My only real concern about the prevalence of vote-by-mail (aside from normal vote counting/corruption issues) is the loss of privacy when casting a vote. I don't have data to back it up, but I suspect that VBM will result in an increased tendency for all members of a family that live at the same address to vote the same way.

In the sanctity of a voting booth, a person has the freedom to vote for who/whatever they want, then, if necessary to keep the peace, tell their partner/parent the opposite. If a family sits down and fills out their ballots together then it may be easier to bow to the dominant partner's or parent's wishes, and vote the way they would want you to vote rather than create an argument, particularly around controversial issues. Say if one family member is "in the closet", and would personally support gay rights issues, but votes against because they're afraid to bring up the topic in a family discussion. And it might look "suspicious" if they insist on filling their your ballot in secret, or voting in person.

What I suspect is even more likely to happen though, is that one member of the family would simply fill out the ballots for the whole family. The result being the same, that every member of the family voted the same way regardless of their individual feelings on each issue/candidate.

You could even conjecture larger abuses of VBM - i.e., say a particular church requesting that all members bring in their ballots so they can fill them out together, or maybe a church leader will come visit you at your home to "help you understand the issues". If you don't bring yours in or participate, then you're ostracized.

Social pressure can be a powerful tool, and one of the most powerful benefits of voting anonymously in a booth is that you're free to ignore social pressure if you like.

I suppose the flipside of VBM is that more people vote due to convenience issues, so it may balance out, but I think we should be aware that we're giving up individual freedom for this convenience, and factor this issue into the larger discussion.

When you receive you ballot in the mail, you have two weeks to fill it out, and you can do that wherever you want - in an old-fashioned voting booth at the county elections office, in your car, at the library, or at your home.  That sounds alot like individual freedom to me.

We haven't heard any stories of such domineering familites or churches or tightly-knit social clubs in Oregon, and I suspect that if your feared ostracism really happened, the media would have jumped on it long ago.  People are smart, they're often even individualistic, and they can take their ballot to any place, at any time, that will be private for them.

I'm an Oregonian. I love vote by mail.

I haven't seen any serious problems with it and the convenience is wonderful. Many of us still vote at the last minute, dropping our ballots in locked boxes at the libraries or the elections office.

It does extend the GOTV process. We have 2-1/2 weeks to hassle voters. Fortunately, we can get up-to-date lists from elections that tell us who has voted. Then we can tell people we're calling..."if you'd just vote, we'd quit calling you." I think that's the main reason some people vote!

I've also helped run the ballot pickup programs for the Democrats in Multnomah County (Portland). We help people who didn't get ballots for some reason--you have 2-1/2 weeks to get one if you're eligible. People who missed the mailing deadline and can't get out call us; we dispatch drivers with ID badges and forms in triplicate to pick them up. I don't know what other groups do, but everything we do is incredibly above board.

There's a discussion going on at BlueOregon.com, if you want to see what Oregonians think about it.

It does have one downside. Four years ago, while leisurely voting in my home while having a glass of wine, my husband suggested writing my name in for precinct committeeperson. I had heard Michael Moore say it was the least you could do, so we wrote my name in. Asked the neighbor to vote for me too, and that's all it took. I started going to meetings and now I'm on the DNC. I blame it all on vote by mail.