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Without proof that you voted a certain way, people are unlikely to pay you. That's why some states don't allow you to take a picture of a ballot that you fille

Without proof that you voted a certain way, people are unlikely to pay you. That's why some states don't allow you to take a picture of a ballot that you filled out. They're trying to prevent you from confirming that you voted a certain way.

criddell 7y ago
First, why shouldn't I be allowed to sell or trade my vote? Secondly, there are states where you can vote by mail. Do you know if vote selling is a big problem in those states?
- Frondo 7y ago
  I lived in Oregon--which has had exclusively vote by mail for decades--for a while and never heard anyone bring up vote selling as a risk to election integrity. No one (journalists, legislators, etc) ever claimed it was happening. The state republican party still makes occasional claims of voter fraud, but those are exceedingly rare -- something like 54 ballots out of 4 million in the 2016 election cycle -- and they mostly come down to people voting in Oregon and in another state at the same time. The only reported case of election fraud I can remember was in 2016 and done by a republican, in which she tossed out a bunch of democratic voter ballots. That's it. For two decades of elections, Oregon hasn't had a problem with election integrity. They do, however, have a consistently high turnout, which they attribute to vote-by-mail.
  - monocasa 7y ago
    Oregon has a scheme to allow you to replace your mailed in ballot is why. And this is a real issue, vote buying and cohersion has historically been the most common voter fraud mechanism in the US. It's a major part of how the Boss Tweed and his associates ran New York.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- na85 7y ago
  >First, why shouldn't I be allowed to sell or trade my vote? It's not about you selling your vote, it's about coercion. If your vote is verifiable, then you can be threatened with bodily harm for not voting a certain way, and/or for failing to verify that you voted a certain way. Your freedom to sell your vote is worth less than someone's freedom to vote free of intimidation or threat of violence.
- chowells 7y ago
  In the two states with vote-by-mail I've lived in, you can always hand-submit a paper ballot that takes precedence over your mailed one. The only way someone could be sure you voted one particular way is to monitor your actions for 100% of the time after you mailed the ballot. This is less ideal than voting in person for everyone, as it still has failure cases like sufficiently abusive relationships. But it's an overall improvement over the previous system. Significantly more of the population votes in practice, making the vote a better measure of the ever-nebulous "will of the people".
lawn 7y ago
Record a video of you voting. It's pretty easy to conceal it if you want to. Or have a person follow you and see what you do. Which would've worked all times I've voted here in Sweden.
- monocasa 7y ago
  That's not really scalable though. A few people might be able to get away with those schemes, but a few people generally isn't enough to swing an election.

criddell 7y ago

First, why shouldn't I be allowed to sell or trade my vote? Secondly, there are states where you can vote by mail. Do you know if vote selling is a big problem in those states?

Frondo 7y ago
I lived in Oregon--which has had exclusively vote by mail for decades--for a while and never heard anyone bring up vote selling as a risk to election integrity. No one (journalists, legislators, etc) ever claimed it was happening. The state republican party still makes occasional claims of voter fraud, but those are exceedingly rare -- something like 54 ballots out of 4 million in the 2016 election cycle -- and they mostly come down to people voting in Oregon and in another state at the same time. The only reported case of election fraud I can remember was in 2016 and done by a republican, in which she tossed out a bunch of democratic voter ballots. That's it. For two decades of elections, Oregon hasn't had a problem with election integrity. They do, however, have a consistently high turnout, which they attribute to vote-by-mail.
- monocasa 7y ago
  Oregon has a scheme to allow you to replace your mailed in ballot is why. And this is a real issue, vote buying and cohersion has historically been the most common voter fraud mechanism in the US. It's a major part of how the Boss Tweed and his associates ran New York.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
na85 7y ago
>First, why shouldn't I be allowed to sell or trade my vote? It's not about you selling your vote, it's about coercion. If your vote is verifiable, then you can be threatened with bodily harm for not voting a certain way, and/or for failing to verify that you voted a certain way. Your freedom to sell your vote is worth less than someone's freedom to vote free of intimidation or threat of violence.
chowells 7y ago
In the two states with vote-by-mail I've lived in, you can always hand-submit a paper ballot that takes precedence over your mailed one. The only way someone could be sure you voted one particular way is to monitor your actions for 100% of the time after you mailed the ballot. This is less ideal than voting in person for everyone, as it still has failure cases like sufficiently abusive relationships. But it's an overall improvement over the previous system. Significantly more of the population votes in practice, making the vote a better measure of the ever-nebulous "will of the people".

lawn 7y ago

Record a video of you voting. It's pretty easy to conceal it if you want to. Or have a person follow you and see what you do. Which would've worked all times I've voted here in Sweden.

monocasa 7y ago
That's not really scalable though. A few people might be able to get away with those schemes, but a few people generally isn't enough to swing an election.