TOWARD IMPROVING ELECTIONS: GET RID OF THE SECRET BALLOT
By
David Gottfried
A Secret Ballot is way to vote one’s anger, one’s resentment, one’s petty jealousies. A secret ballot is a way to be a bastard and not answer for it.
A person does not have the guts to stand up for his disgusting and racist position, but that little racist or homophobe will become a big, big man in the privacy of his little voting booth where he can throw mud by voting for the candidate slinging the mud. A secret ballot means never having to answer for oneself. A secret ballot means never having to understand oneself. When one votes in secret, one will not feel obligated to give one’s choice much thought -- he thinks, hell, one vote probably won’t make a difference and I don’t have to explain myself to anyone.
A secret ballot of little frightened people gave Germany to Adolf Hitler. A secret ballot helped Nixon win the 1968 election. In a secret ballot, people will vote for a candidate not because he is necessarily good but because he articulates everything the voter hates.
Because the voter does not have to explain his vote to anyone, the voter will not think about his choice with any depth. He will vote on a whim, on the basis of the merest emotions. For example, although I loved Robert Kennedy, he got many votes for utterly stupid reasons. Millions of people thought he was extremely cute and on that basis voted Kennedy. For example, I vividly recall witnessing him debate Gene Mc Carthy on the eve of the 1968 California primary. My baby sitter was with me. I could not here the a word either Bobby or Gene said because Mrs. Buckley, an old Irish lady who drank Budweiser per “doctor’s orders,” exclaimed, every five seconds, “Oh, Jesus, he’s so adorable.” She was 75 years old but she was as hysterical as a 14 year old girl wetting her panties over Beatlemania.
In any event, the cowardly voter, to maintain his privacy, does his deed hiding behind a screen, like a child hiding under his Mother’s skirt.