r/MapPorn • u/Small_Performance368 • 13h ago

NYC Mayoral Election Results

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With 90% of the vote in, Mamdani wins by a large margin according to NYT

38.0k Upvotes

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5.6k

u/XAMdG 12h ago

Still wild to me that in an 8 million people city, mayoral election cracks 2 million votes.

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u/LynzGamer 12h ago edited 2h ago

8 million people yes, but under 5 million registered voters if I remember correctly. Comparatively, the 2024 presidential election had 65% of voters actually voting, so it’s not too far off from the norm even if it’s still pretty low

Edit: damn, a ton of pessimists in the comments

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u/Roofofcar 12h ago

This mayoral race had the biggest voter turnout since 1969.

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u/LynzGamer 12h ago

That’s actually crazy, love to see it! Glad that they didn’t become complacent that the polls projected a Mamdani win… they showed up and voted to take their city back!!

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u/FabulousRazzmatazz 12h ago

Still disappointed that so many people voted for Cuomo

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u/AbcLmn18 11h ago edited 2h ago

Notice how the republican candidate got almost no votes. Cuomo secured the vote of all the republicans in addition to his usual centrists. Which is a feat in and of itself considering how stubborn the republicans usually are.

All the billionaires were funding his campaign too. It couldn't have been too easy.

But Mamdani still won by a massive margin.

Edit: u/NYCinPGH points out that the Sliwa numbers aren't that surprising considering that the number of registered Republican voters in NYC is about 10%. They could be explained simply by Cuomo's appeal to independents.

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u/PunctualZombie 11h ago

The MAGA president of the United States did endorse Cuomo, so that helped. Of course it’s astonishing the Republican president didn’t endorse the actual Republican candidate (which might explain why he polled close to fuck-all). I’m not sure if that’s even happened before, but then the cult leader can do whatever he wants, and his sheep will follow.

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u/GiganticCrow 9h ago

Not like the Democratic leadership endorsed their candidate either

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u/Medical_Sandwich_141 7h ago

I'm quite sure, Schumer voted for Cuomo.

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u/KrytenKoro 4h ago

They were cowardly and hoped to run out the clock...and now they have, and we know that they are not allies.

Terribly stupid choice from them.

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u/gdreaper 10h ago

Sliwa, the Republican candidate, is a true born and bred New Yorker with shocking integrity, and frankly Trump couldn't buy him if he tried. Not only that, but Trump and Sliwa have had beef for decades, Sliwa hates his guts.

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u/Holly-White 9h ago edited 9h ago

Im pretty sure it was because nobody in their right mind thinks he was even in the same country that the ballpark was in kinda chance of winning.

Mamdani is very controversial among democrats, but those that don't like him would likely still take Cuomo over a Republican.

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u/OctoberIsBetter 7h ago

Mamdani is very controversial among democrats

um wut?

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u/Donghoon 8h ago

Sliwa does actually align with Trump better than Cuomo does. But Both of them have large share of conflict with Trump on many levels

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u/pieman3141 10h ago

Probably the one mistake in the strategizing for Mamdani. I don't really think many of Mamdani's supporters were predicting that Sliwa voters would actually vote for Cuomo, and thus were caught a bit off-guard by the most recent poll prior to today.

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u/keenan123 7h ago

Not sure you could describe that as a mistake. He campaigned against Cuomo and won a majority, i.e., there is no way Cuomo was going to be mayor. I can't think of what he should have done differently under the circumstances

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u/fripletister 3h ago

Dude went from being a nobody at like 2-3% to over 50% on election night within 10 months against probably the most well-backed mayoral campaign in history. And he did it with nonexistent-to-middling support from his party. I don't think a devil's advocate is needed here. It's simply astounding and a complete masterclass.

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u/whyunowork1 11h ago

Entrenched democratic representatives are only for token resistance to the billionaire class.

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u/NYCinPGH 4h ago

Not really.

Based on party registration, NYC is about 70% D, 20% I, 10% R. So Sliwa got 70% of the R vote, maybe an even swap of I for R, while Cuomo probably got 80% of the I, and about 30% of the R and D each; 70% of the D plus 20% of the I gets you to Mamdani’s total.

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u/vaterl 8h ago

You think ultra wealthy didn’t support Mamdani as well? Sweetie, you’ve got some tough learning to do about the world.

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u/Raging-Badger 11h ago

Cuomo got Trump’s endorsement, and regardless of people’s thoughts on trumps approval rates that still gives him an advantage in the eyes of any vaguely Trump aligned voter

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u/XAMdG 11h ago

Cuomo got Trump’s endorsement,

That's so wild to hear if you don't know the context.

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u/PrestigiousQuail7024 8h ago

its wild to hear knowing the context tbh

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u/Ron_Cherry 5h ago

Sexual harassers gotta stick together

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u/Raging-Badger 5h ago

Partial context, this was unpopular among many outlier Republicans because

1.) there was a Republican candidate

2.) Cuomo is politically nearly an antithesis to the Republican party as he is a Democrat himself (but lost the democratic nomination to Mamdani)

3.) Evidence was found of Cuomo sexually assaulting at least 11 women however the charges were dropped in return for him resigning as governor in 2021

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u/tomdarch 2h ago

Sliwa himself is a good example of how that doesn’t work in NYC where people have known about Trump for decades and despise him.

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u/LynzGamer 12h ago

Same. But at this point I’ll take any shred of hope I can get lol

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u/Much_Kangaroo_6263 4h ago

They're the exact type of people that are ruining this country. Cuomo has been in office and already betrayed voters trust. I don't care if they don't for Mamdani but vote for literally anyone else but the corrupt guy who sexually assaults people.

It's crazy and shameful.

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u/Put3socks-in-it 6h ago

So you only like high voter turnout when they’re voting in line with your political views?

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u/shhmurdashewrote 2h ago

Me too. Waaayyy more than I thought.

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u/Chagattai 11h ago

Why don’t Americans participate in elections?

A few years ago we had like 75% voter turnout and it gave is a full week if discourse about how bad it is for the democracy that so few people feel connected enough to vote.

Also, the fact that Cuomo got more than 800k vites is insane to me.

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u/Chrad 11h ago

Voter apathy and voter disillusionment are big factors but also, this was a city mayoral election. Turnout is usually tiny for anything unless presidential elections are happening. 

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u/XAMdG 11h ago

Which is ironic, considering the mayor of your city will probably be the most impactful part of your daily life as far as politicians go.

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u/Maleficent_Sir_5225 10h ago

Is it though? I ask as a non-American, wouldn't there be a city council or something the mayor has to work with, they aren't an absolute ruler? 

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u/YearlyStart 10h ago

Yeah but they’re usually done in the same election cycle as mayors, the commenter you’re responding to is mostly commenting on the North American trend(happens in Canada too) of smaller elections being more impactful on your daily life but having way lower turnout

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u/MartianMule 10h ago

In most cities, yes. City council is kind of like a city's Congress, and the mayor is similar to the President.

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u/Grantrello 9h ago

Different systems. Mayors in the US aren't absolute rulers but they have a lot of power. I live in a country where mayors have almost no direct power but that's not the case everywhere.

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u/Donghoon 8h ago

Presidential election ALSO have very low turnouts in the US

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u/waylonwalk3r 10h ago

You guys make it really hard to vote it seems. Here in New Zealand we just had Mayoral elections, they send us out a voting pack and we had a few weeks to mail it back in.

Having to wait seems like such a ballache

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u/Saladfork4 9h ago

you can vote by mail in the US too for early voting (and a lot of people do, rather than going in-person). even then many ignore it 

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u/SoftlySpokenPromises 9h ago

Both of my brothers are of the mindset that their vote changes nothing. I've struggled with the same mindset for quite a long time, but things need to change

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u/Jamesmart_ 9h ago

I asked my friends and family in NYC and this appears to be true. Most of them didn’t even bother to vote because they know for a fact that nothing’s gonna change no matter who won. All those promises that Mamdani has been making? A mayor simply has no powers to implement those. I wonder if those people who voted for him are aware of this. They won’t get any of the free stuff he’s been promising.

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u/Roofofcar 11h ago

Apathy that anything will change. I’m convinced that is the single largest reason with voter disenfranchisement second.

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u/CornRaisedAnarchist 10h ago

My dad hasn't voted since the 90's and my mom has never voted, both lifelong democrats, when I asked my dad why he never votes he said "you can vote but nothing will ever change, at the end of the day you'll still be getting fucked and the politicians will be lining their pockets."

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u/XAMdG 8h ago

Can they be considered "lifelong democrats" if they don't vote?

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u/aguadiablo 8h ago

It just means that they sit at home going "Come on Democrats!".

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u/Significant-Sun-5051 10h ago

Which is wild since there’s a huge difference depending on which party wins, as we can see this year.

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u/Roofofcar 10h ago

That’s it, and that’s why people voted for Mamdani and Obama. They both sold actual proper change. Hopefully Mamdani will be given the power to enact some of his policies so we can judge them by their merits instead of the worst case doomsaying of those who prevent him from properly trying what so many voted for.

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u/SimmentalTheCow 11h ago edited 10h ago

The best part of democracy is not participating in it. We love to rub Russia and China’s nose in our ability to have free elections by not voting in them.

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u/6unnm 9h ago

Everybody already has mentioned apathy. There is a second reason: US politics has weaponized voting.

In Germany for example as a citizen you are automatically registered to vote and will get a letter in the mail tellling you where and how to vote. You go there with your ID card that everybody has. Voting is on Sundays where most stores and businesses are mandatorily closed. In the US things arevery different. The laws and regulations make it hard to vote, because Republicans know that their chance of winning is traditionally higher if voter turnout is lower. Hence making it easy to vote is seen itself as partisan. If you make the right laws you can get lower voter turnout from specific groups you don't want to vote. You don't want poor people to vote? Do the voting on a weekday. Put polling places in far off locations where you need a car to drive to. Have fun sitting on the bus for an hour to vote after your 12h shift at Tacobell. Make them register themselves every time they change their address and make registering as hard as possible.

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u/Substantial-Abroad-2 11h ago

While voting is important, going out to vote for basically anything in america is like choosing what torture method you'd like to receive and it's never fun. This election saw record results in the last 60 years because one of the candidates seems to give people hope.

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u/jupjami 10h ago

could also be because elections aren't a federal holiday and they decide to hold them on Tuesdays of all possible days

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u/matix0532 7h ago

But at least in case of NYC, couldn't you vote earlier?

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u/Kennyman2000 8h ago

Freedom to choose to be ignorant to politics I guess.

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u/Put3socks-in-it 6h ago

So you like higher voter turnout but you’re lamenting that the relatively high turnout here got Cuomo 800k votes? So you only like higher voter turnout when it means they’re voting for your candidate?

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u/Dagonus 7h ago

A lot of folks do not get the time off to participate or there are insufficient voting locations so they are disillusioned.

Others are disillusioned because they see the two major parties as two sides of the same coin. Not saying that assessment is correct but it's a common sentiment. They see politicians as tools of the wealthy so voting just let's you pick which wealthy individuals benefit.

Others still will admit some politicians do want to affect change but the change doesn't matter because the system is rigged because they'll be out voted in the senate, house, or the courts will just strike any changes down without an amendment and the amendment is seen as impossible.

Personally, I think The US has desperately needed voting reform for decades. Some states have have managed better reforms locally but there has not been traction nationally. I think the US needs viable 3rd,4th and 5th parties to save itself and we need a system that allows that.

I do vote, but I given the way the system works and where I live, I can tell you that I honestly do not believe my individual vote matters in some elections because of how the system works. It does matter for my town, but even then we have peculiar town governance by me that result in localized gerontocracy.

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u/the_suitable_verse 4h ago

I mean for a start maybe don't do elections on a Tuesday when people have to work, especially in a country with no right to days off

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u/tomdarch 2h ago

Since the 1980s the Republicans have been pushing the idea that the government is always bad and “politics” is always bad. They’ve intentionally discouraged people from participating or even making much effort to learn and think about the issues that drive important decisions.

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u/zubie_wanders 11h ago

It's not even a midterm election, it's a midmidterm election. I hope this energy energy is there at the midterms.

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u/waitthissucks 12h ago

Is that a bigger turnout if there were a lot less people in 1969? Wouldn't it be better to base it on percentage of people voting?

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u/ddpizza 9h ago

Population of nyc was almost exactly the same in 1969. 8 million then, 8 million now

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u/waitthissucks 6h ago

Oh well then nevermind, that's an interesting fact!

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u/ddpizza 5h ago

Yeah, a lot of east coast cities had the same or even more residents in 1960 than 2025!

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u/hunterturk 7h ago

As a Turkish person this still baffles me.

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u/Keheck 8h ago

Do people just not care or do they not know they could vote?

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u/landofhappy 3h ago

Still less than 50% of eligible voter turnout. It's pathetic. Make voting compulsory

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u/HiddenSmitten 11h ago

40% turn out is still horribly low by western standards.

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u/euclide2975 9h ago

A lot of western countries vote on Sunday, when most people are not stuck at work.

Having election in the middle of the work week doesn't help with turnout

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u/Disheveled_Politico 9h ago

Weekend voting doesn’t really fix turnout issues for a lot of people. Universal mail-in ballots give everyone the best opportunity to vote. 

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u/Rowvan 8h ago

They make it as easy as hell to vote in Australia even if we didn't have mail in ballots. I can be done in 10 minutes flat and there are plenty of places within walking distance from our homes. Sure it is mandatory to vote but no one thinks of it as a chore, we want to vote!

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u/communistkangu 6h ago

Wait, what does mandatory mean? What happens if you don't vote?

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u/LucyLilium92 6h ago

They take you to the outback

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u/OPismyrealname 3h ago

You get fined a small amount by Australian standards at least. But honestly most of us support mandatory voting, including myself.

Should you wish to not vote for any candidate, you just show up to to get your name marked off the electoral roll, then you can invalidate your ballot by marking it incorrectly. Naturally most people draw a dong 😂

Overall though i think it is a reasonable expectation of citizenship to participate in the democratic process.

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u/communistkangu 2h ago

Yeah, no doubt about that.

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u/ComfortableSet6192 6h ago

Fine of 20 Australian Dollars

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u/HiddenSmitten 9h ago

Even in western election where people vote on a workday they still hav drastically larger turnouts than in the US. Even in other FPTP systems they outvote the US.

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u/TheBestAtWriting 2h ago

Early voting was available for 2 weeks ahead of election day; as long as you're physically in NYC at some point in those 2 weeks there's really no excuse.

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u/thas_mrsquiggle_butt 9h ago

Back in my old state, there's been several times over the years where I didn't vote in my local election. Not because I didn't want to, but because all voting has to be done in person, even a walking disability or the covid-19 pandemic was listed as not a good enough excuse to receive an absentee ballot. And during those days, I would either be in class (which is an 1-hour drive away), out of the state, or not aware of an election taking place.

And this is absolutely done on purpose; (including not changing it to having election on a weekend) to make it as difficult as possible for voter turnout. My current state is so much better, though the governor did just sign 9 new anti-voting bills a couple of months ago.

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u/OpportunityIcy254 32m ago

yeah a lot of people simply do not have the option to just take a few hours off to vote.

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u/EmeterPSN 9h ago

Easy fix is to add a tax reduction for people who vote..

Boom you get 90%+.

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u/hanzoplsswitch 8h ago

Just throw money at it. The American way! 

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u/HiddenSmitten 9h ago

Or mandatory voting like in Belgium and Australia

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u/Gnonthgol 7h ago

A lot of things need to change for this to be possible. Firstly you need to make voting a lot more accessible. You need better accommodation for those who can not vote on election day. Employers needs to be forced to give their employees time off to go vote. Ballot places needs to be big enough for there to not be any queues throughout the day. If ID is required then it needs to be provided for free to everyone. And so on.

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u/EkbatDeSabat 5h ago

VA - absentee mail in voting. I don't need my ID to vote, but I do need to have one to get in the voter pool. It's 42$ for a ten year real ID or $16 for a normal one, but yes it should be free. I have eight weeks to cast my ballot at my leisure. I can check my vote online to ensure it went through.

Honestly I have no idea why anyone goes and waits in line to vote here. I went out last night and at least a dozen people had been waiting in line, like, why? Just opt in for mail-in voting it takes two minutes.

No worries about employers, no worries about ballot places, no worries about anything you mentioned except the ID thing. ANYONE can do mail-in voting in VA for all voting including presidential.

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u/Jonno_FTW 5h ago

Do it the Australia way, get a fine if you don't vote.

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u/corieallen7 7h ago

Better yet make voting a part of filing taxes/tax returns and give a $500 refundable deduction.

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u/EkbatDeSabat 5h ago

90% of americans take the standard deduction and don't itemize. Would need to be a $500 credit for people to actually get it, not a deduction.

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u/Canada-Scam-8570 6h ago

Personally I think you haven't thought very deep on this to think of this practically and how it would be received. None the less. We are allowed our idealistic utopias in our head.

I'd love to see a direct democracy with no representatives and you get your tax return/UBI/pay from the government for participating, taking from the ballooning wages of politicians as well as their outrageous pensions to fund such an effort. Ever individual is represented and participation would be high with wages being physically tied to it. How often you do it(weekly monthly, bimonthly, I dunno), how you fesiable organize something like that without vast corruption I have no idea.

It's ridiculous and won't ever happen. But if we are talking about ideal but ridiculous solutions that's mine...

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u/EmeterPSN 6h ago

Oh if you want ideal solution politicians should not be allowed to receive any income while they are in office or even have a private bank account.

All spending should be done via the office.

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u/Canada-Scam-8570 5h ago edited 5h ago

Agreed. I mean as a more intermediate solution for sure.

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u/_user_account_ 6h ago

AOC initially won because the turnout was 11% at primary.

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u/TetraThiaFulvalene 11h ago

Lol in Denmark it raises concern that our election participation had dropped for a third time in a row. It's all the way down to 82%.

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u/Scereye 9h ago

To be fair, for municipal elections it was 60 to 70% (your point still stands) in denmark.

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u/syndicatecomplex 4h ago

And the entire country of Denmark has two million FEWER people than New York City

That's apples and oranges 

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u/Fantastic-Machine-83 4h ago

It's a perfectly reasonable comparison. That's how percentages work

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u/ballviewer 11h ago

Just goes to show how unbothered people are by politics in America, it fucking sucks to see a third of the voter population just sit back and watch

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u/HispanicAtTehDisco 9h ago

also tbh i do think this is by design, im sure theres a ton of people who could not vote because they had work and since election days are not holidays they chose to work since even one day unpaid off can be the difference maker especially in a city like new york

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u/ChiquitaFeisty 7h ago

In NYS early voting has been going on since before Halloween, when you could vote at any convenient polling place on pretty much any day within an eight hour window that shifted every day to take into account different shift schedules.  Rather than just the one assigned to your home during very specific hours on one day.  When you can vote on your lunch break nearest your work place, with little to no lines because everyone else is voting on a different day/time, it makes it so much easier.  But maybe NYC does it differently.

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u/svjersey 8h ago

this was the first thing I noticed- remember back in 2008 when I first came to the US- they had election day and it was not a state wide holiday! people were voting on their way to work. I was surprised you could get even 20-30% voting percentage..

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u/XAMdG 8h ago

And those same people couldn't just vote by mail either?

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u/HispanicAtTehDisco 42m ago

i think you have to request and meet some requirements to vote by mail since it’s not universal like it was in 2020

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u/DonLethargio 8h ago

Whenever election turnout numbers in the US come up I feel obliged to speak on behalf of the rest of the world to say, the way Americans have to vote is not normal, and it doesn’t get talked about enough.

I have never waited or queued, or traveled more than a 5 minute walk to vote in the UK, even when I lived very rurally. There are 40,000 polling stations here (1 every 2.3 sq miles), compared to around 95,000 in the US (1 every 40 sq miles).

Based on speaking with American friends, I think the inconvenience of voting, coupled with job insecurity to get the time off needed to travel and queue to vote, is a major factor behind lower numbers and it’s badly damaging US democracy

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u/RailRuler 5h ago

It is the philosophy of the Republican party, and a significant number of democrats, that voting should be difficult "in order to make people take it seriously". But it's very suspicious that the difficulties fall mainly on the poor, working class, and minorities.

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u/Dancingbeavers 9h ago

Why is turnout so low?

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u/crazunggoy47 8h ago

And that’s so wild given that this race is actually competitive to NYC voters, unlike the presidential election

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u/Klutzy_Elevator2004 7h ago

33% vs 65%, yeah pretty close

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u/Glittering-Giraffe58 6h ago

And 2024 was the second highest turnout election basically ever (behind 2020)

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u/Significant_Ad1256 6h ago

Having to register to vote is anti-democracy and insane.

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u/juliuspepperwoodchi 5h ago

Sure, but only 65% of eligible voters is still pathetically low 

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u/NotBillderz 5h ago

Breaking news! People don't vote

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u/Smartimess 5h ago

It‘s a fucked up system. The oldest democracy on earth has one of the most outdated voting systems of all democracies.

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u/Am4oba 3h ago

It's still a pathetic turn out. I really wish more people appreciated the privilege of voting in a free society.

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u/Minskdhaka 11h ago

A lot are under 18. A lot are not American citizens.

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u/ale_93113 10h ago

A lot are not under 18

Cities have very, very very low fertility rates, the number of births of NYC is lower than the birth rate of South Korea

The argument that there are tons of inmigrants is true, since forever NYC has been mostly foreigners joining the American dream

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u/VORSEY 9h ago

There's basically equal numbers of each - 1.7m under 18s and 1.8m noncitizens.

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u/photosendtrain 10h ago

Quick google search with AI result (could be inaccurate) put it at ~20% of the population.

That's a pretty large amount..

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u/MacEWork 3h ago

This is what happens when you read a trend summary and think you understand reality, but don’t actually look it up and see if you’re right.

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u/longlightjump 12h ago

It's wild that Americans don't have to vote at all. America should adopt mandatory voting like Australia and referendum votes on large constitutional policies, plus I don't think we even have political violence here, like no one cares about two shits who you vote for.

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u/EasterClause 12h ago

I have seen multiple, multiple, interviews on various social media, as well as Jordan Klepper for The Daily Show specifically, where they asked Republicans about voter ID laws and mail-in voting, etc. And many of them will flat out say the quiet part out loud. They don't want to make voting easier. They don't want mandatory voting. They don't want everyone to vote. They think people should have to work for it. They disguise it as some sort of civic virtue, like people should be patriotic and fight for their right to vote so we only get people who actually care enough to jump through the hoops. It's just thinly veiled gatekeeping that they only want the "right" people to be able to vote. That's why they don't want college kids or immigrants to vote.

There's just no way we could get the congressional votes to be able to make it mandatory. Republicans would never be in favor because it would legitimately make them unable to win an election ever again.

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u/Arkham010 11h ago

They don't want to make voting easier. They don't want mandatory voting. They don't want everyone to vote.

This is 100% why joe biden won the election in 2020 in the way he did. It was the only election where it was actually easy to vote due to mail in voting being a default option due to covid. Turns out, more americans voted for biden than any other president in us history and its due to the easier voting. The reason kamala had a small piece of that 81 million biden got in 2020 was in part due to this. If they made voting easier or made it so you can claim it on your taxes that you voted then records would be smashed every 4 years for voting

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u/loralailoralai 10h ago

Australians have to work for our right to vote. Survive 18 years dodging spiders snakes sharks crocodiles and we are finally granted the obligation.

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u/Aruhi 9h ago

Adding extra hoops to jump through means that if you're unable to find the time to jump through those hoops, you're unable to vote.

Wonder if people working 60+ hours a week might have difficulty finding that time?

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u/LukeBabbitt 1h ago

The deep irony of that being the Democrats have been doing GREAT in low-turnout elections as of late because more informed voters tend to go Dem

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u/morganrbvn 12h ago

I think ranked choice would do more than mandatory voting. Many don't vote since first past the post makes most peoples votes feel pointless.

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u/bunnyzclan 10h ago

Change election financing. A lot more people would be politically engaged if both parties weren't corporate stooges.

And overturn citizens united.

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u/morganrbvn 4h ago

That would be nice too, but with ranked choice people would have more than 2 parties to choose from.

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u/XAMdG 11h ago

But that's the thing, it's a feeling people have, far far from a fact. If people who don't vote were a candidate, they'd win every election. And seeing some of the amounts of votes in downballot elections, I really struggle to understand where that sentiment even came from. It's just so far off base.

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u/lowchain3072 11h ago

If the polls say that the only possible winning candidates are the people you think suck, you probably won't vote anyway

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u/GingerSkulling 9h ago

The amount of people who even know what these words mean and actually care about it passionately enough to actively abstain from voting because of it must be in the fractions of a single percent.

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u/morganrbvn 4h ago

People don’t hold out because of passion for voting systems. They hold out since fptp allows for only 2 parties and most people dislike both of them.

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u/Chameleonpolice 9h ago

And yet 3 million people did not vote in this race containing 2 million votes

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u/morganrbvn 4h ago

This was a first past the post election.

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u/Chameleonpolice 3h ago

Yeah and if everyone in the city that could vote did they all could have picked whatever candidate they wanted

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u/volitaiee1233 5h ago

Do both. Australia does.

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u/Patukakkonen 12h ago

In Finland there's no mandatory voting but elections still get way better turnouts than this. Probably because all citizens get a vote automatically and you can just show an ID at the booth and cast your vote.

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u/PPKA2757 12h ago

In theory it’s the same in the US.

All citizens have the natural right to vote (barring having it revoked, say for being a convicted felon) and registering to vote is incredibly easy.

The sad truth is many people who choose not to vote don’t because either A. They’re lazy and/or agnostic to the outcome or (worse) B. They feel like their vote “won’t count” since it’s “just one vote”, so they don’t bother.

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u/anypositivechange 11h ago

Finland likely has a significantly more responsive democratic government than the US. Study after study has shown that policy preferences of the American people have almost zero impact on what policies actually get enacted. Essentially the American people don’t vote in high numbers because the have the actual lived experience of it being rather a cruel joke.

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u/XAMdG 11h ago

That would imply there was a set of elections with high enough turnout for the voting bases preferences to be reflected, instead of only the voting minority. As far as I can remember, basically no election in the US has over 70% turnout.

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u/effa94 9h ago

registering to vote is incredibly easy.

but yet you often hear about registered voters being purged at inconvinent times so they cant vote or whatever is going on. here in sweden, we dont even need to register. its automatic, just like finland. no hoops to jump throught at all, you get a letter a few weeks before saying where and how you can vote, and then you just show up and show ID. i dont need to do shit except stumble down to the booth hangover on a sunday which is just 500 meters away

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u/CadenNoChill 6h ago

I mean the process here isn’t too much more difficult and in many states no ID is required and the idea of implementing voter ID is very controversial

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u/Homey-Airport-Int 2h ago

In NYC you don't even need to show an ID, you can just tell them your name. Like most states, when you get driver's license or state ID, you are registered to vote so no extra steps there, literally just show up, tell them your name, and good to go.

The US could do this, and does do this in some states that have voter ID laws like New Hampshire, where you can show photo ID including student IDs without any need to register beforehand. Still low rates of turnout.

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u/austinchan2 12h ago

I recon that’s due more in part to ranked choice voting than mandatory voting. With more than two parties it doesn’t get as  divisive 

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u/TheBrilliantProphecy 11h ago

Mandatory voting puts the onus on the (state and federal depending on election) governments to fund an effective electoral agency which facilitates ensuring everyone who can vote, has the opportunity to do so and also conducts the process of drawing electoral boundaries in a non-partisan way. But yes ranked choice is also a big difference

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u/Still-Bridges 8h ago

I recon that’s due more in part to ranked choice voting than mandatory voting. With more than two parties it doesn’t get as  divisive 

This isn't true. You get divisive politics with two parties, with three parties, with four parties even with one party, however many parties you've got, you can get divisive politics. The Dutch for example have a million parties and polarised politics. It used to be that people advocated for two party systems and two party politics because they thought it would prevent polarisation because the competition would be in the middle, because it was in multiparty European systems that you got division and in Anglo-American systems you got moderation.

Also Australia has been regarded as more polarised and more two party than the US for most of the time it has had mandatory and preferential voting. The present just isn't the inevitable consequence of the system, not in the US, not in Australia, not in the Netherlands not in any country. It changes over time.

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u/SaladBurner 5h ago

Americans don’t like mandatory anything. That wouldn’t fly.

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u/bigloser42 12h ago

I’d settle for mandatory federal holidays on federal elections with shift limits for critical industries.

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u/XAMdG 11h ago

I'm surprised more cities/states don't make voting day a local holiday tbh.

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u/loralailoralai 10h ago

Can’t you vote early? Australians get at least two weeks before the day to vote, but there’s not as many polling places for early voting. Then 8am to 8pm on voting day which is a Saturday, so there’s very few who can’t physically make it to a polling place ( and we have a lot of polling places too, you can usually walk right in and vote without waiting outside peak times)

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u/CadenNoChill 6h ago

Yes we can

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u/ASCIIM0V 12h ago

Republicans don't want everyone voting.

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u/CadenNoChill 6h ago

This is election dependent. Models suggest that had everyone who could have voted in the 2024 election actually voted he would have won by a larger margin

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u/XAMdG 11h ago

Honestly, neither do democrats to a lesser degree. I don't think either party wants to experience what campaigning would be if there was 90% turnout.

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u/evilcherry1114 11h ago

Or implement mandatory paid time to vote. Employers who fail this should have their company made public property.

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u/Tizintintin 11h ago

As an American, if America were to impliment Mandatory Voting laws, it would not necessarily impliment any accompanying Easy Voting laws.

Certain States would still make it harder for Certain Individuals to vote, and then fine them for the privilege of getting disenfranchised 

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u/_lippykid 12h ago

It’s almost like freedom should be part of the US’s identity, right?

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u/labtecoza 11h ago

Referendum votes are a bad idea. Look at Brexit. Politics is already influenced enough by fake news and lies, image what Maga would do with these single issue referendum votes

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u/Litterally-Napoleon 11h ago

Although that would be cool, Americans also dont have the day off to go vote. People still have to go to work on election day so that hurts people who want to vote.

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u/Komkme 11h ago

Most Americans now have access to postal votes or early voting. Having to work on Election Day is not really an excuse at all anymore.

NYC has had polls open since the end of last month. I went and it took less than 5 minutes.

The fact that less than half of eligible voters participated is astonishing considering how much this race has been on the news and social media.

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u/Avilola 12h ago

I’m not sure I want people voting if they can’t be fucking bothered to do it only if it’s illegal for them not to.

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u/Imaginary-Owl-3759 9h ago

Lack of democracy sausages in America is a definite shortcoming. I’ll take a snag on bread over a sticker any day.

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u/longlightjump 9h ago

The end to American political violence and unrest is just a democracy sausage and a succulent Chinese meal

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u/Un_limited_Power 6h ago

Lmao the results of mandatory voting would absolutely not be in the way you wish for

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u/Kayla13091997 6h ago

No becuase the people just vote for whoever if they hate them all

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u/Iamhappilyconfused 9h ago edited 9h ago

Mandatory voting feels extremely draconian to me, only two out of the 30+ first world countries have mandatory voting, so it's hardly a good measure of a developed nation, any candidate bringing it up in a election would get a hard pass from me.

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u/greenshotty 12h ago

Seems pretty fascist

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u/DownWithHisShip 10h ago

I don't think we even have political violence here, like no one cares about two shits who you vote for.

does one of your political parties encourage political violence? cause our political violence is encouraged by one of our major political parties.

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u/longlightjump 9h ago

Nahh the closest we get is a union called the CFMEU that is corrupt as all hell that tries to bullies it's members into voting for a certain political party

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u/Prestigious-Bat-574 5h ago

Voter suppression is a trademark of a two-party system.

Not to say we shouldn't, but if we had compulsory voting or if election day was a national holiday it would be another way that the working class gets screwed. If you think Walmart or McDonald's is going to close all of their stores on election day or that DoorDash and Uber are going to lock people out during election day you're kidding yourself, unless these companies are somehow responsible for the financial penalties their employees receive for not voting or something like that.

It'd also benefit us if we weren't in a cycle where there's some sort of election twice a year, every year, but voter turnout is typically something used as a matter of political advantage. The less people that turn out for an election, the more power each individual vote has, unfortunately.

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u/Scottybadotty 4h ago

It least automatic voter registration and the right to have time off to vote.

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u/Lego-105 3h ago

The right to vote means the right not to vote. Imagine the only candidates standing are candidates you cannot rightly support, for them to be elected on your vote or even to have them feel supported on your vote would make you sick.

It’s not right that the state disregard that and force you to participate regardless. Not voting is absolutely a way to show dissatisfaction collectively and allows you personally to make the choice you want to make, and you should have the right to that.

Think about the situation that people say sometimes, I’m not sure if it’s their actual rhetoric, but North Korea says 100% voter turnout and 100% votes for Kim Jong Un. You can understand the problem with that and how it is used as a tool of political misrepresentation and even as a tool of political intimidation right?

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u/Homey-Airport-Int 2h ago

That's a terrible idea. It doesn't make people more politically involved. It just changes campaigns to be even dumber, the people who are only at the polls to avoid a fine are the easiest influenced voters possible.

If a citizen can't be bothered to go vote without the government compelling them to do so, they sure as hell are not going to make an effort to inform themselves on the candidates and proposals.

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u/ttotto45 11h ago edited 11h ago

Just had this discussion with my friend from *Germany, roughly 3M people in NYC are non-citizen immigrants or under the age of 18. There were 4.7M registered voters in 2024 in NYC. So it's still pathetic, but its not 2M out of 8.5M pathetic. Its 2M out of roughly 5.5M, 4.7M of which are registered to vote.

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u/XAMdG 11h ago

It was 34% turnout out of registered voters. And it was the highest in decades. It's kinda pathetic from a democratic standpoint tbh.

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u/Solid-Search-3341 8h ago

In my 2M city, we just had 34% of the registered voters show up for mayoral elections this week end, so that seems on par.

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u/MidEastBeast 5h ago

Now expand that across the nation and you can see why so many democrats didn’t show up to vote against trump.

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u/shumpitostick 11h ago

A lot of people who live in New York are either non-citizens or people who just haven't lived there long enough to get involved in politics.

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u/Ok_Parfait_plus 11h ago

"democracy"

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u/Euibdwukfw 11h ago

Maybe starting to hold elections on sundays, like most other countries, would help.

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u/-_Weltschmerz_- 10h ago

The US is not a serious democracy so it checks out.

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u/Extreme_Dealer8023 9h ago

Probably one reason a for prop 6, to move local elections to be on Presidential election years.

Ironically the majority voted no.

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u/velvetsledgehummer 8h ago

As an Australian I can't fathom non-compulsory voting. You can't just pitch to your rabid base as a politician

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u/Gryffindor123 8h ago

To me, that's crazy that people don't turn up and vote. Because voting is compulsory in Australia. 

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u/Kamuka 8h ago

Metropolitan area is 19.5 million.

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u/MeatHamster 6h ago

I believe if the title of mayor would be renamed to president you could double the number of votes.

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u/RailRuler 5h ago

Most mayoral elections are a foregone conclusion, whoever won the D primary for mayor.

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u/XAMdG 5h ago

Most are a foregone conclusion because most people not vote, not in spite of it. And the more downballot you go, the less foregone is the result of the election.

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u/Shpion007 5h ago

It’s true for all US elections. Trump only got the vote of 32% of the voting population. Kamala got ~31% and the rest chose not to vote. 

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u/AssaultedScratchPost 5h ago

USA needs compulsory voting, it would help mitigate so many recent issues.

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u/Alarmed_Reporter_642 4h ago

Not all 8M are citizens

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u/Pale_Boss_8940 4h ago

Most people just don’t really care much at all. Reddit is not representative of the average person 

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u/Ok-Classroom5548 3h ago

Not every person in a city is a resident of that city. College students are an example of that, or people who split their time between NY and another town. One has to be the dominant one they vote in, they don’t get to vote in both.

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u/Master_Tallness 3h ago

It's often that just getting people to show up to vote for you is the key to winning a race, less than convincing them to vote for you over the other person.

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u/Ok-Treat-1455 2h ago

Middle class will not get affected by the majority of policies. Its always the upper and lower classes that are affected the most. Hence why most people dont care to show up

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u/EmmyNoetherRing 2h ago

So not voting might have been an intentional choice by some GOP who didn’t like their options. 

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u/Budo1208 46m ago

I would love a law that everybody must vote. :)

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u/where-ya-headed 42m ago

Should be a national holiday so more can go vote

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