Why Can’t I See WHO I Voted For?

The US has always honored a “Secret Ballot” system where how you voted can never be tracked back to you. Voter intimidation has historically plagued elections around the world. Especially with employees voting to unionize. Your employer, bank, neighbors, and especially your government should never be able to see how you voted. If they could, it would be easier for them to target you for not agreeing with their opinion. Imagine losing your job or not getting credit simply because someone didn’t like how you voted. It happens today all around the world.

For this reason, the Secret Ballot has been a sacred part of the American experiment. You are free to have your opinion without any fear of reprisal.

However, that Secret Ballot process opens up many challenges when it comes to preventing election fraud. How do we know for sure which ballot was yours once it leaves your hand? Could your ballot be switched out, altered, or even discarded? 

Historically, poll books would track who came to the polling station. You may remember telling the poll worker your name and they would then find the type of ballot for your election. Then you were asked to sign by your name in the poll book.  Another poll book would track mail-in ballots.

 But the most important thing to remember here, all they can do is to count the total number of people who are documented in the poll book and then count the ballots to make sure that the total match both. However, what happens to your ballot when it leaves your hand? Could your vote be changed or disregarded? That is what brings up the importance of what is called “The Chain of Custody” in legal terms, but we like to call it ‘The Life of a Ballot.”