The Vote’s In the Mail?
Wow, the Inquirer must have known I was in a mood to write about voting, because they have an article about a state representative who wants to hold hearings on instituting a vote-by-mail system.
I’ve written before about why I think the current one-day-of-voting plan doesn’t work so well. But I will note that in the Inquirer article, a task force claimed that there was a communal value in having in-person voting on a particular day.
You gotta be kidding me. If you’re lucky, you walk up to a polling place, fend off a bunch of people trying to give you endorsement ballots, vote, and get out. If you’re unlucky, you have to wait in line because there aren’t enough machines, the machines are broken, the ballot’s too confusing, there are too many questions, etc. etc. Some people enjoy this communal value so much that they don’t vote at all! What fun!
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.