Nice!
I still find it weird that voting by mail is not more common in the US (and other countries). Here in Switzerland, 90% of votes are done by mail and it works great.
this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2024
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I’m Swiss too (dual citizen with US) haha. And yeah man it’s so much easier to just get the letter without even needing to register to vote or whatever. Automatically get it when you turn 18 and an election comes up.
Each state has their own little constitution. West coast states have it built in that ballot measures are by the people, for the people, and honored by the state, so The People can fix or add things at the state level. Other states rely entirely on the legislature.
Voting setup and enforcement is a state thing, that in federal elections then gets handed to the fed for certification.
Voting is only done by mail in Oregon. I love it!
Every state I've lived in has had vote by mail. I've never voted at a polling place because of the convenience of vote by mail.
Is there a reason for such a high proportion?
We have mail as an option here (our province in Canada is having an election this month), but quite a lot of people go and vote in person either on the day or on one of the early voting days
No downside to either option, just curious about the history behind it
First introduced in the late 1970s as an effort to boost low voter turnout, postal voting was anchored in Swiss law in 1994. By 2006, all 26 cantons had introduced functioning systems.
“It works well, so there’s not much debate about it,” says Uwe Serdült, a political scientist at the University of Zurich. Cantons report that around 90% of citizens now vote by post, and some have reported figures up to 97% (Aargau, 2017). There were debates about security in the early years of postal voting, Serdült says – as there are now around e-voting. But over the years it has been accepted, largely due to the high levels of trust in Switzerland – “vis-à-vis the state, and in the postal system”.
Something that I've heard recently that's made me rethink voting by mail as a common practice. It's very common for a head-of-household husband to be more passionate/insistent on how they vote than their wife. It's also very common for the husband to vote one way (Republican) than the wife (Democrat).
It would be much easier to coerce (even mildly) while voting from home than at a confidential voting booth.
I really miss the Voter Handbook with all the information I could need about laws or propositions, the candidates in the ballot, where and how to register, and I think where to vote.
The full text of laws and props are present along with calculated 10 year cost, and a statement from proponents and a rebuttal to that statement from opponents, and a statement from opponents accompanied by proponents' rebuttal. For candidates, they submit statements which are usually a brief biography and things they say they support and oppose, why they're running, and whatever else they think is important. There's a sample ballot showing exactly what you'll see on election day. It tells you how to register and where to go, about provisional ballots, mail-in ballots. It was such a fantastic resource.
Here in Texas, it isn't easy finding information about the candidates besides their names and party. For any laws, good luck finding anything except for the name the dang thing. The plain text will be buried in a messy state website with nothing else presented. It's like they don't want us to know a damn thing about who or what we're voting for.
I wonder why it's been made so difficult to learn about what exactly you're voting for?
Weird.
I don't always read all the info but I follow the money, so for instance anything "Howard Jarvis" is for, I'm against. Can you at least find out what groups or people endorsed your various choices in Texas?
Hah, voted last night, saw his name on 3 props.
Just so you know, he's been dead for years, but the Association continues in his name to keep money in the clutches of landlords and property owners, rather than let any go towards support for those in need. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Jarvis
Yeah, think we voted against them, they were all pretty skeezy.
Low and medium income housing my ass.
The West coast has it figured out. Though I’m in awe of Australia as well.
Congratulations! Hoping you voted for the choice that doesn’t make fun of people with disabilities. Either way, congrats you voting-voter you! 💪
I voted for the ones who treat me like shit but let me stay alive and want to keep it that way.
Instead of the ones threatening to let me rot homeless in the streets until I die.
What! Can't leave the bed! How will your employer survive if you don't return to the office 1.5hrs away and collaborate 5 days a week?
I’m mute, deaf, mostly paralysed and have strict cognitive limitations. I can’t work.
I can’t work.
And you (and everyone else) shouldn't HAVE to. There's enough automation and technology to make it so that nearly all of society's needs could be met with a handful of hours of work from people who are able and driven to do so.
I hope you are able to engage in creative or other activities that bring you joy and fulfillment, despite your limitations. If you are not, due to lack of assistive device or other means, please communicate it. There are communities here and a lot of users like myself that would be happy to try to help.
Agreed but that’s beside the point. I’m able to spend maybe 15-30 minutes a day on my phone. And apart from that I spend the rest of the day tubefed and unable to open my eyes.
If I “HAD” to work, I wouldn’t “force myself” because I cannot, I would die of starvation or whatever comes first when I run out of money.
You could always become a prostitute, for a lot of people you just have to lay there anyway, and you get laid all the time
🤜🤛
Yup. got mine but some bar association reports are not updated yet along with stuff on the water reclamation district so I still have half of it to fill out. mail ballets are the bomb.