For months, Democrats and the media have warned that the process of redistricting and the passage of red-state election-integrity laws that limited mail-in voting and drop boxes would lead to voter confusion and suppression, which Democrats feared would limit voter turnout.
It appears that there has been voter confusion and lower turnout, but mostly in blue states. For example:
New York: The state’s primary is today. And Politico writes, “Democrats began the year clinging to New York state as a bulwark against GOP gerrymandering and a potentially brutal midterm. Instead, it’s become a giant headache.”
Democrats pushed a very aggressive partisan redistricting map that would have ensured several congressional pickups—perhaps winning 22 of the state’s 26 congressional districts. A Democratic-leaning court threw out that plan as a partisan gerrymander and redrew the lines, which postponed the state’s primary for congressional and state senate seats from its scheduled date on June 28 until today.
That redistricting also made the state competitive. Politico quotes Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) as saying, “We’ve gone from a map that looked like a slam dunk to just being slammed.”
Ironically, Democrats feared redistricting in the red states would hurt their election chances. And the media kept warning how partisan and unfair that redistricting would be. But the actual results across the country have turned out basically neutral, as Vox points out.
Illinois: Deep blue Illinois saw low voter turnout for its June 28 primary. As WTTW, Chicago’s PBS affiliate, explains: “Depending on who you ask, the unusual timing of the elections, issues with voters’ access to the polls, and election judges resigning right before polls opened all contributed to the low turnout among Chicago and suburban Cook County’s registered voters on June 28.”
Wait, “voter access,” “unusual timing,” “election judge issues,” those sound like the left’s criticisms of Republican-led states.
Hawaii. Besides being solid blue, the Aloha State recently switched to an all-mail-in voting system, which we are assured is supposed to expand voter participation. So, how’d that work out for its Aug. 13 primary? According to Hawaii News Now, “Hawaii’s voter turnout dipped in Saturday’s primary election. … HNN Political Analyst Colin Moore says a dip in votes was expected.”
Moore follows with this observation, “It looks like we’re still going to do better than we did in 2018, but this just goes to show that moving to an all-mail-in voting system is not a silver bullet to solve our larger problem of a lack of participation.”
Maybe some of the blue states should consider passing those dreaded red-state election-integrity laws to increase voter turnout and improve the process.
August 23, 2022