Postal voting is at the heart of the American elections this year as never before, thanks to the repeated attacks by Donald Trump. But why don’t we hear about proxy voting? It’s simple: it does not exist in the American electoral system. Why ? This is the stupid question of the day.
Proxy voting did exist in the United States, but it disappeared after the civil war. “It is most likely the generalization of secret ballot voting at this time that is the cause, explains Terri Bimes, associate professor of political science at the University of Berkeley. Technically, this is when the United States adopts what is called the australian nerd (the secret bulletin as we know it today). Before the adoption of this ballot from the antipodes, the American polls were public: each voter made his choice known, most often in front of all the inhabitants assembled, by voice or by gesture.
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From the middle of the XIXth century, the vote “by voice“ (by voice) began to give way to “ticket” voting: these lists of candidates for each seat to be filled were printed by the parties. The voters deposited these tickets, clearly identified with the colors of the party, in the ballot boxes and their vote was thus, there also, public. The switch to the secret ballot has reduced corruption and intimidating practices linked to public voting. “Proxy voting probably paid the price, believes Terri Bimes, since it was just as susceptible to fraud as the public vote ”.
If it is very widespread in the middle of the company or associations (for the votes in general assembly), the ‘proxy voting ‘ never reappeared in politics, leaving room for postal voting, with one exception, due to Covid-19. The House of Representatives has in fact adopted a new provision allowing parliamentarians to vote in place of up to ten absent colleagues. A small revolution: even in the darkest hours of the American republic (civil war, September 11, etc.), the presence obligation for elected officials had prevailed.
This should not be seen as some kind of opening up, according to Andrew Tutt, a lawyer at Arnold & Porter. “The changes will not last. Even the changes introduced by States (to facilitate postal voting, editor’s note) were presented as emergency measures. In addition, Congress passed the proxy after a partisan vote: the resolution came from the House of Representatives, controlled by the Democrats, and the Republicans in the Senate largely condemned it.“.
