This is an article about postal voting, written by Victor Rozek in “The Register-Guard” – Eugene, Oregon, USA

The voting season is upon us, and when my ballot arrived I looked at it with the same ambivalence I’ve felt since voting by mail became the fashion in Oregon.

Something has been gained and something lost in the conversion to postal suffrage. And while the gains are obvious and immediate, the losses are far more insidious.

Second, we’ve traded community for convenience. Voting at leisure in the comfort of our homes is undeniably convenient, but perhaps convenience is not the value that best serves democracy. To the degree we vote in isolation, we diminish the reality that we are all in this together. Voting in seclusion makes it easier to disregard our larger responsibilities as members of a community, a state, a nation and a world.

I miss the voting lines. I miss seeing my neighbors — especially the people in my community whom I do not know and whose interests may differ from mine.

I remember seeing a single mom at the polling place with two grade-school kids in tow, and I was reminded how important it is to fund education even though I have no children. I recall seeing an elderly man with a walker, and I was reminded that the most vulnerable among us often need help, and that a lifetime of their taxes helped pay for the services I use.

At the polling place, issues took on a human face, and I was given that rare opportunity to change my vote because I had changed by mind.

Elections are one of the very few times we stand shoulder to shoulder as equals. The voting precinct is a reminder that our individual interests are not the only interests worthy of consideration.

The doctor standing next to the logger, standing next to the student, standing next to the mechanic — all attest by their presence their commitment to the great, uncertain experiment that is representative democracy. Voting by mail robs us of that grand moment.

Government should be a place where no one is left behind, and elections are the mechanism by which everyone can be included. Casting a vote is the means by which we either expand or contract the promise of America and the parameters of the “general welfare.” Isolation supports contraction.

At essence, voting is democracy’s sacred ritual. And as with all hallowed rituals, it is best performed in community.