An emailed “get out the vote” message from Sen. Donna Kim’s congressional campaign, via MailChimp, urges her supporters to vote early. Nothing surprising there.
But then it goes on to ask that they take a photo of their ballot, and then post the picture on social media. Here’s the relevant section of the request:
Does this signal the end of the secret ballot and sanctity of the voting booth!
Kim’s suggestion brought this comment from an astute election observer:
Am I the only one who thinks this is creepy? When does voluntarily offering proof of your vote become coercive?
Show photographic evidence to the campaign, to friends and neighbors? Maybe to your employer? To a union rep?
Is this a issue to be concerned about, or just a campaign push gone slightly over the line?
Reactions?
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If Kim supporters do this, other candidates will jump on the bandwagon and any publicity value will be neutralized because everyone does it.
But I don’t think this technique is a positive PR move on the part of Kim’s campaign team. It has a certain odor of desperation attached.
It is a slippery slope on the path to coercion, IMHO.
Ballots are secret for a reason.
🙂
N
Pretty disgusting!
Almost as creepy as her “ohhhh Doooonnnna” commercial.
I guess her paid staff and paid lobbyists and the like should bow and do her bidding.
drrrrrrrrrrrrrama!!!!
(kings & queens)
I don’t agree with the campaign’s request but we’re in the era of the selfie and a rapidly changing sense of online privacy.
Better than going to peoples houses and filling out their absentee ballots for them like Cachola did. Maybe that’s the next step?
Much ado about nothing, IMHO. Some people post their addresses, families, weight, boobs, exploits, family problems, opinions, etc. etc. all over the internet – why not their vote? Most people who post in blogs or comment sections of media outlets will put it in writing, anyway – so why not a picture?
I don’t think DMK’s campaign has anything sinister in mind with this. Anyone imaging that Donna goes through her list of FB friends and meticulously checking to see if they have dutifully posted a photo confirming their vote lest they risk her wrath…. Next thing you’ll be posting here is to report black helicopters hovering over your house.
With that said, I do think campaigns have to be careful in not crossing over certain lines when it comes to social media. For example, offers of any kind of rewards/inducements, while common for businesses, would be an absolute no-no for political campaigns. Post a pic of your ballot and get some campaign swag? hmmmm.
There is already enough pressure for people to vote one way or another. Publishing actual votes (or possibly pictures of fake votes) online would add more. This is not a good idea, in my opinion.
Donna is desperate. Bad idea.
if Donna is desperate, Donna is losing.
(ding dong, the wicked witch is ………..)
Ian, ya just made my week.
Mahaloz!!!!!!!!!
😀
Ian, and most of you, are reading waayyyy too much into this….aikea808 got it right. It’s the times, she probably has a Social Media 20something who’s certainly not on the same page with people on this blog, unless you too spend time twitting and instagramming and facebooking. Linkdin and MySpace doesn’t count!
No desperation apparent to me…I think if a few of the “little people” drop out then Takai could present a real problem to her…but that’s not happening.
Hawaiino — I totally agree.
and here’s another reason why:
B.J. Reyes
POSTED: 06:22 p.m. HST, Jul 24, 2014
“The congressional campaign for state Senate President Donna Mercado Kim will no longer send emails or have a picture on its Facebook page asking voters to send in pictures of their absentee ballots filled out for their candidate, after criticism was raised by the League of Women Voters of Hawaii.
*State Rep. Mark Takai had a similar posting on his Facebook page Thursday, but the League of Women Voters did not make note of it.* The group singled out Kim’s camp in a news release because of the mass email sent to supporters.
………..