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Just yesterday a plan for a mail-in election was scrapped in Poland. It was an extremely rushed thing (the voting was to happen this Sunday), but from what I un

Just yesterday a plan for a mail-in election was scrapped in Poland. It was an extremely rushed thing (the voting was to happen this Sunday), but from what I understand, the plan was to at least have designated mailboxes. This would allow to somewhat track what happens with the ballots. A giant post service's delivery operation was stopped at the last moment. I haven't seen the concerns about secrecy of voting, and voting for other people in your house, properly addressed. Now the ruling party promises work on "better regulations" before the actual presidential election. I'm really curious how Americans will handle all this. Generally, I'm very skeptical about all cute ideas that complicate voting and may introduce doubts about its legitimacy. The whole point of a vote is that the elected people have a strong title to whatever prerogatives they have.

fossuser 6y ago
California has had mail in voting for years. This is just extending it to everyone by default.
- stereolambda 6y ago
  This (partial mail-in voting) also has been available in many European countries, but you had to qualify e.g. with a physical disability. I think when there is fewer of such votes, it can be easier to ensure that they are legitimate and pay attention to the procedures. You know to expect only a few of them, for example. I've also heard about postal voting in Britain producing many problems when there were wider experiments with it[1]. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/apr/05/politics.localgovernment https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/apr/05/politics.localgov...
  - jlmorton 6y ago
    Well, California had 8.5 million mail-in ballots in the last national election, 65% of the total. Mail-in voting in California was available to everyone even before this, not just to people meeting special criteria. This just makes it the default.
    - stereolambda 6y ago
      I was interested about the source, and apparently you can check these numbers here[1]. I don't say that this solves the problems for me, but an interesting statistic nonetheless. Seems like another example of American politics being very different. [1] https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/historical-absentee/ https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/historical-absentee/
      - atomi 6y ago
        It's California in this case but not every state allows this. Some states, for example, will make you wait in long lines in the middle of a global pandemic just to vote.

fossuser 6y ago

California has had mail in voting for years. This is just extending it to everyone by default.

stereolambda 6y ago
This (partial mail-in voting) also has been available in many European countries, but you had to qualify e.g. with a physical disability. I think when there is fewer of such votes, it can be easier to ensure that they are legitimate and pay attention to the procedures. You know to expect only a few of them, for example. I've also heard about postal voting in Britain producing many problems when there were wider experiments with it[1]. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/apr/05/politics.localgovernment https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/apr/05/politics.localgov...
- jlmorton 6y ago
  Well, California had 8.5 million mail-in ballots in the last national election, 65% of the total. Mail-in voting in California was available to everyone even before this, not just to people meeting special criteria. This just makes it the default.
  - stereolambda 6y ago
    I was interested about the source, and apparently you can check these numbers here[1]. I don't say that this solves the problems for me, but an interesting statistic nonetheless. Seems like another example of American politics being very different. [1] https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/historical-absentee/ https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/historical-absentee/
    - atomi 6y ago
      It's California in this case but not every state allows this. Some states, for example, will make you wait in long lines in the middle of a global pandemic just to vote.