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I’m honestly baffled why people are against mail in voting. I moved to a new city in 2014. Since then, I receive a ballot in the mail for every election that pe

I’m honestly baffled why people are against mail in voting. I moved to a new city in 2014. Since then, I receive a ballot in the mail for every election that pertains to me. They always also send a little booklet that has information on each candidate and sort of their self published platform. Because of that, I’m certainly now participating in even the local elections that otherwise would fly under the radar... I mean I wouldn’t take time off work for them probably. It feels like voter suppression to me, especially since we know that a lot of liberal leaning folks have “opinions” but don’t necessarily vote. To be clear — I describe myself as moderate. I’m more fiscally conservative but liberal on social issues.

colejohnson66 6y ago
The supposed concern is vote fraud
aphextron 6y ago
> I’m honestly baffled why people are against mail in voting. Because it's bad for their side. Mail in voting massively improves Democratic turnout for a lot of reasons. And when Democrats actually turn out, they win every time. It's the same reason they support gerrymandering and voter ID laws. It has nothing to do with what's "fair" or "democratic" and everything to do with ensuring their ideology doesn't have to hold up in an actual fair election.
- gumby 6y ago
  Despite several studies there’s no evidence that mail in voting favors one party over another.
  - 37474783rur 6y ago
    What key words or journals should I look into if I want to read more about this? It's hard to filter out the noise machines blasting in every direction.
    - gumby 6y ago
      On both fraud and bias: Here’s the Brookline’s Institute, a pretty neutral bunch, on fraud: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/06/02/low-rates-of-fraud-in-vote-by-mail-states-show-the-benefits-outweigh-the-risks/ https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/06/02/low-rates-o... Some analysis from first principles on both fraud and bias: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/there-is-no-evidence-that-voting-by-mail-gives-one-party-an-advantage/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/there-is-no-evidence-th... This non partisan group did detailed analysis of two elections, all of Colorado in 2014 and of Utah in 2016 looking at turnout and bias. https://voteathome.org/ https://voteathome.org/ If you want more academic work there’s quite a bit of it done by economics and political science profs. Just search for “mail vote bias”
  - lightlyused 6y ago
    It could be said that it is harder to suppress the vote of the other party when everybody has equal access through mail in voting.
dingaling 6y ago
> I’m honestly baffled why people are against mail in voting. It's a system that is easily abused. Traditionally, where I grew up, the problem with postal voting was voter intimidation. Recipients would be told by 'community leaders' to bring their ballot papers to a central location where they were completed en masse with the 'correct' choices made and sent back. Those who declined were physically assaulted. Even on a less organised scale it is open to the 'head of household' telling the others how to vote.
- djaque 6y ago
  > Those who declined were physically assaulted. Anecdotes aren't the same as data and that story certainly doesn't characterize the general practice of mail in voting. Do you have any data on your claim that organized voter intimidation is a widespread problem? Surely something as extraordinary as that would receive major media attention. All the stories I can find are of basically white supremacy group intimidating black voters at in person voting locations.
- sukilot 6y ago
  These are valid concerns. Group voting today is easy to combat with phone cameras and social media, though. But on the third hard, all parts of the political compass are showing that when crime becomes a national pastime, it's impossible to stop most of it. Head of household voting is a problem, especially with candidates with large differences in support by gender in cohabitating couples. But accessibility of polling centers is also a problem (for which the only possible excuse is corruption. Trillions of dollars for war machine but almost none for securing the democracy the war machine is supposed to be defending.)
djaque 6y ago
> I’m honestly baffled why people are against mail in voting. President Trump has explained that the GOP is hurt when it's easier to vote [1]. There are political incentives to make voting difficult. [1]https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/30/trump-voting-republicans/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/30/trump-vot...

colejohnson66 6y ago

The supposed concern is vote fraud

aphextron 6y ago

> I’m honestly baffled why people are against mail in voting. Because it's bad for their side. Mail in voting massively improves Democratic turnout for a lot of reasons. And when Democrats actually turn out, they win every time. It's the same reason they support gerrymandering and voter ID laws. It has nothing to do with what's "fair" or "democratic" and everything to do with ensuring their ideology doesn't have to hold up in an actual fair election.

gumby 6y ago
Despite several studies there’s no evidence that mail in voting favors one party over another.
- 37474783rur 6y ago
  What key words or journals should I look into if I want to read more about this? It's hard to filter out the noise machines blasting in every direction.
  - gumby 6y ago
    On both fraud and bias: Here’s the Brookline’s Institute, a pretty neutral bunch, on fraud: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/06/02/low-rates-of-fraud-in-vote-by-mail-states-show-the-benefits-outweigh-the-risks/ https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/06/02/low-rates-o... Some analysis from first principles on both fraud and bias: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/there-is-no-evidence-that-voting-by-mail-gives-one-party-an-advantage/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/there-is-no-evidence-th... This non partisan group did detailed analysis of two elections, all of Colorado in 2014 and of Utah in 2016 looking at turnout and bias. https://voteathome.org/ https://voteathome.org/ If you want more academic work there’s quite a bit of it done by economics and political science profs. Just search for “mail vote bias”
- lightlyused 6y ago
  It could be said that it is harder to suppress the vote of the other party when everybody has equal access through mail in voting.

dingaling 6y ago

> I’m honestly baffled why people are against mail in voting. It's a system that is easily abused. Traditionally, where I grew up, the problem with postal voting was voter intimidation. Recipients would be told by 'community leaders' to bring their ballot papers to a central location where they were completed en masse with the 'correct' choices made and sent back. Those who declined were physically assaulted. Even on a less organised scale it is open to the 'head of household' telling the others how to vote.

djaque 6y ago
> Those who declined were physically assaulted. Anecdotes aren't the same as data and that story certainly doesn't characterize the general practice of mail in voting. Do you have any data on your claim that organized voter intimidation is a widespread problem? Surely something as extraordinary as that would receive major media attention. All the stories I can find are of basically white supremacy group intimidating black voters at in person voting locations.
sukilot 6y ago
These are valid concerns. Group voting today is easy to combat with phone cameras and social media, though. But on the third hard, all parts of the political compass are showing that when crime becomes a national pastime, it's impossible to stop most of it. Head of household voting is a problem, especially with candidates with large differences in support by gender in cohabitating couples. But accessibility of polling centers is also a problem (for which the only possible excuse is corruption. Trillions of dollars for war machine but almost none for securing the democracy the war machine is supposed to be defending.)

djaque 6y ago

> I’m honestly baffled why people are against mail in voting. President Trump has explained that the GOP is hurt when it's easier to vote [1]. There are political incentives to make voting difficult. [1]https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/30/trump-voting-republicans/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/30/trump-vot...