There's a few questions left on my mind. I don't know how voting works in these northern swing states, but at least here in the south were I'm at, you can do early voting (in person) a few weeks before the November election date or if you have a valid reason, you can request a mail in ballot. But looking at some data, it seems some of these northern states don't have early "in person" voting? Like if you want to "vote early" you have to request a mail in ballot??? But I've also read that some of these northern states sent out mail in ballots to all registered voters automatically just because of the "covid issue". (?)
I'm trying to find a logical explanation as to why the voter "turn out" was 50% higher this time around in these northern states even though their population growth is minimal or even negative. Perhaps a large number of people were not going to vote, but because they were mailed a ballot and all they had to do is fill it out and drop it back in the mail box, so they "voted". (?)
If that is the case.... it seems strange and seems almost like
vote harvesting. As an example, say we have a town of 20k people, we hold "in person only" voting and only 1000 vote. But the next year we do "mail in ballots" only, and 19,000 "vote". I understand "every vote counts", but if a huge chunk of your population is too lazy to even go to a physical polling place, how is it that their vote should count if mailed in, especially if all they did was circle the option for president and skip the 20+ other choices for senate and local candidates....
I feel like that could be an answer to what were are seeing... but I don't know if that is how voting works in the north... And I still don't see someone who is too lazy to vote in person even taking the time to do mail in voting either. Heck, at my last "office job", my team lead would show up to work super late several times a year because his water/gas/electricity would get shut off "randomly". It was because he'd only check his mailbox like once a month, but sometimes "forget" to even do that and end up checking it once every two months. The only reason my mail is checked everyday is because my wife does it lol.
