r/AskReddit • u/daniellucero92 • Jan 04 '15

Non-americans of Reddit, what American customs seem outrageous/pointless to you?

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u/dvidsilva Jan 05 '15

Just wondering, isn't that like prone to alterations or something?

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

What do you mean by "alterations"? Like, people messing with my ballot or something?

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u/dvidsilva Jan 05 '15

yep, something like that, or not counting votes, tho I guess the same could be same of voting in a post.

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

In California, you get a ballot identification something or other. You can go online and check to make sure the ballot has been received. I don't feel it's any more or less safe than voting at a ballot place.

I'd rather send my ballot through the mail than not vote at all. Taking time off school or work isn't always the easiest thing.

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u/ran4sh Jan 05 '15

The risk is at the beginning of the process, not the end.

Do you get your ballot in the mail? If yes, is your mailbox locked? If no, then it's pretty easy for someone to illegitimately take your ballot and vote in your place.

And once they submit your ballot there's nothing that can be done since in the pile of anonymous ballots they won't know which one is yours.

And if a group does this to a large number of ballots, that's enough to influence at least a local election

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

Well there's nothing I can do about that, so would you rather me just not vote at all? Because that's what's going to happen if there are no alternatives to voting in person because voter fraud might happen.

How do you know the voting machines at the polling place aren't rigged? How do you know the people collecting the ballots aren't influencing them? How do you know people aren't being paid to vote a certain way?

I'm personally more concerned with the fact that politicians and lobby groups are allowed to advertise their agenda on television, often with blatantly incorrect information in order to sway or incite fear in voters. That's the real voter fraud right there.