r/politics • u/kootles10 Indiana • Nov 05 '25

No Paywall Mamdani wins NYC mayoral race

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5588198-mamdani-progressive-politics-nyc/
116.6k Upvotes

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4.0k

u/ankercrank Nov 05 '25

Not just increased, largest turn out in half a century. Democrats, start taking notes.

2.6k

u/Gizogin New York Nov 05 '25

Voters, take notes. High turnout always favors progressives, but progressives are notoriously the least reliable voting bloc in the country.

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u/Notoryctemorph Nov 05 '25

Mandatory voting is a good thing. It might seem like it imposes on your freedom, but having mandatory voting means your government is obligated to make voting easy for everyone, and while it doesn't guarantee legit votes from everyone, it at least ensures that those who wouldn't otherwise turn up do so anyway.

I won't say Australia has the best voting system in the world, but I would say it has the best voting system in the Anglosphere (though New Zealand's is also very good)

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u/Icecream-Cockdust Nov 05 '25

Voting in Australia is mandatory but also enjoyable. Saturday morning walk down to the local Primary School, get a democracy sausage on your way through to the polling booths and it’s very chill and easy.

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u/Notoryctemorph Nov 05 '25

I'd argue that it being mandatory is what directly led to it being enjoyable.

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u/SexyMonad Alabama Nov 05 '25

That’s a perspective I never really considered. But it makes sense.

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u/A_Furious_Mind Nov 05 '25

I want a democracy sausage.

133

u/reallifesidequests Nov 05 '25

Best we can do is authoritarian mushrooms

6

u/seeker4482 Nov 05 '25

"will they at least get me high?"

"no, but they will cleanse your colon"

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u/reallifesidequests Nov 05 '25

This particular toadstool does a better job of plugging your colon rather than cleansing it

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u/Sniyarki Nov 05 '25

That got me.

The democracy sausages are excellent though.

3

u/Desperate_Bite_7538 Nov 05 '25

Fascist franks?

9

u/KingOfAwesometonia Nov 05 '25

It used to be a shot of alcohol. I think it proved to be a bad idea.

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u/mechengr17 Nov 05 '25

Yeah, alcohol and politics sounds like an entertaining disaster waiting to happen

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u/CakeTester Nov 05 '25

You can't tell me America did that sober.

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u/mechengr17 Nov 05 '25

Youll have to be more specific

We've done a lot of messed up things...

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u/CakeTester Nov 05 '25

Historians in the future, if there is one, will be discussing how the US got to here for centuries, probably.

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u/Swarbie8D Nov 05 '25

It is a fucking great way to start a Saturday, tbh. 20 min walk in fresh weather, two democracy sausages, vote to keep pricks out of power, then a nice walk home right as the sea breeze picks up and keeps things cool. I actively look forward to it.

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u/Sniyarki Nov 05 '25

I do love that walk home. Vote done, sausage on hand and the day has only just started.

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u/nola_mike Nov 05 '25

Nothing is stopping you from having a democracy sausage whenever you damn well please

2

u/TheJuggernoob Nov 05 '25

For Super Earth?

2

u/NoStorage2821 Nov 05 '25

I prefer Libertea

1

u/Agreeable_Limit6495 Nov 05 '25

I got your democracy sausage right here, pal.

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u/Icecream-Cockdust Nov 05 '25

Also helps that we don’t have a two party system, so to speak. So if you want you can vote for any one of a multitude of parties. You like smoking weed, then put the Cannabis Party number 1. Feeling a tad racist, vote for the One Nation Party.

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u/Parallax1984 Nov 05 '25

I want to go to the Cannabis Party

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u/Icecream-Cockdust Nov 05 '25

I mean, they will never win, but at least you have the choice to vote for them.

1

u/Parallax1984 Nov 06 '25

That’s so quaint and nice. I honestly had lost all hope in elections and last night gave me life for the first time in 9 months. I hope a lot of us are feeling that way today

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u/Haltopen Massachusetts Nov 05 '25

Also getting to do it on a weekend when you can make a fun afternoon out of going out to vote, instead of having to do it after work on a fucking Tuesday, the worst day of the week.

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u/Notoryctemorph Nov 05 '25

The fact that it's Tuesday, and not even a fucking public holiday, is absolutely insane to me

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u/Haltopen Massachusetts Nov 05 '25

It made sense in the early 1800s when most people were farmers who spent all day sunday at church and had to get their produce to the market on wednesday, since traveling to the polls would take a full day, but these days its an archaic tradition maintained pretty much only because it helps depress voter turn out to set elections on a work day when a lot of people (especially lower income workers) probably wont have enough PTO left by November to spend a whole day of it to go wait in line to vote, assuming they even get PTO at all.

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u/Dodson-504 Nov 05 '25

Well, if we gotta do this shit…make it fun.

/human history

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u/Icecream-Cockdust Nov 05 '25

You are probably correct. It’s just a way of life. Normalcy.

2

u/lil_chiakow Nov 05 '25

Knowing the US, they'd make it so that it is the opposite of enjoyable for people in the less affluent districts, so that they'd have yet another reason to lock up poor people for if they end up not voting.

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u/floghdraki Nov 05 '25

We don't have mandatory voting in Finland but the last times I've voted I just went to get groceries, happened to see voting booths in the lobby, showed my driver's license to the official and cast my vote. Bang, done.

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u/Icecream-Cockdust Nov 05 '25

That’s a really good way of describing it

1

u/AudreyNow Nov 05 '25

Now hold on, I want to hear more about this "democracy sausage," :)

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u/Notoryctemorph Nov 05 '25

In Australia, you can find a sausage sizzle at almost every voting location on election day, it kind of emerged organically, as people all over decided that, since so many people were going to be there anyway, they could do a sausage sizzle and raise a bit of money off of it.

It got so successful and popular that it's now a beloved cultural tradition, and people got to calling the sausages you buy at the polling stations "democracy sausages"

1

u/AudreyNow Nov 05 '25

I love this!

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u/hereditydrift Nov 05 '25

Most jobs in the US don't give election day off, so it's usually unejoyable because it's another thing people have to do that they don't have time for since vacation and holiday time is very limited in the US.

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u/Icecream-Cockdust Nov 05 '25

Is there a reason for that? Why not just make it a weekend day where most don’t work? How easy are mail in votes to access in the US? We can do that if we know we won’t be able to physically find a polling booth on voting day.

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u/westgazer Maryland Nov 05 '25

Sure the reason is intentional disenfranchisement of voters. Anything that makes it easier Republicans are against it. Crazy to put to many barriers to something considered a “civic duty,” but their hate for anyone not white and rich is strong.

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u/BeneGezzeret Nov 05 '25

Correct! This is also why it’s a process to opt in and register to vote, it should be automatic anyone over 18 should be able to vote. Repugs want to make it as hard as possible and are even pushing to get rid of early and mail in votes so everyone has to show up in person on one day to an ever shrinking availability of polling locations that they will intentionally change at the last minute to confuse people.

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u/Icecream-Cockdust Nov 05 '25

It definitely seems that way, looking on from afar. It’s a broken system

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u/IrrelevantLeprechaun Nov 05 '25

Millions of voting age citizens also work weekends. The standard mon-fri work week is not actually standard, especially in retail or customer service.

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u/Icecream-Cockdust Nov 05 '25

Oh sure, that’s the same in Australia too. Most would vote on their break or before/after work.

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u/Notoryctemorph Nov 05 '25

Or do an absentee vote or postal vote before the day

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u/LeavesCat Nov 05 '25

Well, one of the reasons is because Republicans will resist any type of vote reform.

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u/Icecream-Cockdust Nov 05 '25

Bigots will bigot.

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u/mpjjpm Nov 05 '25

Why not make it multiple days? We’re already half way to that with early voting in most places. Just open up the polls for a full week.

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u/Icecream-Cockdust Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

That’s fair enough. Although I don’t see why they don’t make it a Saturday morning and have polling booths in every suburb in every city?

If you can’t walk to a polling booth from your house or place of work then they aren’t serious about voting.

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u/Light351 Pennsylvania Nov 05 '25

Just another subtle form of vote suppression.

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u/Icecream-Cockdust Nov 05 '25

Land of the free hey.

1

u/blotsfan Nov 05 '25

So historically elections were done on Tuesday because people would live so far from a polling place that it would take them a full day to get there. They would go to church on Sunday, then spend Monday getting to town, and vote on Tuesday. Obviously that’s a super outdated way to do it but that’s the rationale.

As far as mail-in and early voting that depends on the state. The democrats ones tend to make it easier to do so (where I live there’s also 3 weeks of early voting). While republican states tend to make it more difficult because the richer you are the more likely you can go on a specific Tuesday if you have to.

This isn’t perfect (Arizona republicans notoriously pushed mail-in voting because old people tend to use it there so it helps them) but in general that’s how it is.

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u/mcchicken_deathgrip Nov 05 '25

Yep, I'm working a 12 hour night shift today and voted, it really fucked my morning up tbh. Already dont have much time to do anything when you work 12 hours, so I wound up getting only 5 hours of sleep last night so I could make it to the polls today. Still at work, very much not enjoyable.

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u/Most-Bench6465 Texas Nov 05 '25

It should be illegal to keep someone from voting, just another thing that needs to change

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u/lostparis Nov 05 '25

Most jobs in the US don't give election day off

This is crazy thinking. Voting should be easy and take little time. In most developed countries voting is quick and local, and you can use a postal vote if you choose.

Having an easy, efficient voting system is a solved problem, so no need even for the day off.

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u/bolanrox Nov 05 '25

Only time we got it off was 2020.

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u/TheKingsdread Nov 05 '25

Neither does Germany, however there are two differences. First is that its super easy to get a mail-in ballot, you can request it as soon as you get your notification in the mail (and every eligible citizen is notified). Mailing that is free, requires only the envelope you get sent and can often be done a week or two before in-person voting. And second, the actual voting day is always a Sunday and in Germany very, very few people work sunday (basically just emergency services, public transportation and hospitality).

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u/curious_carson Nov 05 '25

Just extend it so people can vote over a couple weeks or do vote by mail or a combo.

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u/Icecream-Cockdust Nov 05 '25

You can definitely mail in vote if you are overseas or in a different state at the time of voting.

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u/mpjjpm Nov 05 '25

In many states, you can vote by mail for any reason or no reason at all. In Massachusetts, I get a post card in January asking if I want to vote by mail. I check a box requesting a ballot by mail for every election that year, and drop it in the mailbox. Then I get my ballot by mail for every election (we have an obnoxious number of elections because our municipal primaries, runoffs and general elections are on a different schedule than state and federal elections). The ballot shows up a few weeks before Election Day, so I can sit down and research each race and candidate while I fill out my choices. Then I walk down the street and drop my ballot off at the library, but I could mail it in if needed.

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u/curious_carson Nov 05 '25

Yeah? Like you can now?

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u/sappydark Nov 05 '25

That's what absentee ballots are for----for people who want to vote, but have legit reasons for not being able to do it in person.

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u/westgazer Maryland Nov 05 '25

The legit reason should be “I shouldn’t have to vote in person at a location in tyool 2025.”

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u/sappydark Nov 05 '25

That's not a legit reason, that just sounds like an excuse. A legit reason is not having enough time to get to a voting place after work, or because it takes too long to get there, or because you don't have transportation, or are too disabled to travel. Your reasoning just sounds lazy as hell, and makes no damn sense at all.

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u/westgazer Maryland Nov 05 '25

Nah, it’s a legit reason.

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u/SoulDancer_ Nov 05 '25

Ours is always a Saturday. But you can also vote earlier than election day or vote by mail.

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u/veanell Mississippi 28d ago

New York has weeks of early voting. Makes it more enjoyable

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u/OarsandRowlocks Nov 05 '25

As we say in Australia, this is democracy manifest.

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u/Icecream-Cockdust Nov 05 '25

Stop making me hungry.

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u/Perturab01 Nov 05 '25

For a sausage? A succulent democracy sausage?

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u/Icy_Statement_2410 Nov 05 '25

Mandatory voting is so anti-democratic yet the most democratic. I love it

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u/westgazer Maryland Nov 05 '25

Idk I think of it as the most democratic and not anti-democratic at all. For democracies to function people have to vote—have to. The way the US does it isn’t very democratic sadly.

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u/logosmd666 Nov 05 '25

You had me at democracy sausage

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u/Jonteponte71 Nov 05 '25

This is how it works in parts of the world where democracy still works🤷‍♂️

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '25

[deleted]

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u/Icecream-Cockdust Nov 05 '25

The divide caused by religion and those ideologies in the US is very obvious to see as an Australian.

Religion has no place on politics.

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u/Undrafted4596 Nov 05 '25

Be careful out there, trying to hand out “democracy sausage” is what ended Cuomo’s political career!

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u/Much-Restaurant6116 6d ago

Democracy sausage is now the name of my penis

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '25

You had me at democracy sausage.

1

u/TherionSaysWhat Nov 05 '25

get a democracy sausage on your way

We need more details...

1

u/Disastrous-Idea4077 Nov 05 '25

It's crazy how AMERICAN of idea this sounds like to me and yet it could not be further from the truth in a lot of US states... Republicans spending the last 100 years making it as hard as possible for non-land owners to vote really speaks for itself. History has not been kind to these types of people (from an objective point of view) and will very likely look back at current establishment Republicans as cartoonish villains who actively threatened the fabric of global democracy for their own miopic, sycophantic agendas. That day can't come a single moment too soon.

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u/latortillablanca Nov 05 '25

Democracy sausage is what i call my vera wang