5 ms·

Secret ballots make it easier to pull off. How so?

• ChrisAntaki 13y ago
  In 2000, there was a voting scandal regarding the presidential election in the USA. It involved allegations of votes being paid for, to secure a victory for Bush in Florida, among other states. An open ballot could have prevented this.
  • Fargren 13y ago
    But the discussion was about vote selling. I don't see how open ballots make that harder. The opposite seems to be true.
  • ChrisAntaki 13y ago
    @Fargren: I would argue votes are easier to sell, with a secret ballot. The seller would be whoever is counting the votes. There could be a huge monetary gain for that one counter (Diebold for instance), as opposed to relatively small amounts for individual voters. That being said, buying votes directly is illegal. If ballots were open, and someone bought votes, there would now be a paper trail.
  • eli 13y ago
    So by "votes being paid for" you mean the conspiracy theory that Diebold machines altered vote totals?