A secret ballot means nobody can see or prove how an individual voted.
Protection from pressure
If a vote can't be proven, it can't be bought or punished, which makes coercion far less effective.
A relatively recent idea
Many countries once voted openly, by voice or show of hands, before secret voting spread in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Why it still matters
Election rules on booths, ballot design and counting all exist to keep that privacy intact.
Series · Part 2 of 4How Power Works
Filed underPolitics
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