Election Day is still a month away, but more than 700,000 Americans have already voted across at least 30 states. There are signs emerging of the advantage Democrats have in motivating their voters – a trend that’s played out in polling all summer long.

In several states with key Senate or governor races this fall, Democrats make up a larger share of voters requesting ballots so far than they did at this point in 2024.

In Iowa, Democrats have made 67% of ballot requests, up from 54% at this point in 2024. In Pennsylvania, it’s 66%, up from 62%, and in Maine it’s 57%, up from 53%. And according to data from the North Carolina State Board of Elections, 42% of ballot requests are from Democrats, up from 36% at this point two years ago.

    • Sciaphobia@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      23
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      What’s the alternative? Voting for the next version of Trump directly? I’m all for changing our system, but as it stands the only real viable options are team Trump, and Team Mightnotdoenough. I am not thrilled with the latter either, but it seems less than ideal to let the perfect be the enemy of the less bad.

      • lennybird@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        Agreed. Don’t get me wrong: the second these midterms are over I’m going full steam on pushing to reform Democrats away from the Schumers and Fettermans and so on. But until then, we gotta get as many of these Republicans out of office…

        • Sciaphobia@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          2 days ago

          Right. Team red managed to realign under a set of shared values. Those values are fucking awful, but they did it. No reason we can’t too, with hopefully better values - though it would be hard to do worse.

        • SaltyAmerican@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          8
          ·
          2 days ago

          After decades of failure you would think democrats would start to lose faith in the idea of reform. There is no reforming a system thats working exactly as designed,and they have safeguards in place to prevent structural change

          • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            2 days ago

            Just gonna point out that the proto-maga IE the Tea Party dipshits have their roots in things like the 90s rightwing militia movement and they arguably didn’t gain full control of the Republican party until 2016 IMO even if they were a massive faction. Hell historically the faction that would evolve into the New Deal Democrats had its roots in various 1800s labor movements and didn’t get to notability until the 1930s same general deal for the Square Deal Republicans just a bit earlier.

            Reform of this scale takes ages since you basically need to reach a saturation point, which basically requires constant pressure a bit like an inline fuel filter if the pressure stops the filter drys up. But I have noticed change since 2016 more specifically with younger libs who I wouldn’t call economic progressives by any means being supportive of things like universal healthcare, expansion of welfare, demilitarization, and shrinking the police state. The problem is we have probably only reached 25 percent saturation at best, which means unless people get real comfortable with a lot of murder of the old guard it’s gonna take awhile still to see active improvement.

            • SaltyAmerican@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              22 hours ago

              Tea Party was not an organic movement. It was an intentional shift to move the entire country to the right. As the Republicans move further to the right, it allowed Democrats to move further to the right with them. And the same thing is happening with Trump right now. As the GOP moves further to the right, the DNC will be in lockstep right behind them.

              • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                11 hours ago

                Regardless of it being inorganic it still took time for the process to work. My point was just to do with the timescales of these things, arguably the biggest hint of the Tea Party being inorganic was that it took a short period of time relative to say the New Dealers or Square Dealers who both took about 40 years to establish. Mind you social media tends to accelerate things but expecting instant change is a tad bit foolish, especially when we have to push a boiler up a hill the entire time.

    • Hayduke@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      2 days ago

      What a stupendously ridiculous comment. I’m not sure if you are an underpaid troll or your mind genuinely fell right out of your head.

    • wheezy@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      If the new candidates from DSA don’t distance themselves from the establishment; and instead they compromise their positions in order to push forward symbolic legislation that does nothing, yeah, I’m afraid you might be right.

      It is honestly better we have these DSA candidates continue to be seen as outsiders in the house and Senate and ride off the accomplishments of state DSA executives like Mamdani.

      It’s better to enter the 2028 election with little association with the current democratic party establishment. And point to the success of local DSA candidates. Then we can truly have a hostile takeover of the party with a strong presidential candidate and state wide representatives. Which right now, looks like it’s AoC or nothing. It’s really the only path I see that would make you incorrect.

      And Angie Nixon winning in Florida would really light the path to that being something that is actually accomplishable. If she wins. I will have more hope for this country than I have ever had.

      If she doesn’t. Well, I will keep trying. At least until I’m taken to a camp.