Secret Ballots?

Yesterday I visited my recently widowed sister, and she asked me to tell her who to vote for. I told her that our ballots were called "secret" for a reason, and were supposed to reflect our own personal decision about an issue or a candidate.

She gave me a puzzled look and said, "But Al, (her deceased husband) always told me which ones to vote for."

Much to her distress, I told her that this year, she was going to have to figure out which persons and issues to vote for on her own. Not that I think she will do it. She is sure to find some other relative or neighbor who will be only too happy to take the matter out of her hands.

Lest you think I am totally heartless, I should say that she and I have talked about most of the ballot measures and many of the candidates for months during our weekly telephone visits, and are both pretty much in agreement on them so I couldn't see any reason why she needed help in actually making her mark on the official "secret" ballot.

However, it did make me stop and wonder just how many senior citizens are turning their ballots over to other people to do their voting for them. In our state, all voting is done by mail so the opportunity for this type of vote influencing is always there. Maybe it is time to go back to the voting booth at the school gymnasium. Or better yet, maybe we each need to have a doctor's statement that we are of sound mind in order to vote.