And the Real Winner of the 2024 Election is..."None of the Above"

Reflections on the 2024 Election...It Isn't What You Think

I have refrained from commenting very much on the 2024 Presidential election, partly because I was disgusted with the outcome and hate political post-mortems. Turning power over to a man of the lowest common moral denominator, such as Trump, is a frightening scenario to which I am still trying to decide how to respond…

But after reeling from the reality that Trump won, I have begun to investigate the election results, looking for something different than the standard pat answers. I don’t care about the usual commentators who try to analyze how and why Trump won or how the Democrats got it wrong. That seems like an exercise in peeing against the wind. (That is an old Iowa saying). The answer, it seems to me, is in a different place.

Something struck me in the numbers for this election cycle, bringing out some significant issues that I haven’t seen many people discuss. Here is the reality check: Neither party won this election.

This is what I mean. The results can be viewed differently if based on the number of eligible voters in 2024, roughly 245 million people. We usually count votes proportionally to the turnout. But if we examine the total number of eligible voters, here are the true results:

• Kamala Harris received approximately 75 million votes = 30% of eligible voters

• Donald Trump received approximately 77 million votes = 31% of eligible voters

• Those who DID NOT VOTE were close to 90 million = 36% of the eligible voters

Those who did not vote received more votes than the two candidates. Donald Trump did not win this election! “None of the Above” won.

It is essential to note that the country is not half MAGA and half Democratic. At best, only 31% of eligible voters elected Donald Trump, not “half the country.” And only 30% of the country turned out for Harris on the Democratic side. Imagine a system where less than one-third of the voters get to elect the most powerful position in the world. Welcome to the United States of America.

It is essential to understand that more Americans are disaffected by both parties than the number of people in either party. It is clear that many Americans were not happy with the choices given to them by the two-party system. It doesn’t make me feel any better that Trump won, but at least I know a small plurality elected him, not the majority.

It is easy to criticize those who didn’t cast a vote, and I hear it all the time from both sides…but not so fast.

The question becomes, why did 90 million eligible voters stay home and not bother to vote? Over the past few weeks, this question has become an obsession for me, prompted by a wonderful conversation with some long-time friends in my hometown over the holidays. One of my friends asked me, “What message did the Democrats get wrong in this election? What did they do wrong?”

We bantered this idea over lunch for what turned into a four-hour conversation about not just what the Democrats did wrong but why people are fed up with the political process. We talked about the tone-deafness of both party elites who listen more to “professional political consultants” than average people. It was an interesting conversation that prompted more questions than answers…but that is what good conversations should do.

In the past, I have offered a couple of theories about why some people stay home, and in this election, I suggested that white supremacy and sexism played a role. I still believe that is true. Many people have unconscious bias and are driven by it when it comes to decision time. Filling in the oval for a woman of color is still a bridge too far for some, even on the Democratic side, although they would never admit it publicly nor to themselves. That is why it is an unconscious bias.

But that may not be the only reason. I have also written about the Electoral College's shortcomings. Trump would have won even without the Electoral College in this election, but I still oppose it. But that isn’t the point. I still believe the Electoral College is essentially anti-democratic, obsolete, and a detriment to voter turnout. The original design of the electoral system was meant to reduce voters, and it accomplishes that goal very well. For us today, the simple fact that fewer people vote because of the electoral system is reason enough to change it.

This theory is easy to confirm. In the 2024 election, the national voter turnout was about 64%. But in the swing states, the voter turnout was much higher; why? People knew their votes counted toward the outcome. Here are the numbers:

• Wisconsin 76%,

• Michigan 75%,

• Pennsylvania 71%,

• North Carolina 70%

• Georgia 68%

• Most other states were at or below 64%.

The Electoral College has a deleterious effect on voting. Consider Texas and New York, two of the biggest states in the nation. Turnout was 56% and 58%, respectively. These are two reliably red and blue states, so why even cast a vote other than for down-ballot races? Imagine a political system where voter turnout is high in every state, and the person with the majority of votes wins…yeah, like every other advanced Democracy.

Another factor contributing to the enormous non-voter turnout is the fundamental perception among Americans that the political system is broken…ineffective…and non-representative and needs to be overhauled. People are exhausted with a system that only works for the elites, deliberately promotes polarization, seems to only respond to outrage, never solves real problems, and never listens to them. These are not necessarily new problems, but they are exaggerated in an era of social media and internet connectivity that allows people to see what is happening.

As I pondered these theories, I came across an article from “The Guardian” dated December 13, 2024. The Guardian has been collecting statements from non-voters and giving them a voice. As I read their comments, it began to sustain the theories my friends and I had been bantering about…I will summarize a few of the remarks from the article here so that you get a sense of what these non-voters were thinking. They were not necessarily apathetic or uninvolved. As you will see, many of them saw no reason to participate in a system oblivious to their needs or voices.

Here is a sample of what they said:

60-year-old software developer with Latino heritage from Boston:

“I’m not in a swing state, and because of the electoral college, my vote doesn’t count. I could have voted 500,000 times, and it would not have changed the outcome.”

40-year-old carpenter from Idaho who voted in the previous two elections because he then lived in the swing state of Arizona:

“I didn’t find Harris compelling, just more of the same. Politicians from both parties seem unwilling to make the kind of fundamental economic and political changes that would make a meaningful difference for all people, namely a move towards a more democratic socialist system. That being said if we didn’t have the electoral college I probably would have voted for Harris.”

a 29-year-old financial professional from Pennsylvania:

“What is the point [of voting]?,” he asked. “Aside from a handful of weaponized issues, the parties are nearly identical. They both hate the poor and serve only their donors.”

34-year-old from Indiana who works in the trucking industry:

“I refuse to put my name on either candidate when I know neither of them is truly the best we have to offer. We need a major overhaul to the two-party system. As a man with young children, I worry about what kind of country they will grow up in. It terrifies me; we deserve better.”

58-year-old from West Virginia:

“I wasn’t apathetic about this election; I followed it closely. But most of the candidates and issues left me cold and disinterested and seemed to be simply perpetuating the existing system, especially the status quo of authority and law and order, or rampant human development on the land. On the presidential level, I was shocked and disgusted that the Harris campaign chose to completely ignore discussing climate change. Fundamentally, this election seemed to have very little to do with my interests and concerns.”

65-year-old retired white woman from California:

“I did vote for all other down-ballot candidates and initiatives. I would have voted for Harris had my vote made a difference, but I could not vote for a president who will continue the complete destruction of Gaza and annexation of the West Bank.”

62-year-old professional working in process planning from Texas:

“In 2020 I voted Libertarian as a protest vote. This year I was so turned off by Trump’s low character, economic ignorance, disregard of our national debt, hostility to Ukraine and so on that I was trying to convince myself to vote for Harris. But her economic policy was just a grab bag of voter payoffs and she doesn’t care about the debt either. I just no longer want to vote against anyone. I want to vote FOR someone. And none of the candidates for president wanted my vote enough.”

35-year-old Black male voter from Portland, Oregon, who works at a gas station:

“I did not vote in 2016 or 2020 either because I did not like any of the candidates in those elections either. I last voted in 2012, for Obama.”

47-year-old engineering manager and registered Republican from Texas:

“I felt both candidates fell well short of the presidential standard, and didn’t feel I could cast a vote for either. VP Harris failed to demonstrate she was ethically or intellectually capable of executing the office, repeatedly failing to detail out her policies and generally running her campaign like a popularity contest – ‘collect enough celebrity endorsements, by paying them, and the masses will elect you,’” Trump, he felt, “cares about the US and believes his own ideas will ‘save’ the country – but he’s a terrible human being. I don’t feel he represents a majority of Americans at all, but is more a reaction to some of the issues we face as a country.”

37-year-old Elly, a mother of four daughters from the Midwest:

“Bernie Sanders was the last candidate I was excited to vote for. This election came down to two parties who have utterly abandoned everyday people and their problems with affordability and worries about climate change, but one party, the Republicans, were savvy enough to pretend they felt the collective pain of the common folks, whilst the Democrats mostly said ‘all is well.’ I couldn’t in good conscience support either side on the national level.”

a father from California in his 60s:

“I am not a fan of the Democrats, but I would have voted to keep Trump out of office if there was an economically literate, competent, law and order candidate who was willing to challenge the excesses of ‘woke.’ The Dems are out of touch on social issues, and have tacked too far to the left to appease a minority of progressives. I support some policies that would be considered rightwing on immigration, but also investing in social housing, so I’m looking for candidates capable of taking difficult decisions based on rational analysis.”

a 56-year-old hedge fund manager from California:

He voted for Barack Obama in 2012, for Clinton in 2016 and for Biden in 2020, said he had abstained this time as both candidates were fiscally irresponsible in his view, because he strongly disliked Trump’s anti-immigration and pro-tariffs stance, and because Harris had been “pro-censorship” and “too tolerant of antisemitism.”

an architect in his 40s from Tennessee:

“Skip the debates, what a circus, I’m so sick of hearing about politics. The political system in the US is broken. Things are so polarized, there is no cooperation for the good of the people. There is just so much hate, even in everyday conversation with average people. There is just so much of this ‘if I don’t win, I’m taking the ball and going home mentally. It just causes nothing to get accomplished.”

Listen to these voices. These are not the voices of apathetic, disengaged people. Perhaps 90 million people are beginning to see through the charade the two parties are playing. Perhaps they are the ones who, if someone were to listen to them and regard their needs and viewpoints, could steer this country to a new and better future and save our Democracy.

Additionally, roughly 136 million Americans live paycheck to paycheck and have no safety net. They already know that it doesn’t matter much which party is in power; their situation doesn’t change. They understand that the economic system is rigged against them by design, and they know neither party has the wherewithal to change it. How many of the 90 million non-voters are members of the working poor? I’ll be researching this question.

I will not criticize the non-voters. I will, however, criticize both parties for being tone-deaf to the real people of the United States. If one or the other party could figure out how to work with and gain the trust of this group (remember, there are more of them than either party's base), they would dominate politics for a generation. Still, more importantly, we might begin to function again as a nation and solve some real problems.