Likewise, deciding to buy lunch is not somehow invalidated by being really hungry. In a sense, we consider the pressure of our appetite to validate the purchase of lunch. Decisions in response to circumstances and prevailing conditions are completely valid.
>Right. Pressure, though, doesn't invalidate their decision. Cfr. how a purchase is valid even if you saw an ad for the product.
It might not invalidate it legally or procedurally, but it invalidates it in the spirit of democracy (each deciding what he deems best, not what he was pressured to vote in order to get something unrelated to the issue under voting).
The idea is that secret voting rules out anyone being individually held liable for how they choose to vote.
The sort of pressure OP is talking about is more vague: the pressure of having some skin in the game. I can't imagine what elections would be without that pressure.
The democratic spirit of "what he/she deems best" doesn't rule out the influence of reality over voters' decisions.
No, an insecure population can also act democratically, but it's much more easier to pressure it.