and historians are going to be fascinated with this for some time to come.
In the meantime, I was glad to see the vice president give her concession speech at Howard University, determined to carry the fight forward. It was an inspiring civil rights speech and if you haven’t watched it, follow this link and do yourself a favor. It’s only a few minutes.
I was devastated by the election results, but I will follow Harris’s advice. I have my feelings and I’ll make it through them. We must be determined to preserve democracy. It’s a difficult time and foreign interference is a real thing. We must continue to demand free and fair elections.
America’s been through hard times before and we’ll go through them again. It’s important to remember that public pressure works. Politicians have their fingers in the wind at all times.
Before we march again, though, we all need a break. We need to breathe and recover. Practicing deliberate kindness can be a soothing thing – on both sides of the act. I’ve been going out of my way to chat it up with people I’ve been dealing with in the healthcare system, for example. Intake receptionists, triage nurses, housekeeping staff. These are people who are essential to keep things rolling along.
A little extra conversation, a little extra “thank you – I appreciate you” … right now I’m extra aware of its value in the scheme of things. These times, good or bad, will pass. Hang in there.
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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Unless you are willing to entertain the contrary hypothesis that the 15 million difference in 2024’s vote total could indicate that the 2020 vote was the anomaly, your shock is unwarranted. Even if there was no fraud in counting in 2020 (Trump was wrong than and continues to be wrong about that), the changes in times, places and manners of voting in 2020, could have “tilted” that election in favor of the DEM. It may have been the “shock” election.
2008, 2012, 2016, 2024. All had the sameish numbers. 2020 was the outlier. You’re so close you just need to take that last step.