• SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    Unpopular opinion: Mail in voting shouldn’t be a thing except in extraordinary circumstances like a pandemic.

    There’s a reason for having a secret ballot. People can vote their conscious without fear of any repercussions from members of their community that might disagree with them.

    Imagine a woman not really liking a party that wants to take away her rights. Her husband is a strong supporter of that party. That woman may vote differently if it’s done privately rather than having to fill out a mail in ballot at the kitchen table with her husband looking over her shoulder.

    Sure it’s a pain in the ass to have to go to polling station, but in that location it can be ensured that everyone is voting privately and how they vote is kept secret from everyone.

    • sandbox@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I get your point, but I think if you weigh up the pros and cons, it’s really not a strong enough justification.

      You could make the same justification to get rid of online banking, for example - and I’d say that a controlling partner can cause much more harm with control over finances than over voting - but hopefully the counter-argument comes clearer into focus from that example.

    • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Thats incredibly dumb take. I have voted mail in for every election in my entire life, for 26 years. Never had an issue and I have only missed a single local election that was fairly inconsequential. Its nice having 2-3 weeks to figure out how you want to vote.

      My office does not allow people to take time off for voting. After seeing people on cnn who were in line at a poll for 16 hours waiting to vote 4 hours from their house, it seems absolutely insane not to do mail in. Unless the goal is to prevent people from voting, that is.