Postal voting

[andrewducker]

[Poll #1562419]

I think that postal voting has real problems - as I've been discussing over here (worth reading the post that's attached to too, it's very interesting).

The basic problem boils down to this - if you're voting from home then there's nothing to stop someone bribing you to vote X, and then sitting behind you while you click the button/write on the form. Similarly, much more social pressure to conform can be exerted. Whereas, if you're voting in a booth then you can say "Yes, I voted X." when actually you voted "Y", no matter how much social pressure is exerted. See The Times article on that link for an example of that kind of pressure being exerted.

Comments

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

> you can say "Yes, I voted X." when actually you voted "Y", no matter how much social pressure is exerted

Well not necessarily. Social pressure is rather powerful even at a distance. Though yes, it's much better than with postal voting and you can't ever eliminate that.

[andrewducker]

Absolutely. Most people aren't great liars, and social pressure is hard to shake off even if you're not directly influenced at any particular moment (witness all the people who vote for X because that's what their parents did, and their grandparents before them).