Is Voting Better as a Communal Activity?

 I have already voted. I received my ballot in the mail a few weeks ago and dropped it off at my county's drop box last week. I did it because I am concerned about long lines and crowding at the polls on November 3 in the midst of a pandemic.

But now I have been wondering: Absent the special circumstances of this year, are we better off if voting is seen as a communal activity? As something where neighbors and friends must all arrive at the same place (not necessarily at the same time, of course) to cast their votes? To see their fellow citizens all participate in this endeavor, including the ones who volunteer to man the tables at the polling place and to greet voters as they come in and urge support for a particular slate?

If voting becomes one more thing that we do in the privacy of our homes, the way most entertainment has, do we lose a sense of community? Do we lose the idea that we are, indeed, all in this together? Even if you vote for a different candidate than I do, if I see you there, waiting to take your turn to fill out the ballot, do I realize that we are both participating in the governing of our nation, our state, our community? And if I don't, because we are both sitting at home, marking circles on a sheet of paper, sticking it in an envelope and mailing it, have I missed that realization of working and governing together?

I know that some states have been doing 100 percent vote-by-mail for about a decade now. If you live in one of those states, how do you feel about this?