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Washington state does all its voting by mail now, which is good in a way because it means all the ballots are on paper and subject to verification, but it's vul
by ksenzee 10y ago
Washington state does all its voting by mail now, which is good in a way because it means all the ballots are on paper and subject to verification, but it's vulnerable to all the voter influence problems you just listed.
(It also reduces voting from an in-person civic ritual to just one more form you get in the mail and have to fill out and mail back, like paying a bill. But that's a whole separate problem.)
- AnimalMuppet 10y agoCould you clarify why you think not voting in person is a problem?
- ksenzee 10y agoJust what I said: Voting in person is a ritual. You can take your kids with you and show them the foundation of our democracy, right there at your local polling place. Doing things in person has a different psychological effect. Whether or not that's enough of a problem to outweigh all the benefits of voting by mail, I don't know. It certainly lowers the actual barriers to voting: You don't need time off work to drop an envelope in a mailbox. But I do worry about the loss of ritual, and what it will do to voter engagement over a few decades.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]