Random Post Election Thoughts

[hi_im_god]

Originally Posted by GenuineRisk

A big part of it is the right to secret ballot. Here in NY, I learned yesterday, it's actually illegal to show other people your ballot- a lot of people were taking pictures and posting to Facebook, not knowing it's against the law to do so (The legal thinking is that your vote is your vote, and showing other people how you voted could be interpreted as an attempt to influence other people's votes). Standing in line, filling out a ballot, it would be impossible to keep your vote secret. I waited an hour at 8:30 AM at my place, and there was an issue with where they placed one of the lines of people because it was within sight of the booths where you filled out your ballot and that was violating the voters' right to privacy.

I do think that states where voters are voting on referendums could save time by mailing text of the referendums out to registered voters so that voters could decide what they are voting on before they get there. Or, if the lines are long, hand out the text to people standing in line. I've occasionally gotten to the booth to find out there's a referendum and then had to take the time to read the thing, all the while feeling terrible that I'm holding up the line.

Rachel Maddow ran a piece a month or so ago on how the California ballot was some ridiculous length- several pages- because of all the referendums on it.

the bigger concern is vote buying. if you're paid to vote a certain way the picture could be the proof to collect your payment.

the california ballot wasn't that bad. maddow was probably referencing florida.

btw, after this election the home of ronald reagan has no statewide elected officials who are republican and a 2/3 democratic majority in both the state assembly and state senate. prior to the election there it was thought the senate might possible get a 2/3 majority but the assembly is a complete surprise.

it's been an amazing 18 year decline since the california republican party tied themselves to an anti-immigrant stance with prop 187. they will literally be almost meaningless in statewide politics for the next 2 years.