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I think elections should be held by mail, so that people can vote on whatever day they damn well please. Some states already do it that way.
by gaur 10y ago
I think elections should be held by mail, so that people can vote on whatever day they damn well please. Some states already do it that way.
- seszett 10y agoThis would be much more difficult to make anonymous (though not impossible), add quite a few middlemen, and prevent you from being sure your vote has actually been counted and not tampered with, though. I like putting a piece of paper in a box very much (and elections are always on Sundays in France so you don't have to choose between this and your job).
- finnn 10y agoIn Washington State in the US the only way to vote AFAIK is by mail. You can go online and monitor your ballot through the processing steps after it's been dropped off.
- dsp1234 10y agoOregon votes by mail, and I've generally been happy with it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vote-by-mail_in_Oregon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vote-by-mail_in_Oregon
- sxcurry 10y agoAgreed - simple, accurate, and allows lots of private time to read the ballot document and make decisions. I'm not sure why more states don't adopt vote by mail.
- madeofpalk 10y agoWait, this isn't universal in the US? In Australia I went into a prepolling station and voted a week early. Of course, compulsory voting definitely means things like these are required, but it never struck me that other countries wouldn't have the ability to prepoll
- oh_sigh 10y agoVoting is a state issue, not a federal one. So, some states support and encourage voting by mail, some don't.
- mjevans 10y agoI agree, you /should/ be required to vote. It is fulfillment of your civic duty. Though you should be free to submit a ballot of as little as a single mark (the mark being that you abstain from all contests on the ballot). If you vote in any single one you'd need to complete the rest, to ensure you ballot cannot be tampered with later.
- anotherevan 10y agoIn theory voting is compulsory. In practice it is compulsory to show up and get your name marked off. What you do after that in the little booth with just your conscious and a pen is up to you. (I usually take the pen, that's all I've ever got out of politics.)
- cyphar 10y ago> In theory voting is compulsory. In practice it is compulsory to show up and get your name marked off. Since we have a secret ballot, it would be unenforceable for them to say that you had to submit a valid ballot. > What you do after that in the little booth with just your conscious and a pen is up to you. (I usually take the pen, that's all I've ever got out of politics.) Odd, my voting place last election only had pencils. I carried a pen with me (voting with a pencil is asking for trouble).
- cyphar 10y agoYou can do that in Australia. To be fair, they call them "invalid" votes and they group your vote with other votes that are not correctly filled in. Since we have a secret ballot and compulsory voting, abstaining from a vote can be done by submitting a blank ballot.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- wtbob 10y agoThe problem with mail-in ballots is that they can be (and often are) mailed in well before all the facts of the election are there.