Voters

The secret ballot is a part of the US voting system. You go into the booth, draw the curtain and no one can see how you vote. The mail in ballot is different. There is an over envelop that maintains the privacy of your vote but there may not be privacy when you are filling out your ballot. There may be family members or other friends in the room watching you or more to the point there may a campaign worker there to help you with your vote. In big cities where a large number of minorities live in a small area, campaign workers can canvas these areas and help people to fill out the ballot. 16 states allow anyone you designate to deliver your ballot. Many low information voters can be encourage to vote a certain way by a campaign worker. States offer early voting two to six weeks ahead of election day. Instead of spending money on TV ads it may be better spent by hiring election workers to visit registered voters and offer assistance. This will be much like the good old days in Chicago where precinct workers scoured the neighborhood with walk around money and then drove the voter to the poll.