Rating Democracy in All 50 U.S. States

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“My definition of a free society is
a society where it is safe to be unpopular.”
— Adlai Stevenson

As of August 7, 2023, the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) released its annual scorecard for each of the U.S. state’s democracy rating. As I alluded to in my previous blog-post and its comments, my home state of Texas has been passing legislation over the last two–three years which suppress the votes of non-white, anti-conservative, less-advantaged Texans or making easy convenient access to voting stations, and actual voting, increasingly difficult. Over the last 5-7 years it has been ever harder for myself to vote and/or register to vote, and I am a well-educated white man! Now riddle me that one please!

Nevertheless, I was quite interested in knowing what Texas’ scorecard reveals. Not much of a surprise to me our democracy tally has been rated “Low” (in the orange) scoring 6.5 out of 33.5 points. Personally, that’s a fair score given how noticeably more difficult it has become for me—a college educated white man—to vote or re-register to vote after my frequent moves between Dallas and Kerrville, TX for Mom’s declining dementia, and to get this year (as well as 4-yrs ago) a new renewed driver’s license. By the way, have I told you that I am an 8th-generation white Texan with no criminal record or outstanding warrants, fines, over 42-years of employment and paying my share of taxes over those 42-years? Eighth-generation means my family was here in Texas BEFORE it was annexed by the United States in 1845!

Click here to go to MAP’s 2023 Texas scorecard and other 49 states

As far as MAP’s “Who Votes” and “How to Vote,” two of the three main metrics for scoring, yet again, no surprise whatsoever for Texas’ abysmal ratings: Who Votes — a -0.5/5 and How to Vote — a -0.75/5. Our highest ratings? “Election Security” 4 out of 6, and “Voting in Person” 2.5 out of 5.5. Both of those better scores, yet still weak, I have explained their difficulty mediocrity in detail over the last decade. “Election Security” is cryptic Conservative code for Much Harder to Vote and “Voting in Person” means Hard Registering to Vote, respectively.

Curious to know what four states rate the highest in democracy’s election laws and policies according to MAP? Yes, you read that correctly, only 4 states out of 50, or just 17% of our population of 332-million Americans reside in a state with high-levels of democracy. Let me repeat, just seventeen percent of Americans! Here are those highly democratic republic states:

  1. Washington with 31 out of 33.5
  2. Colorado with 30 out of 33.5
  3. California with 29.5 out of 33.5
  4. Oregon with 26 out of 33.5

Let’s see who the last four states of the Union are with the most undemocratic elections and policies:

47. Tennessee with 5.5 out of 33.5
48. Arkansas with 5.5 out of 33.5
49. Mississippi with 4.0 out of 33.5
50. Alabama with 3.25 out of 33.5

What percentage of the American population do these four states make up? The answer: almost 6% of the American population.

The bottom-line is and what these numbers show when one reviews the entire fifty states on the MAP’s website is that a large portion of the American 50-states and their populations are NOT truly, purely democratic in their elections and policies. I don’t know about you, but I find these facts disturbing, alarming, and they need to be confronted and addressed not just by each individual (legal) American citizen, but also by your district’s House of Representatives and your district’s Senators! Are we not a Constitutional Republic democracy as written in our Charters of Freedom by all six (6) of the Core Founding Fathers? Yes, of course. Then WHY do twenty-nine (29) of our fifty states score a measly grand tally of just 16.75 (or lower) out of 33.5 democracy data-points? Those scores are abysmal!

What has happened to democracy in the United States to rate that horribly on the major points of what defines a TRUE democracy?

Try to Live Free – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Alot More

The Professor’s Convatorium © 2023 by Professor Taboo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

15 thoughts on “Rating Democracy in All 50 U.S. States”

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  4. Curious as to why it’s hard to enrol to vote there? Over here you get a letter, but otherwise can just enrol online. Our elections are coming up in a couple months.

    It’s interesting to see the range of scores across the board, although it’s a bit worrying when you have several states with low scores in “representation” and “integrity”. It would seem that America is only democratic for some?

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    • Liberated, it is noticeably harder to enroll/register to vote here in Texas—at least for myself, a 42-yr voting Texan with a college degree & post-grad work, and a white man!—because the entire registering process was basically overhauled in 2021–23 when former President tRump lost the election… or rather (and excuse the satirical explanation) it was ‘stolen/rigged’ by non-Republicans, including too many non-Repub Texans.

      As you may or may not be aware, Texas has been a hardcore radical Republican dominated state since 1995 led by officials such as Senator Ted Cruz (R), former Gov. Rick Perry (R), current Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), the soft under-bellied Gov. Greg Abbott (R), Rep. Joe Straus (R), Editor Brandon Darby (R) affiliated with Steve Bannon, Oil Tycoon and bank-roller Tim Dunn (R), and Ted Cruz’s protégé Chip Roy (R)… to name a few Republican radicals in Washington DC and Texas.*

      So after tRump’s defeat in 2021, what used to be VERY easy for me to vote regularly at every chance I had, wasn’t. If I had to renew my DL (to show polling officials my identity in person) I have always been able to do so via postal mail or online. Cannot do that anymore as of 2021-22. Now I must do that IN PERSON! This past July I received a letter from the TX Dept. of Public Safety informing me that I can no longer renew my DL via mail or online; I must appear in person. BUT… BUT… I must now schedule a DL Renewal Appointment. The soonest I can appear in person to renew my DL is October 10, 2023. I have until Jan. 4, 2024 to get this done. Therefore, based on a 3-month delay for DL appointments, I have just ONE SHOT at it! 😲🤬 Imagine how incredibly hard doing this would be for hundreds of thousands of impoverished, low-educated Texans who do not have internet service! And public library hours—for free internet time-slots—are very limited and are closed 2-days out of the week!

      Would you care for me to go into microscopic details about how difficult it is to re-register to vote if you’ve recently moved from your old County to a new different County… 3-4 times in a 10-year period… and your DL doesn’t reflect your current correct address!?

      Yeah Liberated, its gotten quite bad here, even for a college educated, 42-yr voting, white-man Texan who has been politically an Independent voter since 1995.

      It would seem that America is only democratic for some?

      You have NO IDEA just how profoundly true that statement is!

      ———————————
      Source (*) – https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/flush-with-power/

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply ↓

      • Oh, damn that does sound very annoying. Gotta thank Trump for something, right? :p . I had to renew my DL recently, that was a pain in the ass, but not a 3 month wait! Here you can also use passport to verify identity.

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    • Yeah, Florida did pretty well in both of these assessments—Quality of Living and Democracy Rating—and I honestly can’t figure out why, except what I explained to Jill above/below and her comment. Perhaps the same conditions apply to Florida here as they might in the QoL score. Maybe? 🤷‍♂️

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      • I was being tempted to run a business down in Florida, so CJ and I visited. I could never live there. The weather is boring, the businesses are over air conditioned (go into a restaurant in a silk shirt and freeze to death), and the bugs, you have to stop every 20 miles to scrape the bugs off of your windshield. The quality of life is poor IMHO. And democracy? Pfft.

        Liked by 1 person

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        • Couldn’t agree more with you! Here on or near the Texas coasts or over in the Lower Pine country (SE Texas around Beaumont and up north to Lufkin) the exact same insect problem is chronic along with the suffocating humidity! But in the same Pine country there isn’t a problem with deep-freeze businesses except that many of those businesses of the region are either Ku-Klux-Klan owned or closely affiliated with the KKK or extreme racists guilds/groups. 😒

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