Q&A: Voting at Disabled Polling Stations / Double Envelopes
Voting at Disabled Polling Stations / Double Envelopes
Question
I study in Jerusalem and live far from home, and I don’t have the time/energy to waste an entire day just to go vote. Am I allowed to go vote at a polling station for the disabled / with double envelopes? (From a legal standpoint, it’s a criminal offense to go vote there if you really aren’t disabled or anything.) Assuming that if I don’t vote there, then I won’t vote at all (I think the state would prefer that I vote in that case).
Answer
This is not a question of what the state would prefer. It is forbidden by law, and that’s that. Morally, however, I do not see a problem with it, and if it involves a significant interruption of Torah study, then at least on the moral plane there is certainly justification for it.
Discussion on Answer
I’ve written more than once that the categorical imperative is only one of the players on the field. It can be overridden if no one is actually harmed, and if preserving it creates damage, suffering, or a heavy cost.
Doesn’t Kant have something to do with this? After all, if everyone went to vote at such polling stations, I assume it would cause problems. That’s the reason the state doesn’t allow it.