# Spousal Voting Behavior should be Analyzed **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 26, 2022, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spousal-voting-behavior-should-be-analyzed/961746 "2022-03-26T14:40:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spousal-voting-behavior-should-be-analyzed/961746/101 "2022-03-30T20:46:46Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Likewise, the US was creating biolabs in Ukraine to force a war and further improve sales of military weapons to foreign nations. There’s clearly no other purpose and it’s inconceivable otherwise. You’re hijacking your own thread, and I don’t think you should. But in the interests of fighting ignorance, I’m going to respond just this once. You’re subscribing to QAnon conspiracy theories on this issue. > **[False Claims of U.S. Biowarfare Labs in Ukraine Grip QAnon](https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/02/ukraine-biolabs-conspiracy-theory-qanon/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw_4-SBhCgARIsAAlegrW0C4EDdhhhLLWpRZVFbB5rTvQsbL4iBMAHxq6HtL3sgfpzikio_CoaAuntEALw_wcB)** > > The conspiracy theory has been boosted by Russian and Chinese media and diplomats. This publication offers a limited number of free views. I encourage you to read this one, because the news sources you’re currently entertaining are misleading you. Badly. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spousal-voting-behavior-should-be-analyzed/961746/102 "2022-03-30T20:46:47Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Knowing things, factually, to me is good. Is it? > [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I’m quite happy to fund that study. It’s much cheaper than mine but it probably won’t tell us anything we can’t guess at. You already probably know that that’s what result will be and that it won’t matter. Kind of seems like you already decided what the facts are? > [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > The study would give us knowledge that we can use to improve our system. The study would lead to a lot of people losing faith in the sacredness of the secret ballot. It would likely have negative consequences that would last many election cycles into the future. And… it probably wouldn’t tell us anything one way or the other. It would be a horrible thing if a group of people were having their vote stolen from them. I’m all for finding out if that is the case. But you have to go about this stuff in a smart way. This is not the smart way: 1. Imagine a problem. 2. Implement a large scale, invasive, costly, program, that probably won’t tell us anything about the imagined problem, and definitely will freak a lot of people out. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spousal-voting-behavior-should-be-analyzed/961746/103 "2022-03-30T22:10:10Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > So you are looking to eliminate all mail-in voting over this bogus “concern?”. No, that directly contradicts every statement that I’ve made. > [@](#): > > That is horrific on so many levels, the least being that your concerns are completely and utterly baseless. If you can provide a cite then the research is moot. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spousal-voting-behavior-should-be-analyzed/961746/104 "2022-03-30T22:17:13Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > You’re hijacking your own thread, and I don’t think you should. But in the interests of fighting ignorance, I’m going to respond just this once. You’re subscribing to QAnon conspiracy theories on this issue. I’m not really behind the OP on their proposal here, but I should point out that I’m pretty sure that was intended as sarcasm. > [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > And I guess that means NO ONE that wants to vote can EVER take a vacation or business trip that puts them away from their home on Election Day(s)? Right there, you are disenfranchising a whole new tranche of voters. Plus, airlines and resorts are hurting enough without making people chose between travel and voting a few weeks of the year. To be fair, nothing would be stopping you from early voting, just not voting at home. > [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > If you think that the world is full of people who are only voting the way the do because of spousal abuse or spousal arm-twisting, why not have a policy where anyone can easily have their mail-in ballot sent to an address other than their home address. This seems an odd point. If the whole point is that the spouse wants to make sure that their significant other is voting correctly, then sending it to another address wouldn’t do anything to prevent that. They’d just demand that they went to that other address and pick it up there and bring it back. Personally, I am more concerned about vote _buying_ than coerced votes. Lotta money in campaigns these days, with some elections being tens of dollars spent per vote. When you are willing to spend $20 to try to convince someone to vote for your candidate, how much would you be willing to spend to ensure that they do so? I’d need a threat to my life or at least 9 figure bribe to vote against my conscience, but there are others out there who are more easily swayed. In any case, while I think that there is a bit of fraud, coercion, and bribery that is enabled through vote from home, I think that the amount of disenfranchisement it prevents more than makes up for it. But some actual studies so that it’s not just what I think, but an objective fact, wouldn’t hurt. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spousal-voting-behavior-should-be-analyzed/961746/105 "2022-03-30T22:18:49Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > I’m not really behind the OP on their proposal here, but I should point out that I’m pretty sure that was intended as sarcasm. If that’s true, I withdraw my post and accept I was whooshed. Thanks for pointing it out. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spousal-voting-behavior-should-be-analyzed/961746/106 "2022-03-30T22:26:06Z")
> [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > Is it? Yes, ergo saying that I would be quite happy to fund the smaller study of talking to abused women about this one particular subcase. > [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > Kind of seems like you already decided what the facts are? I rarely call myself “you”. You have made the assertion that there’s a large group of people of sufficient conscious depravity and forethoughtfullness, who would wait months to withhold their vote and beat their spouse into compliance to pull it all off, just to avoid being part of a statistical analysis, and that their quantity is large enough to change the answer. If you are reluctant to give any actual basis for that assertion, I have to assume that you don’t think it’s supportable. If you believed that it was, you would calculate some reasonable number and give your sources and assumptions for deriving it. We could then review that and see if we agree on those assumptions. You might genuinely convince me. ---
**Author:** ![TheCuse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thecuse/32/2854_2.png) [@TheCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheCuse)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spousal-voting-behavior-should-be-analyzed/961746/107 "2022-03-30T22:29:17Z")
Where did you even come up with this thing about women beating beaten by their spouse unless they voted a certain way? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spousal-voting-behavior-should-be-analyzed/961746/108 "2022-03-30T23:01:22Z")
I didn’t. I don’t think it’s a concern if you cut off the survey early because the people who would go to inordinate lengths to avoid scrutiny of their activities are not a notable demographic. I would expect the majority case to be an average couple with, at most, one overbearing partner but just as, if not more likely, a case where one partner was simply selected to be the one to do the work. I don’t expect them to try to avoid getting counted and I don’t expect any large group of supervillains corrupting the results. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spousal-voting-behavior-should-be-analyzed/961746/109 "2022-03-30T23:24:42Z")
People who are committing crimes prefer to do so when no one is looking. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spousal-voting-behavior-should-be-analyzed/961746.md?page=5)