An interesting variant is when Smith threatens someone else. I think it is clear that if he threatens serious harm to an innocent party if you vote against him, you ought not vote against him. It is not clear to me what you should do if he threatens serious harm to an innocent party if you don't vote for him. I think that here it depends on what exactly is the question you're voting on. If the question is whether Smith meets the guidelines for tenure, and you believe he does not, by voting for him you may be lying. And lying is wrong. If, however, your vote is not about a question of fact about what is to be done—to grant tenure or not—then a vote in favor of Smith is not a lie, and maybe is defensible given a sufficiently great threat to persons other than Smith.
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