Is it time to fight or flight?

 

Have you listened to or watched Kamala Harris's concession speech? It was truly amazing.

It is easy, trust me, to want to flee this country for somewhere that may be more friendly.  

There may be somewhere where the cost of living is low enough to be able to retire earlier.  

You may feel fed up with what this election says about the United States and its population.

Or, maybe you are like me, a Gay Jewish Male thinking about whether there are safer havens in the USA to be in over the next few challenging years.

You may be like me, with family, parents, and extended family here, making the idea of moving far away quite challenging.

I am not here to judge any choices, but I also want to hark back to the core of Harris's speech, which is that this is a long fight, and she still believes in the goodness of the USA and its constitution.

That said, why was this such a surprise? The press kept talking about the similar percentage of eligible voters who vote, but eligible voters can only vote if they are registered.

So.. follow me..  first numbers that made me wonder:

In 2020, 158,429,631 people voted, and according to the only sight I could find, the number of 2024 voters is on NBC, where they currently list 140,729,767 having voted. That is a considerable change, mainly if the number of eligible voters has stayed the same or gone up.

Remember, only registered voters can vote.

You might be surprised to learn that according to the US Census, whose most recent data is as of 2022, the US population has grown by about 1.2 %, 3 million, but the number of registered voters has declined by 4%, or about 6.8 million.  

 

You might be surprised to learn that registrations increased by 10.7 million between 2016 and 2020. There were significant increases in the states of Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

Some highlights by some key states:

  

Here are some additional observations courtesy of ChatGPT comparing 2020 to 2022. They focus on states with changes in population by state and experienced larger decreases in registrations.

Significant Decreases Despite Population Growth:

New York, New Jersey, and Texas showed notable population increases but significant declines in voter registration, with decreases over 4-12%.

 Ohio had a marked registration decline of approximately 12.5%, one of the highest among states with growing populations. 

Strategic Focus Areas:

States like North Carolina and Florida also experienced substantial registration decreases (-11.2% and -6.9% respectively) alongside population growth. These could be priority areas for voter engagement campaigns.

 

Arizona and South Carolina had registration drops of over 8%, indicating potential challenges in voter engagement or access that could be addressed.

Minor Registration Declines:

Some states, such as Maryland, Minnesota, and Connecticut, had smaller drops (2-5%), suggesting opportunities for focused outreach that may yield effective results with less effort compared to states with steeper declines.

I remember Stacy Abrams, the last Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia, kept alerting the public about voter registration issues. I found this quote from her back in 2019: "Let's be clear: voter suppression is real," said Abrams. "From making it harder to register and stay on the rolls to moving and closing polling places to rejecting lawful ballots, we can no longer ignore these threats to democracy."

It is also interesting that nobody has discussed this before or after this election. 

So maybe the issue, the fight at the core, is how do we ensure every eligible voter is registered for 2026 and beyond?

Imagine another 9 million registered to vote; among these key states known to be swing states for this past election, increased their registrations rather than decreasing them based on their population increases.

So, for those of us who can't flee, let's figure out how to help before the mid-term elections to fight to keep this Trump administration in check before the next presidential election.

Here is a link to my spreadsheet comparing the differences in registration between 2016, 2020, and 2022. Please let me know if you find errors or omissions, and I will update you.

But this is the time to fight? Or shall we fight to make this a better country again! 

One can hope?