Actually, the recent record turnouts should really be getting you to pay attention to how the elections are structured. It turns out, the way districts and the electoral college are organized means that where you get out the vote matters. Telling people to vote harder doesn’t make those systemic obstacles go away.
This is on purpose, too. The farthest-right states also just so happen to have the lowest educations, incomes, healthcare, etc. They make it miserable for people who live there to organize AND so people from cities don’t want to move there.
The thing is, the record turnouts are still pretty bad. Something like 60% of eligible voters, I think? You’re right that there are systemic reasons why it’s not feasible for some people to vote. But if everyone who didn’t have a systemic reason to not vote did, the turnout would still be much higher.
Overall, 70% of U.S. adult citizens who were eligible to participate in all three elections between 2018 and 2022 voted in at least one of them, with about half that share (37%) voting in all three.
-Pew Research Poll on Voter Turnout
And it looks like a significant portion of the 30% who don’t vote are white adults without a college degree who lean Republican.
70% of eligible voters participating in at least 1 of 3 elections is abysmal. That only 37% voted in all 3 demonstrates this.
