Final Word from Monday, January 8, 2024
An analysis of the debate about mail-in balloting from abroad is more difficult than it first appears. On the surface it's a simple vote grab. Statistics show that Czechs living abroad overwhelmingly cast their ballots in the last presidential and parliamentary elections for the current president and current coalition parties, so expanding the number of people who can vote from abroad would theoretically increase the overall number of absentee votes without changing the breakdown very much, thereby giving the incumbents an edge. It's easy to see why ANO and SPD oppose this. Yet what the cabinet doesn't tell people is that Czechs living abroad would still have to register to vote (only once), which requires evidence of residence. This would presumably limit the number of mail-in balloters significantly. Every vote counts, so the vote-grab incentive remains, but this makes the current debate look more like just another way for the two sides to rouse their voters and to divide society even more. [ Czech Republic foreign residency permit ]
Glossary of difficult words
to ballot - to cast one's vote on an issue;
grab - an act of obtaining something opportunistically or unscrupulously;
absentee - denoting or relating to a system of voting in which voters who are unable to be present at the polls complete their ballot papers and typically submit them by post in advance of an election;
breakdown - a division of something into smaller parts;
incumbent - an official or regime currently holding office;
balloter - a person casting a vote or ballot;
to rouse - to make angry or excited.