[PrimeMcFly]

Because in modern day the only reason to take that action is to manipulate votes.

[jstarfish]

You don't need access to a phone to vote for whoever you were going to vote for anyway.

If you're making your choice based on breaking news on election day, you're the one being manipulated.

[stainablesteel]

i'm trying to understand how or why you would manipulate votes like this

call me crazy but i think mass-scale communication is a better way to manipulate votes, it allows people far away from each other to coordinate their numbers

but if you cut off their coordination mechanism they can't exchange information, and perhaps they might fear pushing out fake numbers in case the numbers of them plus a few others look strange. the best defense would be honesty

[PrimeMcFly]

If people are going to vote a certain way out of fear or due to having been misled, cutting off communication is a safeguard against those people caning their minds or being convinced by facts. Just for one example.

[stainablesteel]

i guess if they're making up their mind at the last minute

[PrimeMcFly]

Looking at least at the US elections, I think there are plenty of people that do. Look at the whole Hillary's e-mails thing for example.