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Nov 06

We might not need totally secret ballot...

elections, reform, news, policy

Thad Hall over at the Election Updates blog rightly points out in "An Interesting Question: Do We Need Secret Ballots?" the flawed thinking of Lynn Landes' article "Scrap the 'Secret' Ballot -- Return to Open Voting". As Hall points out, Landes quickly dismisses coercion and doesn't address vote-selling at all.

However, as Doug Jones once pointed out to me, there's a spectrum of ballot secrecy to consider here; it's not just a simple matter of total secrecy versus ballots identifiable to individuals. In fact, the UK doesn't have pure ballot secrecy; voters have unique numbers and so do ballots. When the voter casts their ballot, the number of the ballot is recorded in a register along with the voter's unique identification number. This register is kept as a state secret and is not examined nor tied to individual ballots unless required by a court.

It might be useful to consider such a system here in the states... although since 49 states (save West Virginia) have ballot secrecy and/or privacy written into their state laws and/or constitution, the case for a more limited notion of ballot secrecy would have to be highly compelling.

2 comments

  1. § Jason Kitcat said on : 11/08/05 @ 13:13
    It's true that the UK doesn't have a secret ballot at the moment, I think we're the only established democracy to as a matter of policy not to have a secret vote.

    However the UK is in breach of several treaty commitments and could be breaking EU Human Rights law too. There is pressure to change procedures and a while back the UK government acknowledged that they would need to change the electoral law to create a properly secret ballot - but no details or timetable has ever emerged.

    Whilst in 'normal times' a state-kept list linking voters to their ballot doesn't concern many, I think we need to examine this like all civil liberties issues, with the possibility of a government that has tendencies to coercion, fascism, totalitarianism etc would the existence of these lists be a good thing? Would they be abused? Most certainly they would be, in the same way that ID records noting ethnicity were abused by the Germans in WWII Holland.

    Anything noting how you voted is open to abuse either now or some time in the future when how you voted could be embarrassing etc

    Secret ballots are a good thing. We should defend our right to have them most passionately.
  2. § joe® Email said on : 11/08/05 @ 13:18
    However, can you imagine a design for such lists that is secure to the extent that you would be satisfied that it is nearly-secret? I think I could come up with something and my crypto. palls probably something else even better... whether or not that would be sufficient for the public (probably not) is unclear. Thanks for your feedback! Also, note that a law student and I are writing a large paper on open source in e-voting... it will be early 2006 before it's ready to show but we'd be interested in your feedback on the paper if you'd be willing to read it. best, Joe
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