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Mail-In Ballots Violate the Secret Ballot Requirement for Full Democracy
Does anyone really deny that there are a lot of household members filling out each others’ mail-in ballots?
Can anyone actually deny that with mail-in ballots, even if someone else does not fill out your ballot, that household members of yours can see what you mark on your mail-in ballot and bully you into voting their way, not yours?
Of course all of this is happening, and almost certainly on a massive scale. There is no way to readily prove that these behaviors are occurring, though, because it all happens within the legally-protected privacy of one’s home.
These behaviors, though, are not healthy for democracy. They subvert democracy because they violate the secret ballot requirement by allowing mass coercion within the household and by creating a space in which democracy-abusing members can fill out the ballots of others in their household who are unable or unwilling to prevent such illegitimate double voting.
Mail-in ballots also permit ballot harvesting. Ballot harvesting can sound legitimate, but again, it violates the secret ballot. An activist can physically approach a target, manipulate and cajole the target into marking the target’s ballot the way the activist wants, and then the activist can collect all such ballots and transport them…
