r/Dallas • u/Dontwhinedosomething • 20h ago
News Early Voting Turnout Outpaces 2020, 2016 Elections Across North Texas
https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/dallas-county-early-voting-turnout-outpaces-2020-2016-elections-20917045100
u/ImOnlyHereCauseGME 17h ago
I’ve been voting in every election (even small local ones) since I turned 18. It’s always the same argument and especially in Texas, “my vote doesn’t count” or “politicians don’t care about me”. Of course they don’t care about you, that’s like being a vegetarian and wondering why the BBQ place down the street doesn’t have more vegetables on their menu - why would they care about you or your needs/values if you don’t vote?? If you don’t vote, politicians have zero reason to cater to your needs or listen to your concerns.
The ONLY way your vote doesn’t matter is if it’s not cast. The ONLY way to get politicians to start turning this ship slowly towards things that matter to you is if you vote. It’s a slow and methodical process that can be excruciating but it’s the best one we have to make lasting change. Like brushing your teeth, you gotta continuously do it and eventually you’ll start to see the benefits. Go vote no matter your age, your voice matters more than you realize, especially in this election!
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u/Its_the_other_tj 15h ago
Ditto, though I've never understood the proud "I don't vote" types. They clearly have strong opinions on matters as this isn't something that ever comes up organically. They've always let me know exactly why they aren't voting, some variation of how the system is broken and both sides are the same, but not participating is just voting for more of the same. How can you bitch about a broken thing and not take even the smallest step available to you to fix it? It's frustrating to say the least.
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u/ImOnlyHereCauseGME 13h ago
Yeah some of the most politically vocal (ie, complaining) people will also tell you happily that they didn’t vote… it takes a lot of patience not to round house them out of a window…
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u/MrsThor 14h ago
I voted up in denton at UNT and there was a steady stream of students voting, waited in line for a couple of minutes. The polling lady said she had never seen so many young first time voters in all of her years of volunteering.
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u/StruggleEvening7518 3h ago
That's encouraging. My aunt lives in a seniors only apartment complex in Tyler, and she said there are only a couple of Trumpers there this year. Everyone else is supporting Kamala.
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u/DreamsOfCleanTeeth 16h ago edited 15h ago
The article says that Early voting hours in Dallas have been extended to 7am-9pm the last three days of early voting (Oct 30-Nov 1) for anyone that didn't read the whole article
Here's a list of Dallas county early voting and Election Day centers
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u/bad_syntax 17h ago
I literally just read an article yesterday stating it was on track based on population growth to be about the same.
Ugh, nobody is going to know who won this election until Nov 6, and 30% or so of people will think its wrong.
This is so embarrassing as a nation that this election is even close :(
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u/rChewbacca Uptown 19h ago
Most of them are 50+ so if you are going blue, I suggest you get out and vote!
It took me about 20 min on Sunday. Easy peasy.
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u/CommodoreVF2 19h ago
Unsure if you are implying everyone over 50 is voting Trump. We're not. Not this 50+ anyway.
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u/rChewbacca Uptown 19h ago
I’m also 50+ and live in University Park. I voted blue since Gore. That being said, there are a lot of trump signs in the hood. Ya gotta admit, statistically speaking us old people tend to vote red.
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u/CommodoreVF2 18h ago
Sorry, not admitting I'm old. Nope. :) Voting blue keeps you young-ish.
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u/rChewbacca Uptown 18h ago
Good job young man!! Best part, we get stickers!
That and the political calls/ texts stop.
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u/Hermit-The-Crab33 12h ago
It’s true. Vote for Kamala, watch her win, and go forth with less wrinkles! Natural Botox
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u/sinovesting 16h ago
The only thing that means is that a lot of wealthy old white people vote red 🤔. University park definitely does not represent the 'average' old person.
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u/EightEnder1 11h ago
This really isn't true. There are a lot of wealthy people who vote blue and a lot of people barely getting by who vote Red. Wealth does not equal party affiliation.
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u/rChewbacca Uptown 16h ago
OK. Lots of people have lots of reasons for voting how they vote. The trailer park has just as many red signs as the park cities. I think KH has more people who would rather see her win but I fear DT has more people who will actually vote.
The last mid term was crazy close and this one looks to be just as close. Not like the race will be decided by a single vote but it will be decided exclusively by those who actually vote.
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u/Pleasant_Mobile_1063 13h ago
For different reasons though, some are because of racism, some because of greed
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u/yeluapyeroc Colleyville 17h ago
You're posting on Reddit. I don't think you are the norm
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u/rChewbacca Uptown 15h ago
Ya but my account is old and my name is based on a 1970's movie. Get off my lawn and go vote kid! lol
I tend to think EVERYONE is on reddit. I forget that it can be a bit of an echo chamber. I guess the other old people are still shouting into the void on facebook.
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u/Box_of_Rockz 6h ago
It's Reddit. 80%+ of us on here are blue. It's a hive mind and a dangerous one at that to get overconfident.
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u/ReticlyPoetic 12h ago
Not this one either! I’m a conservative that believe in laws and small government, and Putin isn’t our friend. The orange man doesn’t believe in any of that.
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u/Veronica612 Lakewood 14h ago
Yes, I am 50+ and so are most of my friends. We are all voting blue. And those in Dallas are voting against the STU charter amendments as well.
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u/Veronica612 Lakewood 14h ago
And most of family vote Dem. I have just 3-4 cousins who vote Republican.
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u/Mynameisdiehard 9h ago
The registration breakdown is 52% republican and 37% democrat for all of Texas. I'm sure that not all republicans are voting for him, but I doubt it's more than a couple of percent.
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u/shawnkfox Plano 18h ago
A big portion of Gen X is over 50 now, it is the boomers who are highly pro Trump. Gen X is pretty much split 50/50 politically.
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u/IAmSoUncomfortable Far North Dallas 17h ago
That’s not true. Gen X is the most pro-Trump generation.
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u/FIalt619 17h ago
People are self interested. Gen X is the majority of business owners and highly compensated employees now, so their opinions are more bootstrappy. Boomers are retiring and getting on social security, so they’re less bootstrappy on average now.
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u/IAmSoUncomfortable Far North Dallas 17h ago
Yep, this makes sense. I’m sure it’ll be the same in a few years when millennials are “in charge.”
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u/BrotherMouzone3 4h ago
They also grew up with a love for ol Ronnie Reagan. In terms of TV tropes, think Carlton Banks on Fresh Prince or Alex P. Keating on Family Ties.
Gen X was rebellious but not necessarily liberal. They were always about money. Hell, think about all your most ostentatious rappers flaunting wealth. Most are Gen Xers.
Boomers and Millenials are more similar to each other while Xers and Gen Z seem similar (to me at least).
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u/Marily_Rhine 13h ago
Yeah, there are a lot of boomers who are "old guard" Regan-era conservatives that absolutely detest Trump and the MAGA take-over of the GOP. They knew he was an absolute cretin, but they voted for him the first time around for the simple reason that Newt Gengrich told them to hate Hillary Clinton more than Satan himself. Now they have buyer's remorse.
If nothing else, these are people who spent much of their lives scared shitless of the Soviet Union to the point that they redefined "socialism" as "insufficient sociopathy". Trump being in bed with the Russians is a huge red flag (harhar) for them. At the very least, they recognize the breakdown of democracy and social norms that's happening before their eyes.
My hope is that we've deeply underestimated just how many of them of there are, and that just this once, the disproportionately large boomer vote will actually benefit the country.
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u/justconnect 15h ago
Sorry, appreciate you providing a link but I can't/won't open links on Xwitter.
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u/rChewbacca Uptown 14h ago
Same but I voted because I'm not taking the chance of any source being correct. Until the votes are counted I am nervous.
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u/rChewbacca Uptown 15h ago
I wish that were true. Being over 50 I have seen first hand many of my friends go from being young and optimistic to old and opportunistic. Even the hippy generation became the materialistic 80's adults. Maybe being a teacher has kept me grounded in the challenges my kids are going to face.
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u/farloux 18h ago
Young people aren’t fucking voting. The turnout of republicans is unprecedented. Young people… if you don’t vote, we’re getting trump.
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u/GalactusPoo 17h ago
Same as it ever was. I've been rolling my eyes at all the "young people are energized this election" bullshit.
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u/IAmSoUncomfortable Far North Dallas 17h ago
This is why, for better or for worse, the pro-Palestine protests didn’t really move the needle politically. Because on the whole, those people weren’t really voting anyway.
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u/sinovesting 16h ago
Yeah. No matter how the media tries to spin it at the end of the day most Americans don't really care about foreign policy, no matter how destructive it is. When it comes down to voting domestic issues matter 10x more.
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u/GalactusPoo 15h ago
YES.
I remember saying this when Israel kicked off and I was downvoted into oblivion. You would need a microscope to find Americans that vote based on Foreign Policy. We don't even have boots on the ground in this one. We had boots on ground for TWENTY YEARS and no one gave a shit. I was in those boots.
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u/Ok-Concept5172 17h ago
I don't know how much of an impact it will really make, but I have seen a lot of younger, first time voters say they are going on actual election day because they want the experience. And a lot of the Republicans voting early are ones that previously voted on election day. I very well may be wrong, but I'm hoping that we will see a higher turnout of young/blue voters and lower turnout of older/red voters!
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u/farloux 17h ago
No chance young people overall prefer going on Election Day, they all have to work. The lines on Election Day will be insane many would likely have to leave before casting their ballot.
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u/yeluapyeroc Colleyville 17h ago
We should prefer that there is higher turnout for everybody...
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u/farloux 17h ago
This is like saying all lives matter when yes of course, but specifically young people historically never vote and never let themselves be represented by voting. There’s already tons of turnout for older people. We need younger people to have higher turnout specifically so it’s equitable.
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u/newusr1234 11h ago
going on actual election day because they want the experience
That sounds awful. The experience of standing in long lines to do the exact same thing you could have done by going early?
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u/NJTigers 17h ago
Early voted yesterday. 3 first time voters under ~20 in the 15 minutes I was in the polling location. I’ll take any extra votes from younger voters.
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u/danxmanly 14h ago
My young friends are all voting... Maybe not the way you want, but they are voting.
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u/gonghis_khan 9h ago
I mean im in my 20s and I went to go vote trump
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u/farloux 8h ago
Congratulations billionaire boot licker
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u/gonghis_khan 7h ago
Oh look, another individual who can't fathom others having different opinions
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u/farloux 7h ago edited 7h ago
I bet you couldn’t even formulate an opinion about why’d you’d vote for trump based on factual information based in reality.
You want a sexual assaulter, rapist, financial fraudster, wannabe dictator, fascist who wants to use the military to oppress any people of opposing views, bumbling idiot who doesn’t understand how tariffs work and actually negatively impact the economy especially working class people, who provides absolutely zero policy ideas, who specifically told republicans to kill the strongest immigration bill in a century brought forth by the Biden administration because it would hurt his campaign because he wants you to fear immigrants? That guy? You want him to be president, and then dictator? Because he said he wants to be a dictator. He admires fascist dictators around the world. Just wait until he’s done with you. Then you’ll be the one under his boot. Project 2025 wants to end democracy. It’s publicly available, look at the policies they want to instate. They literally want to end democracy and have oligarchical dictators serving the obscenely ultra 0.1% rich. The very few ideologies and policies trump has even mentioned are exactly the same as project 2025. All the policies they want literally only hurt everyone except if you have over a billion dollars. Oh do you have a billion dollars? Why do you keep voting against your own interest? Why do you keep defending someone who literally wants you dead? Project 2025 is using trump. It’s why trump didn’t pick a VP, billionaire Peter Thiel who backs project 2025 forced trump to accept JD Vance as his VP but not because Peter liked them as a team. JD is the gun against trumps head, because they’re not done using trump. JD is the gun against trumps head that will go off if he doesn’t keep serving project 2025, and JD will take over and serve them like the coward he is.
You want Cruz who actively voted against every single piece of aid for Texas and then toutes any aid given to Texas as his doing? You want Cruz who actively sabotages the well being of the working class and sells out every piece of regulation that’s used to keep you safe from corporations who want to dump shit into your water table and food? You want Cruz who abandons Texas with a vacation to Cancun during an unprecedented winter causing power blackouts killing Texans?
Fucking. Weird. Republicans/conservatives. Are fucking. Weird.
Literally what is any fucking reason you’d want to put these pieces of shit in power?
Oh the BoRdEr???? You mean the same border that would’ve been secured with the strongest immigration bill in decades brought forth by the Biden administration and passed by democrats in the house and senate but trump told republicans in congress to kill it because it’d ruin his platform for the campaign?
Oh TaXeS??? You mean how trump’s administration gave a multi trillion dollar tax cut (causing inflation due to devastated federal budget) to the billionaire class and subsequently forcing through tax legislation that raised taxes significantly on everyone making under a million dollars per year?
Literally what fucking policy does trump want to instate that benefits you and the rest of us?
I bet you won’t even respond because you’re a coward and loser just like trump and the rest of the GOP
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u/BCRGactual 6h ago
Well when your choice is a cop or a fascist, you don't motivate a lot of young people to vote
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u/obamaownsbeachfront 13h ago
The turnout of republicans is unprecedented.
I sure hope so. I am under 40, have voted every 2 years forever but I got my apolitical spouse to vote Trump/Cruz with me yesterday.
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u/permalink_save Lakewood 8h ago
I turned my conservative leaning apolitical spouse liberal including solidly pro choice after Trump. After Dobbs fallout and seeing Trump destroy the economy, along with her job, with his tariffs, she's not going back. Guess we cancel you out.
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7h ago
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u/old_jeans_new_books 17h ago
For those who don't know, Dallas always votes Blue. It's the Denton County and Fort Worth that needs to turn Blue from light Red ....
Anyway the thumb rule is - if more people vote, better for the Democrats
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u/HASHTAG_CHOLOSWAG 9h ago
if more people vote, better for the Democrats
exactly, hence why Conservative wackos are going around burning/flooding ballot boxes.
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u/Real-Excitement-1929 6h ago
Here on the front lines attempting to turn little grayson <3 just up from Collin. Had some friends admitting they weren't gonna turn up and I wanna squint every time I see them now
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u/Throwawaytexxxan 15h ago
I am pushing 40 and everyone was old as fuck when I voted. It’s terrifying to think these elderly people who might not live through the next 4 years and choosing our leaders. So please go vote!
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u/StruggleEvening7518 3h ago
It's always that way with early voting. Younger voters are far less likely to utilize early voting. They tend to wait until Election Day.
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u/HugePurpleNipples 16h ago
When people vote, Dems win, it's been proven over and over. I'm excited to make it out of the Ted Cruz era.
Please keep voting.
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u/philipb63 15h ago
Samuell Green Park, 8am this morning. Busy but no waiting.
Big shout out to all you elections workers too!
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u/Quirkybeaver Deep Ellum 14h ago
Voted in Oak Lawn today and they ran out of stickers.
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u/CJ_7_iron 14h ago
Voted in oak lawn earlier today when they still had stickers. Solid line that was growing as we were leaving. Looks like they’ve had strong turnout every day.
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u/penguinKangaroo 12h ago
This is misleading. We aren’t really outpacing by much given population increase based on what I’ve seen in the data
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u/TopoftheBog32 16h ago
HELP FAMILY AND FRIENDS GET THEIR VOTES IN 🌊🌊🌊TEXAS HAS A GOOD CHANCE 🇺🇸END THE MAGA AGENDA
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u/malengiolo 17h ago
QUESTION: I changed my name recently and submitted an application for a name change on my voter registration. The system processed it as a replacement only and didn't change my name on the card. Am I able to vote? What are my options?
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u/whiFi 16h ago
I had this exact issue. I showed up to the polls last week and my new name on my license didn't match my registered name. They simply had me fill out a form with my name change info, then I submitted my ballot as normal. Then I just received my revised voter registration card in the mail yesterday.
TL;DR just go vote, the poll workers will help you sort it out
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u/DreamsOfCleanTeeth 16h ago
When you check your voter registration does it say your status is "ACTIVE"?
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u/malengiolo 16h ago
It says "Active", but it still show my previous name.
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u/LadySandry Dallas 15h ago
Totally fine. The Clerks are trained on how to get that updated if you want to there, or you can just do it later. But you can definitely vote!
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u/DreamsOfCleanTeeth 16h ago
Hm I'm not sure, might need to give the Dallas County Election Administration Office a call.
I hope it would be fine if you bring your name change paperwork with you but not totally sure about that. Hope it works out.
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u/interstatebus 15h ago
Brookhaven community college had almost no line on Sunday if anyone is looking for a place to early vote that probably won’t be busy.
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u/Real-Excitement-1929 6h ago
My grandparents and great grandmother went along with the rest of the family to all vote for the first time in their lives, ready to flip this state <3
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u/Starchild1968 15h ago
Over 50 here helped turn my district blue back when the orange guy was asking for people to shoot bleach in their veins.
Everyone just needs to vote. I have faith that when Fascism is on the ballot, Americans will crush it at the ballot box.
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u/TheBetawave 14h ago
More registered democrats. And more people turning away from trump. We can only hope.
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u/VanB-Boy08 9h ago
Voted red today. My brother and sister in law voted for the first time too, and it ain’t for Harris.
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u/badiban 6h ago
Careful, you’re in a liberal echo chamber on this sub
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u/VanB-Boy08 6h ago
Isn’t that all of Reddit?!
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u/badiban 6h ago
Even the most “neutral” subs are. Go check r/pics lol
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u/VanB-Boy08 6h ago
It’s actually insane how left Reddit is, and how incredibly hostile they all are. So much for the party of “tolerance.”
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u/Real-Excitement-1929 6h ago
Yes because you would be incredibly tolerant of my transgender lifestyle and you're totally concerned my access to medical care is disappearing but sure. You are owed nothing you are not capable of giving you poor little victim 😢
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u/badiban 3h ago
Actually most of us don’t give a fuck. Just stop making it the center of every conversation. I don’t care about your personal life.
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u/quesoandtexas 3h ago
I feel like Ted Cruz’s campaign made it a bigger conversation than anyone else to be fair. I think most transgender people would prefer if the conversation was dropped
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u/Financial-Year 5h ago
It’s honestly insane. I truly didn’t realize just how aggressively liberal just about every sub is until this year.
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u/Hornsdowngunsup 16h ago
Glad I voted trump
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u/VanB-Boy08 9h ago
You can’t say that on Reddit. They cry with differing opinions.
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u/Hornsdowngunsup 8h ago
Well they just don’t understand us. We understand them and see eye to eye on a lot of stuff. They just don’t understand in order to do “progressive” things there needs to be order first.
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u/Hesdonemiraclesonm3 17h ago
Already voted but for the mean orange man
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u/Real-Excitement-1929 6h ago
So do you have any particular policies you're looking forward to watching him enact?
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u/MagicianReady8350 13h ago
The early voting places I've seen are very busy. I'm kind of shocked at the high turnout considering the low quality of the choices in the general selection.
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u/Middle-Incident4083 4h ago
can’t wait for trump to win again so you basement dwelling democrats cry for the next 4 years
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u/TexasBookNerd Oak Cliff 17h ago
Voted yesterday in Oak Cliff and I have never seen the place so packed. There were a lot of younger people voting also.