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[–] 2 points 1 hour ago* (5 children)

I'm not American myself and so certainly am not motivated by driving down participation by "people the GOP don't want voting". I was talking about democracies in general, not specifically the US.

I would have thought my talking point would be a left-wing one that acknowledges that people sometimes face economic or other pressure by people with power over them, and there needs to be a system that reduces the impact of this. Denying that this can ever happen sounds like that's the "right-wing talking point" to me, tbh. In fact, I would expect the problem I mentioned to affect more left-wing votes than right-wing ones because employers might want their employees to vote for right-wing parties while the employees might want to vote for left-wing ones; but that is beside the point, my opinion would be the same if that weren't the case.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 hour ago (1 child)

    The problem is that the in the US the right wing has claimed there was fraud with mail in voting. This means that if anyone mentions the issues with mail in voting they are assumed of doing the same thing.

    No matter whether you are left or right, mail in (or god forbid online voting) is an horribly bad idea. The whole voting process should be transparent and visible from casting your vote (or someone elses) to seeing it counted. That is not possible with mail in voting so it allows for possible fraud (or even the suggestion of fraud as we see in the US).

    Someone mentioned unique barcodes on ballots, great now you have eliminated voting anonymity.

    Yes, voter suppression is a real issue mail in voting can help against, but IMO mandatory voting is the better solution.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 hour ago

    Where I live (Austria), voting by mail is possible, but not the default. People who want to do it need to apply for it and sign that they will be unable to vote in person, for example due to being absent or for medical reasons. I don't think anyone actually verifies this though, the voter is taken at their word that that's the case.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

    I get what you're trying to say, but the other person just pointed out there are safe guards for people that feel threatened by a spouse or family.

    What I don't get is why you keep bringing up the employer thing. The ballot is sent to you home and you can drop it off without ever interacting with work. If your boss tells you to vote a certain way then lie to them, while you look for a new job and report they're ass for vote cohesion after you section a new job.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 hour ago (1 child)

    If your boss tells you to vote a certain way then lie to them

    The pressure might be to fill out the ballot at the workplace. I agree that if that happens, it should be reported and the person exercising that pressure prosecuted.

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