4 ms·

You should review the history behind secret voting for a list of reasons why secret votes are considered a good thing.

• sp332 15y ago
  I've looked around Wikipedia, but the only reason I can find is voter intimidation. Every presidential election in the US until Grover Cleveland in 1884 was by open ballot, so it's not like an open-ballot system is untenable.
  • saraid216 15y ago
    I'd consider voter intimidation a sufficient reason. Why is it so easily dismissed, in your opinion?
  • CodeMage 15y ago
    Voting for a representative and voting directly on an issue are two very different things. Sure, the idea behind them is the same, but the level of transparency of your stance is drastically higher in the latter case. In other words, you can always say "Well, yeah, I know John Doe is 'pro-choice', but I didn't vote for him because of that. I voted for him because of his ideas for lowering the unemployment." On the other hand, if you publicly voted "pro-choice" instead of "pro-life", there's no way you can deny it. So it comes down to plausible deniability. As to why you would want to deny your own choice in the first place, several other commenters have already explained that.
  • jsmcgd 15y ago
    Buying and selling votes is common practice in many parts of the globe. The less secret a vote is the easier it is to trade.