ABSTRACT
An individual may be influenced in his vote by threats of personal violence to himself or those to whom he is attached, or by threats of economic and social sanctions such as boycotting. Private violence, or the threat of it, is a crime under any system of law worthy of the name, and requires no special electoral legislation. Other sanctions are usually not forbidden in general terms; indeed the boycott and the strike are held to be weapons of the under-dog rather than of the powers that control physical resources of wealth and weapons, and complete prohibition of organisations using such sanctions is one of the marks of dictatorship. In spite of this difficulty, it is easy enough to legislate that the use of any threat designed to influence the vote of an individual is improper: and most electoral codes include such a provision.
