Beet Voting Reform Act

[StevenNick]

My fear is that absentee voting will introduce an unnecessary complication into the elections.  I'd like to keep elections on the forum as simple as possible.  At the very least I'd like to hear from Beet about how he plans on executing this amendment.  Where will the absentee ballots be sent?  Who will count them?  At what point can ballots be filled out?  How is absentee voting any different than simply extending the regular voting period?

[Beet]

My fear is that absentee voting will introduce an unnecessary complication into the elections.  I'd like to keep elections on the forum as simple as possible.  At the very least I'd like to hear from Beet about how he plans on executing this amendment.  Where will the absentee ballots be sent?  Who will count them?  At what point can ballots be filled out?  How is absentee voting any different than simply extending the regular voting period?

The reason it is called absentee voting is because the person in question will be absent during the general election. Otherwise it will be like an early vote and be counted the same way as the other votes. As stated in the legislation there will be a thread for this, which will be set up when the deadline for filing ends. This is different from extending the regular voting period because it will only be allowed for people who absolutely have a conflict during the weekend time and cannot be here at that time. To settle this we will of course have to extend trust to our forum members, that they are telling the truth about their schedule, but in any case there is no obvious incentive besides convenience of early voting. This does not make the process of voting for the individual more complicated for the regular voter, and will not affect 99% of voters. But it does allow the individual to vote early if they will not be able to access their computer due to a weekend long engagement.  

[StevenNick]

Unless these absentee votes are somehow kept private, I will not vote for this bill.  Public absentee voting would only have the effect of opening the polls days early.  I fear that some voters may be influenced by the early returns among absentee votes and cast their ballot accordingly.  By only opening the polls at the appointed times, this can be minimized.

[Beet]

I do not think this will cause people to change their vote. If someone wanted to influence others by their view, they can and do endorse a candidate early on already, making it clear who they will vote for. Given that this can be accompanied by a speech, it is the most effective way to boost a candidate among others. The absentee vote option will only apply to people who will not be online and not be posting during the regular weekend election. Most of our members will (and will want to) be online over the weekend election, and this will not apply to them. Additionally, it will be well known which way a large majority of voters will vote in any case.