Because there's no longer the threat of gallows and guillotines. But in the United States of Capitalism, pretending there's ultimate freedom is what's needed to keep the racket going.

The appearance of legitimacy. Even in Russia they're still holding elections, while blatantly stuffing ballots on camera and jailing opposition candidates, but for whatever reason, they still continue with the sham of the elections because it makes it more "official". I kind of scratch my head at it too, it's like, "None of this is real, why are you even bothering with the charade?" I guess just having a smidge of a process gives true believers something to point to, no matter how small, something that justifies the whole thing.

I hate living in a state artificially turned red. Like it might be magenta or something without this bullshit.

This is always my go-to fact about Ohio, but I usually go with "Ohio has the most astronauts because anyone there with sense will try to get away as far as humanly possible."

Republicans: "We've reviewed your request for technical support and have found the system to be working as intended. This ticket has been closed."

When one state doesn’t get to have a functioning electoral process, none do.