Prestudy: Open vote VS secret vote

Note: my comment on this point.

The author claims on the fifth page of the research paper, that the open vote had a negative impact unlike the secret vote, which had positive results, what the author said contradicts logic because the open vote is transparency, truth and clarity, the secret vote is prone to corruption because it is secret and hidden, no one knows about it except the sect that counts the counting of votes, so the fate of the government and the outcome of the electoral process is in the hands of those sect may have taken the bribe. But an open vote is a public and clear performance in front of everyone and therefore it is less likely to receive a bribe or to fall under threat, the issue is very clear and the difference is very clear as the difference between darkness and light, secret voting is closer to darkness and open voting is closer to light.

ISSN 1936-5349 (print)ISSN 1936-

5357 (online)

HARVARD

JOHN M. OLIN CENTER FOR LAW,

ECONOMICS, AND BUSINESS

OPEN-SECRET VOTING

Adrian Vermeule

Discussion Paper No. 674

07/2010

Harvard Law SchoolCambridge,

MA 02138

Page number 5

open-Secret Voting

This rationale yields a clear

implication about sequencing: the

secret vote mustfollow the open

vote.

Secresy [sic] ought only to

be admitted as a kind of

appeal [from the open

vote] . .. . To take the oppo-

site direction – that is to say,

to proceed from secret vot-

ing toopen voting – would

be wrong. The natural

order is to pass from the

false, orwhat is suspected

to be false, to the true. The

real wish once ascertained,

whatgood purpose would

be served by taking another

vote, which would not be

thereal vote if it differed

from the former? (PT 148)

To illustrate the falsif-

ication of preferences or judgments

that an appeal to thesecret ballot

may cure, Bentham gives an ext-

ended example from Polish his-

tory. Amulti-member Council,

“intimidated or corrupted

, was only

the instrument of the will of

Russia” (PT 147) . on two separate

occasions the Council voted first

openly and then by secret ballot on

whether to raise an army, under lea-

dership independent of the Council,

to protect Polish territory. on the

first occasion the proposal was defe-

ated by a large margin on an open

vote, and lost only narrowly by

secret ballot. on the second occa-

sion, “the open vote gave for the

independence of the commission

114, against it 148; but the secret

vote turned the majority on the

other side – for the independence

140, against it 122” (PT148) . on

Bentham’s interpretation, threats or

bribes by Russia or Russian sympa-

thizers caused the Council mem-

bers to vote falsely by open ballot

but to vote their true (i.e.natio-

nalist) preferences under the secret

ballot.

II. Why Bentham’s Rationale Fails

A Bentham-like procedure

of dual voting under alternating tra-

nsparency regimesis useful under

certain conditions, or so I will argue

in the next section. Unfortunately, I

believe that we cannot defend that

procedure on the grounds Bentham

offers. There aretwo main prob-

lems: Bentham’s diagnosis is tend-

entious, and his prescription does

notfollow from that diagnosis.

As to the first problem, it is

unclear that Bentham’s initial diag-

nosis of preferenceor judgment fal-

sification is correct. To be sure,

Bentham’s Polish example captures

areal phenomenon. But the cor-

rect interpretation of the pheno-

menon is hardly selfevident.

5

Note: my comment on this point.

The author claims on the fifth page of the research paper, that the open vote had a negative impact unlike the secret vote, which had positive results, what the author said contradicts logic because the open vote is transparency, truth and clarity, the secret vote is prone to corruption because it is secret and hidden, no one knows about it except the sect that counts the counting of votes, so the fate of the government and the outcome of the electoral process is in the hands of those sect may have taken the bribe. But an open vote is a public and clear performance in front of everyone and therefore it is less likely to receive a bribe or to fall under threat, the issue is very clear and the difference is very clear as the difference between darkness and light, secret voting is closer to darkness and open voting is closer to light.