I recently posted a piece at American Thinker that examines the growing phenomenon of voter intimidation in personal relationships. It's an especially prevalent tactic by leftists. I felt compelled to write the piece when I saw a young woman gush on TikTok about how she and her sisters hectored their dying father so that he would vote for Biden/Harris instead of Trump/Pence:
All people of good will should be aghast at such abuse of a father's love. This also serves as a reminder that our tradition of secret ballot needs to be revived, if only to cut back on behavior like that. It’s possible the father voted in secret even though he felt he needed to tell his daughters he voted for their preferred candidate. Nevertheless, we ought to consider the potential for more of this if we go to universal mail-in voting -- whereby official ballots will always arrive in shared mailboxes of households where dominant personalities can hold sway over others. You can read my whole piece at this link: "How Mail-In Voting Makes Social Pressure so Much Easier."
Whether we cast our ballots in person or by mail, on election day or early, we ought to think deeply about the sacred nature of the secret ballot. Let's ponder how changes in our electoral processes are destroying the ability to vote one's conscience in the privacy of a voting booth. Sadly, in states like Oregon, citizens no longer even have the option to cast an official ballot in a voting booth at a local precinct. They must receive and cast their ballot in the mail.
The trend towards universal mail-in ballots will definitely allow for more voter intimidation in addition to more potential for voter fraud. Will the voting booth eventually disappear if more states go postal with voting? It seems likely, and that would be a very bad thing.
Let's also remember: Unless you wish to willingly express whom you're voting for, nobody has a right to know how you vote. Nobody.
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