Maybe I'm blinkered, but shouldn't mail-in ballots be postage paid? Isn't requiring a stamp technically a poll tax?
Replies
I think probably it's not a poll tax if drop boxes are available? And everywhere I've lived you could go into the elections department to drop off your ballot or vote.
aug 28, 2025, 10:25 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm a staunch voting rights advocate, but no, that's not a poll tax. It costs more for most people to transport themselves to a voting location than the price of a stamp.
aug 28, 2025, 5:31 pm • 2 0 • view
One of my biggest gripes with voter ID requirements too!
aug 28, 2025, 5:44 pm • 0 0 • view
Nineteen states and Washington, D.C., require local election officials to provide return postage for mailed ballots. In CA, where everyone gets a mailed ballot for every election, there is a postage paid envelope included.
aug 28, 2025, 5:09 pm • 8 0 • view
Thanks for the info!
aug 28, 2025, 5:45 pm • 0 0 • view
It took WA state (one of the all mail-in states) a few election cycles to start providing postage. It was honestly a huge problem, speaking as a voter and a mail carrier. They were thick, and needed two stamps! Sometimes only!
aug 28, 2025, 6:53 pm • 0 0 • view
They are here in Michigan!
aug 28, 2025, 5:31 pm • 0 0 • view
They should, but by the same argument the $0.50 in gas required to drive 5 mile round trip to a polling place is also a poll tax?
aug 28, 2025, 5:10 pm • 0 0 • view
You could follow that logic into absurdity: "Isn't the food you have to buy to get the energy to vote a poll tax?" But postage is literally paying to cast your mailed ballot.
aug 28, 2025, 5:44 pm • 2 0 • view
Yes agreed. Most states that have VBM also offer the option to drop your VBM at a polling place on the day of the election or on early voting days. I guess my point is I don't see a stamp as a "death by 1000 cuts" or slippery slope problem when there's a full frontal assault in so many other ways.
aug 28, 2025, 5:48 pm • 0 0 • view