A secret vote is an essential integrity safeguard because it allows voters to cast their ballot in full independence. If a vote is not secret or can be identified during vote counting, some people might be intimidated into not voting as they had intended. Secrecy makes intimidation or bribery less effective.
Suitable privacy screens are used at polling stations in most countries to help protect the secrecy of the vote. The screen should be large enough and positioned so that others within the polling station cannot see how the voter marks the ballot. During the 2004 legislative elections in South Africa, privacy screens at some polling stations were poorly positioned, and this may have compromised the secrecy of the vote. [1]
When hand-marked ballots are used—as they are in most systems—voters mark their choice on a standard ballot out of the view of others. The ballot is then placed in a ballot box with the ballots of other voters, making it impossible to know whom the voter supported. Recent interest in allowing remote on-line voting has raised concerns that this method cannot guarantee the secrecy of the vote, thereby compromising electoral integrity.
NOTES
[1] Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA), Interim Statement by the EISA Election Observation Mission: South African National and Provincial Elections 12-14 April 2004.
