> Difficult to politically oppress wide swaths of the population on a person by person basis In the Brazilian Old Republic (pre-1930), that was widely practice

> Difficult to politically oppress wide swaths of the population on a person by person basis In the Brazilian Old Republic (pre-1930), that was widely practiced. Historians call it "voto de cabresto" (loosely translated to "halter vote"). > why not simply oppress entire regions? That's what in Brazil is called a "curral eleitoral" ("electoral corral"). The latter still exists and I imagine exists in many countries. Its effectiveness is highly curbed with anonymous voting though. In the Old Republic, where voting was not anonymous, the electoral corral combined with the halter vote meant very few people were free to vote according to their wish. Local oppression is a powerful tool.