For most of American history, voting was public, loud, and easy to bribe or bully. The private vote we now take for granted is a reform barely over a century old, and it was once controversial.
A secret ballot is a vote cast in private, so that no one can know how an individual voted. It is meant to protect voters from bribery, intimidation, and retaliation by making their choice impossible to verify.
Early American voting was the opposite of secret. People often voted out loud, by voice, or by tossing a marked ball or paper into a box in full view. Everyone, including your employer, your landlord, and the local party boss, could see how you voted, and act on it.
That openness was a corruption machine. Votes could be bought because buyers could confirm delivery, and votes could be coerced because bosses could punish the disobedient. Some defenders even argued that public voting was more manly and honest.
The fix came from Australia. The Australian ballot, government-printed, listing all candidates, and marked in private, was adopted in the United States starting in 1888. Within a few years it had spread across the country, making the private vote the American norm.
