[h1]Introduction[/h1]
Okay, I admit it: I've added to the controversy about the US mail voting controversy. More specific: I created this poll about it. I had anticipated polarized results, but honestly didn't expect it to be this bad. If I had known that a large majority of republicans want to vote in person (as opposed to democrats, who largely want to vote by mail), it'd been a different situation, but I didn't. From what I can see, there are two major issues at hand:
1. voter registration. This...apparently has quite some cracks in it, or at least has the idea that this is much harder than it should be. About the only thing that helps me understand it is that in the USA citizens don't have an ID-card.
2. the USPS is in financial trouble. Critics say that this is because of legislation that puts them in a position where it would be impossible to make a profit. Either way: recent actions on that front have led to a political tug of war.
I won't go into detail on neither of those. I mean...that's what the thread linked earlier is for. Instead, I'm going to use my own blog space to talk about Belgium's last election, highlighting some differences. Here goes...
[h1]Preface[/h1]
The first thing to know is that in Belgium, voting isn't optional. It is obligated (I repeat: obligated) for all citizens above 18. I'm not joking: you can get fined if you don't cast your vote, even if that vote is just a blank. That's what nearly happened to me and my girlfriend last election, but I'll get to that. I might be mistaken, but afaik this obligation doesn't apply to Belgians living abroad somewhere. They have options to cast their votes by distance (mail or the internet...I'm not sure, honestly), but won't face fines if they don't vote. It's different for Belgians who have their home address in Belgium. Should they be on vacation or business trip on election day, they should apply for someone to cast a vote in their name. I know because I voted for my parents once when they were on vacation.
EDIT: almost forgot: convicted criminals aren't allowed to vote. There may be other exceptions, but certainly not many.
There are also four kinds of voting, which usually align to some degree. The district's the closest (it's the town or city you live in), then there's the "gewestverkiezing" (basically Flanders vs Wallonia vs Brussels...Belgium's weird like that
), federal (the actual 'Belgian' election) and one for our electorates in the EU. We also have over a dozen political parties. Half of these are Flemish parties, the other half Wallonian. And they're divided, so as a Flemish citizen I cannot vote for e.g. PS or ecolo (Wallonian parties). They cannot vote for SP-A or Groen. The mentioned examples have very similar ideologies. Still...
But I digress. When I say I follow Belgian politics, I mean I keep track of what the parties want to achieve, what they actually achieve and what they criticize. Nearly every political party vies (runs?) for all kinds of voting areas, but I have to admit it's a whole mess to figure out which areas are courtesy of the "gewest" and which are handled at a federal level, let alone what the EU has as responsibilities (district's usually easiest to figure out, though).
To add to the choice-stress: we have a say in the person(s) within the party as well. When we pick a political party, we next get a list of candidates of that party. They usually put their front runner on top of the list, but you can explicitly vote for your neighbor if he/she runs for something. Since all the voting happens on the same day, you either go early or you have to queue. I (and since I'm with my girlfriend: we) go somewhat "early but not too early". I've never had anything any issues until last election (again: I'm coming to that).
By the way: the poll boots I've been to were always within a few streets from my home, and always carried computers with touchscreens. There are still a few districts that still do pen and paper, but Antwerp have at least voted completely electronically since at least 2000 (the year I started participating in our democracy). Never had a hitch or any controversies about it either (well...not entirely true: every election it happens that a few voting machines fail, resulting in longer waiting lines because the remaining ones are used more often. That's about it).
Our last elections were on May 26th 2019. For the next part, it's important to know that me and my girlfriend moved to another province early April. Or say mid april, when we officially changed our address.
[h1]The voting process[/h1]
Obviously, with voting being obligated, there is no registration process. Everyone over 18 gets their ballot in the mail a couple weeks in advance. You bring it to your voting boot, show your ID-card, receive a voting card for the computer, insert that card in the computer, cast your vote, you get your ID-card and the ballot (with a stamp on it) back, and that's that. That stamped ballot is only needed in case there has been some administrative error somewhere (note: I'm not sure on the word "ballot". Perhaps in the USA the actual voting card is sent through the mail instead of an administrational invite to swap for the actual ballot. But you get the idea, right?).
...which brings me to the major thorn in the foot of the USA: no unified ID-card. It's not that I haven't seen in films and series how drivers licenses are used for ID, but it still strikes me as odd. In Belgium, everyone has an ID-card that he or she needs to have on him at all times. Should you lose it, you must immediately apply for a new one. It acts as age verification, legitimation and for most if not all administration tasks. Heck...I had to use mine just yesterday when we were taking garbage to the dump(1). It's for local citizens only. I'm a registered local citizen, so I put my ID in the machine and it allowed us access. Easy-peasy.
And to be frank: get your shit together, USA. Your complaints about "illegal aliens" suddenly got a lot less believable once I realised you don't have a unified way to ID your own citizens in the first place.
Back on-topic: since the recent controversy, I should perhaps point out something in regards to mail: OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS NEVER HAVE POST STAMPS. Whether it's a fine, an official announcement from the mayor, a fine or a voting ballot: it is delivered free by the mail. Or more precise: the Belgium state sponsors it. Granted, our postal service isn't tied to some ridiculous claims like in the US, but to us it's equally ridiculous to expect that the postal service should try to make a profit. It's almos the inverse: the name "postal service" itself says that it's a SERVICE. We don't expect the road next to our house to make a profit for the country in order for them to build or maintain it. Like that, and like our ID cards, it are things we simply expect from our government. More so...when our ballots didn't came through, we never once thought it might have been the postal office "withholding our ballots".
I've mentioned my girlfriend and me moved houses, right? As a result, I went to the postal office to request our mail to be forwarded for the next six months (it's a service they do for people moving houses). So when our mail came through but not our ballots, we initially assumed it was just late. But pretty soon, all our friends and neighbours had theirs and we still had nothing. I contacted the district's office, who told me that since our official change of address was too close to election day (roughly a month earlier
), we would still have to vote in our old neighborhood. The ballots "should arrive at your new address, though". They didn't. I called my old house, but neither my old neighbor nor my rentee had received anything.
The problem was easy to solve, though. I just checked the Antwerp district's site, (again) identified through my ID-card and just printed out a replacement ballot. The next day, my girlfriend and me did the same for her (using her card).
Whenever some republicans (it's always republicans for some reason) claim that mail in voting is prone to fraud, I mentally imagine myself just printing out that ballot in my name dozens of times. Would have been easy to do. And if US ballots have something akin to "yeah, just put it in whatever voting boot you want" on it I would see the fraudulent potential. But this Belgian quality ballot had my name, ID card reference and the voting boot address on it. I could either bring in the original ballot (that we still expected by mail at that time, btw) or the copy. Either would end up having my name marked as "this guy has voted", and just queue-ing again with another ballot (and perhaps a fake moustache for comedy purposes ) would just reveal that I had already voted before I would get my actual voting card.
So...on May 26th, my girlfriend and me took a trip back to our old country to cast our vote, using the printout ballot (original is still...somewhere). We accidentally ran into our old neighbors. We visited my parents (who lived in that area). And returned to our actual home later that day. Voting in our new town (and if this pandemic keeps up: from home) is something for next election. At that time, neither of us thought anything else of it. But it wasn't...
[h1]The error[/h1]
About two to three weeks later, I got a mail. From the election committee. It was a fine of over 100 euro's (I forgot the amount). I apparently didn't show up for poll booting duty. This duty is a random draft. The poll boots have to be manned (y'know: helping people who manage to find marking a dot difficult, crossing off names and so on), and for obvious reasons these can't be political volunteers. So in addition to being obligated to vote, there's a chance you're drafted to show up and aid in the voting process. My brother had it happen twice. My father some time as well. My mother - strangely enough - never thus far. And up until now, I was never selected either. And the ironic thing is: I wouldn't mind aiding. It's on a day nobody (by definition) has anything planned before the afternoon, and the only thing my brother didn't like - getting up so early - isn't something I'm bothered with.
So apparently I now was selected...but only got notified afterwards.
I wrote back the situation. That my girlfriend and me moved in April, and didn't get our ballots. How we had to call both the new and the old districts to find out where to vote and how to obtain a ballot copy. I enclosed a scanned copy of the stamped ballot, proving that we drove about 70 kilometers just to cast our vote. Had I known I'd be selected for jury duty on that very same voting boot, I would have been there. More so, I wrote: I'd be glad to be selected next time, albeit in our new district(2).
This letter was a gamble, I admit. I've challenged unfair fines before, but they usually end up adding "administrative costs" on top of the original fine. So I was more than thrilled to receive a letter back not only acknowledging my situation but apologizing for the erroneous fine as well.
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
Yeah...what else to say about Belgian elections? To me, it was just something that's sort of "there". I'm sort of on the fence on the obligation part (most other EU countries don't do it, and I know a few people who deliberately don't vote despite the potential fine), but I'd certainly vote if it wasn't obligated. Our political system is a mess that needs to be cleaned up, yes. But if I've learned anything from the USPS mail by voting situation, it's that our problems are luxury problems. These sorts of hiccups are minor and incidental. We've got plenty of political parties, but there is never a clear winner (btw...it's well over a year since that vote and we still don't have a government ). But that means that whatever passes is approved by a large notion. We don't have a "winner takes all" attitude where a new leader can spend his time undoing what his predecessor achieved. I was never really proud of what we have in Belgium, but in retrospect perhaps I should be. It's certainly not something one can take for granted...
(1): we're still renovating. Last week my father and me tore down a wall and a ceiling to make room for a stairs to the attic. Result: an insane amount of rubble, stone, bricks and dust
(2): to be honest, I wasn't really thrilled to be part of the assistance committee if they started out by not properly notifying me. Also: voting is usually in public schools, so at about five minute walks for most people (at least in urban areas). An hour drive obviously diminishes the enthousiasm a bit.
Okay, I admit it: I've added to the controversy about the US mail voting controversy. More specific: I created this poll about it. I had anticipated polarized results, but honestly didn't expect it to be this bad. If I had known that a large majority of republicans want to vote in person (as opposed to democrats, who largely want to vote by mail), it'd been a different situation, but I didn't. From what I can see, there are two major issues at hand:
1. voter registration. This...apparently has quite some cracks in it, or at least has the idea that this is much harder than it should be. About the only thing that helps me understand it is that in the USA citizens don't have an ID-card.
2. the USPS is in financial trouble. Critics say that this is because of legislation that puts them in a position where it would be impossible to make a profit. Either way: recent actions on that front have led to a political tug of war.
I won't go into detail on neither of those. I mean...that's what the thread linked earlier is for. Instead, I'm going to use my own blog space to talk about Belgium's last election, highlighting some differences. Here goes...
[h1]Preface[/h1]
The first thing to know is that in Belgium, voting isn't optional. It is obligated (I repeat: obligated) for all citizens above 18. I'm not joking: you can get fined if you don't cast your vote, even if that vote is just a blank. That's what nearly happened to me and my girlfriend last election, but I'll get to that. I might be mistaken, but afaik this obligation doesn't apply to Belgians living abroad somewhere. They have options to cast their votes by distance (mail or the internet...I'm not sure, honestly), but won't face fines if they don't vote. It's different for Belgians who have their home address in Belgium. Should they be on vacation or business trip on election day, they should apply for someone to cast a vote in their name. I know because I voted for my parents once when they were on vacation.
EDIT: almost forgot: convicted criminals aren't allowed to vote. There may be other exceptions, but certainly not many.
There are also four kinds of voting, which usually align to some degree. The district's the closest (it's the town or city you live in), then there's the "gewestverkiezing" (basically Flanders vs Wallonia vs Brussels...Belgium's weird like that
), federal (the actual 'Belgian' election) and one for our electorates in the EU. We also have over a dozen political parties. Half of these are Flemish parties, the other half Wallonian. And they're divided, so as a Flemish citizen I cannot vote for e.g. PS or ecolo (Wallonian parties). They cannot vote for SP-A or Groen. The mentioned examples have very similar ideologies. Still...But I digress. When I say I follow Belgian politics, I mean I keep track of what the parties want to achieve, what they actually achieve and what they criticize. Nearly every political party vies (runs?) for all kinds of voting areas, but I have to admit it's a whole mess to figure out which areas are courtesy of the "gewest" and which are handled at a federal level, let alone what the EU has as responsibilities (district's usually easiest to figure out, though).
To add to the choice-stress: we have a say in the person(s) within the party as well. When we pick a political party, we next get a list of candidates of that party. They usually put their front runner on top of the list, but you can explicitly vote for your neighbor if he/she runs for something. Since all the voting happens on the same day, you either go early or you have to queue. I (and since I'm with my girlfriend: we) go somewhat "early but not too early". I've never had anything any issues until last election (again: I'm coming to that).
By the way: the poll boots I've been to were always within a few streets from my home, and always carried computers with touchscreens. There are still a few districts that still do pen and paper, but Antwerp have at least voted completely electronically since at least 2000 (the year I started participating in our democracy). Never had a hitch or any controversies about it either (well...not entirely true: every election it happens that a few voting machines fail, resulting in longer waiting lines because the remaining ones are used more often. That's about it).
Our last elections were on May 26th 2019. For the next part, it's important to know that me and my girlfriend moved to another province early April. Or say mid april, when we officially changed our address.
[h1]The voting process[/h1]
Obviously, with voting being obligated, there is no registration process. Everyone over 18 gets their ballot in the mail a couple weeks in advance. You bring it to your voting boot, show your ID-card, receive a voting card for the computer, insert that card in the computer, cast your vote, you get your ID-card and the ballot (with a stamp on it) back, and that's that. That stamped ballot is only needed in case there has been some administrative error somewhere (note: I'm not sure on the word "ballot". Perhaps in the USA the actual voting card is sent through the mail instead of an administrational invite to swap for the actual ballot. But you get the idea, right?).
...which brings me to the major thorn in the foot of the USA: no unified ID-card. It's not that I haven't seen in films and series how drivers licenses are used for ID, but it still strikes me as odd. In Belgium, everyone has an ID-card that he or she needs to have on him at all times. Should you lose it, you must immediately apply for a new one. It acts as age verification, legitimation and for most if not all administration tasks. Heck...I had to use mine just yesterday when we were taking garbage to the dump(1). It's for local citizens only. I'm a registered local citizen, so I put my ID in the machine and it allowed us access. Easy-peasy.
And to be frank: get your shit together, USA. Your complaints about "illegal aliens" suddenly got a lot less believable once I realised you don't have a unified way to ID your own citizens in the first place.
Back on-topic: since the recent controversy, I should perhaps point out something in regards to mail: OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS NEVER HAVE POST STAMPS. Whether it's a fine, an official announcement from the mayor, a fine or a voting ballot: it is delivered free by the mail. Or more precise: the Belgium state sponsors it. Granted, our postal service isn't tied to some ridiculous claims like in the US, but to us it's equally ridiculous to expect that the postal service should try to make a profit. It's almos the inverse: the name "postal service" itself says that it's a SERVICE. We don't expect the road next to our house to make a profit for the country in order for them to build or maintain it. Like that, and like our ID cards, it are things we simply expect from our government. More so...when our ballots didn't came through, we never once thought it might have been the postal office "withholding our ballots".
I've mentioned my girlfriend and me moved houses, right? As a result, I went to the postal office to request our mail to be forwarded for the next six months (it's a service they do for people moving houses). So when our mail came through but not our ballots, we initially assumed it was just late. But pretty soon, all our friends and neighbours had theirs and we still had nothing. I contacted the district's office, who told me that since our official change of address was too close to election day (roughly a month earlier
), we would still have to vote in our old neighborhood. The ballots "should arrive at your new address, though". They didn't. I called my old house, but neither my old neighbor nor my rentee had received anything.The problem was easy to solve, though. I just checked the Antwerp district's site, (again) identified through my ID-card and just printed out a replacement ballot. The next day, my girlfriend and me did the same for her (using her card).
Whenever some republicans (it's always republicans for some reason) claim that mail in voting is prone to fraud, I mentally imagine myself just printing out that ballot in my name dozens of times. Would have been easy to do. And if US ballots have something akin to "yeah, just put it in whatever voting boot you want" on it I would see the fraudulent potential. But this Belgian quality ballot had my name, ID card reference and the voting boot address on it. I could either bring in the original ballot (that we still expected by mail at that time, btw) or the copy. Either would end up having my name marked as "this guy has voted", and just queue-ing again with another ballot (and perhaps a fake moustache for comedy purposes
) would just reveal that I had already voted before I would get my actual voting card.So...on May 26th, my girlfriend and me took a trip back to our old country to cast our vote, using the printout ballot (original is still...somewhere). We accidentally ran into our old neighbors. We visited my parents (who lived in that area). And returned to our actual home later that day. Voting in our new town (and if this pandemic keeps up: from home) is something for next election. At that time, neither of us thought anything else of it. But it wasn't...
[h1]The error[/h1]
About two to three weeks later, I got a mail. From the election committee. It was a fine of over 100 euro's (I forgot the amount). I apparently didn't show up for poll booting duty. This duty is a random draft. The poll boots have to be manned (y'know: helping people who manage to find marking a dot difficult, crossing off names and so on), and for obvious reasons these can't be political volunteers. So in addition to being obligated to vote, there's a chance you're drafted to show up and aid in the voting process. My brother had it happen twice. My father some time as well. My mother - strangely enough - never thus far. And up until now, I was never selected either. And the ironic thing is: I wouldn't mind aiding. It's on a day nobody (by definition) has anything planned before the afternoon, and the only thing my brother didn't like - getting up so early - isn't something I'm bothered with.
So apparently I now was selected...but only got notified afterwards.
I wrote back the situation. That my girlfriend and me moved in April, and didn't get our ballots. How we had to call both the new and the old districts to find out where to vote and how to obtain a ballot copy. I enclosed a scanned copy of the stamped ballot, proving that we drove about 70 kilometers just to cast our vote. Had I known I'd be selected for jury duty on that very same voting boot, I would have been there. More so, I wrote: I'd be glad to be selected next time, albeit in our new district(2).
This letter was a gamble, I admit. I've challenged unfair fines before, but they usually end up adding "administrative costs" on top of the original fine. So I was more than thrilled to receive a letter back not only acknowledging my situation but apologizing for the erroneous fine as well.
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
Yeah...what else to say about Belgian elections? To me, it was just something that's sort of "there". I'm sort of on the fence on the obligation part (most other EU countries don't do it, and I know a few people who deliberately don't vote despite the potential fine), but I'd certainly vote if it wasn't obligated. Our political system is a mess that needs to be cleaned up, yes. But if I've learned anything from the USPS mail by voting situation, it's that our problems are luxury problems. These sorts of hiccups are minor and incidental. We've got plenty of political parties, but there is never a clear winner (btw...it's well over a year since that vote and we still don't have a government
). But that means that whatever passes is approved by a large notion. We don't have a "winner takes all" attitude where a new leader can spend his time undoing what his predecessor achieved. I was never really proud of what we have in Belgium, but in retrospect perhaps I should be. It's certainly not something one can take for granted...(1): we're still renovating. Last week my father and me tore down a wall and a ceiling to make room for a stairs to the attic. Result: an insane amount of rubble, stone, bricks and dust
(2): to be honest, I wasn't really thrilled to be part of the assistance committee if they started out by not properly notifying me. Also: voting is usually in public schools, so at about five minute walks for most people (at least in urban areas). An hour drive obviously diminishes the enthousiasm a bit.
