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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 17, 2022

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Would this be fair?

Of course not, because of the partisan selectivity. But that isn't really the case for mail-in ballots etc. They're mostly Democrat in many places, sure, but conversely that must mean in-person voters tilt Republican. In which case, by your estimation polling by in-person booths is unfair too because it leans towards one set of people.

The existing laws provide a set of standards thtat we've chosen, that ensures that some mostly-Democrat and some mostly-Republican groups both vote. Arbitrarily changing the rules lets you manipulate the result fo the election.

In-person booths is not manipulation of the election because the rules for in-person booths were part of the existing process that was decided in the agreed upon manner. Suddenly adding new rules for mail-in ballots is outside of that process.

Well all rules that change have to be changed at some determined point in time. And expanding mail-in voting is hardly any more arbitrary than keeping it restricted. For a long time the secret ballot was not a feature of British elections. Does that mean some MP who lost his seat because of the introduction of the secret ballot could complain about the 'arbitrary' changes made to the voting procedure? Under your argument the electoral system now has to stay the same literally forever.

By this reasoning, new voter ID laws would be just as illegitimate, since these also change the rules. Is that a conclusion you're comfortable with?

This is of course even more true if the voter ID laws are deliberately written so as to include forms of ID that Republicans are likely to have (such as gun licenses) and exclude forms of ID that Democrats are likely to have (such as student ID).

No, because it depends on the question of "what process was used to add the new voting ID rules".