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lou_lou · 03-07-2008, 11:41 AM

Elections & Voting
Scrap the "secret" ballot and return to open voting
By Lynn Landes
Online Journal Contributing Writer

Nov 4, 2005, 15:44

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publ...nter_114.shtml

The problem is worldwide. From the Ukraine to the United States, many voters no longer believe that their votes are counted correctly. And that's regardless of whether paper ballots or voting machines are used. The problem is the "secret" ballot.

Secret ballots are anonymous ballots. They can be easily replaced, altered or destroyed, particularly if voting machines are used. Even if voters 'verify' their ballots and even if audits are performed, widespread vote tampering can still occur with relative ease and little risk of discovery because there still remains no effective method to 'certify' the authenticity of ballots, no way to identify an individual ballot and link it to an individual voter.

With few exceptions, election officials around the world are certifying election results based on anonymous and untraceable ballots. And contrary to a growing legion of election statisticians, exit polls are not an adequate check on election results. It's ridiculous when you think about it, using anonymous exit polls to verify anonymous ballot results.

The entire voting process should be 100 percent transparent. To that end, I am proposing a protocol for Open Voting with Total Transparency (OVTT):

"Voting shall take place only on Election Day. All ballots and counting shall comply with the following criteria: paper-only, voter-certified, duplicate-provided, and hand-counted. Certification shall require voters to include their name, address, and signature on the ballots. Election officials shall provide the voter with a copy of the voter's ballot. After the election, all ballots shall be available for public inspection at the Board of Elections office. Not permitted are the following: absentee or early voting, Internet voting, voting machines or optical scanners, and secret ballots."

It's simple and straightforward. But, is it too extreme? Not at all. Citizens today may be surprised to learn that the world's democracies were not founded on the secret ballot. Quite the contrary. Voting was a public process where qualified citizens voted openly, either by voice or on paper. People took pride in standing up and being counted. Then things changed.

The secret ballot concept originated in Australia in 1856. It began to be used in American elections after the Civil War. The secret ballot was sold to the public as a weapon against voter intimidation and vote selling. The downside risk, that a secret ballot system actually facilitates ballot tampering by restricting public oversight, apparently lost out in the debate.

In fact, three voting practices were introduced during the post-Civil War era that severely limited, if not destroyed, meaningful public oversight of the voting process: 1) absentee voting, 2) the use of voting machines, and 3) the secret ballot. Absentee voting has always been problematic, which is why many states and nations restrict its use. Voting machines are under increasing scrutiny due to their inherent non-transparency, which is why most countries have chosen not to use them. Amazingly however, the secret ballot has dodged public scrutiny, so far.

It appears that since 1892, when Grover Cleveland became the first American president to be elected by the secret ballot, neither constitutional scholars nor voting rights activists have seriously questioned the wisdom or logic of its use. I was no exception. We all failed to recognize the obvious.

Secret ballots and transparency in government are mutually exclusive concepts.

For the past few years I've been promoting transparency