I see this come up a lot in discussions about voting in America. Postal votes disproportionately go to Democrats, hence the Democrats want to expand postal voting while Republicans want to restrict it (and insist there is totally a bunch of fraud going on).

I’ve googled with a few search engines and haven’t found a convincing reason. Lots of evidence that the skew is real, but no explanation as to why. Indeed, if one just looks at demographics, one would expect postal voting to benefit Republicans by facilitating votes from people in the countryside who live far away from voting centers.

So what actually gives?

  • RoidingOldMan@lemmy.world
    44·
    2 days ago

    States with Republican control also have weird rules limiting number of polling places. Sometimes it’s like “1 polling location per county” where a rural county of 5,000 does just fine with 1 polling location. But then a city with millions of people also gets 1. The goal is to create lines around the block in cities, where people will simply give up rather than vote. Cities favor Democrats, so Republicans try to limit voter turnout in cities.

    Voting by mail completely eliminates these artificial hurdles.

    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
      2·
      15 hours ago

      also eliminating polling times to a few days, deregister people who allegedly dint vote for the past few elections, voting purges. and the new favorite is the ever oppressive voter ID, which isnt even a thing in a blue state.

    • kurcatovium@piefed.socialEnglish
      8·
      1 day ago

      WTF? Is this true? That’s insane! My mid/east European village with 2,5k people (including children) has 4 polling locations so nobody can argue it’s too far for them. It’s also possible to register yourself beforehand and than you can vote wherever you want (either inside the country or at embassy abroad).

      • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
        2·
        15 hours ago

        in blue areas, polling stations are all over the place. in blue cities you have an option of dropping it a polling box like a mail box, or go to any polling station, i think some residents have been doing the community by having a polling area in thier house area, and some community center, libraries do the same.

        red states remove all these options. in blue area you can register right there and vote too. red states you have register in weeks or months in advance, plus they can purge whenever they can.