Secret ballot facts for kids
A secret ballot is a way of voting where your choice stays private. This means no one knows who you picked. The main reason for this is to stop people from being bribed or scared into voting a certain way. Secret ballots help make elections fair and honest.
The simplest secret ballot might just be a blank piece of paper. You write your choice on it, fold it, and put it into a sealed box. Later, all the papers are taken out and counted. This keeps everyone's vote a secret.
Contents
Why We Use Secret Ballots
Stopping Bribery and Fear
Before secret ballots, people often voted in public. This meant everyone could see who they chose. Because of this, some powerful people might try to pay voters or threaten them to vote for a certain candidate.
Imagine if your vote wasn't secret. Someone could offer you money to vote for their friend. Or, if you didn't vote the way they wanted, they might cause trouble for you. The secret ballot stops this because no one can prove how you voted.
Making Elections Fair
When votes are secret, every voter can make their own choice without pressure. This makes elections much fairer. It helps make sure that the people who win are truly the ones most voters wanted. It's a key part of a healthy democracy.
History of Secret Voting
Early Ideas for Secrecy
The idea of secret voting has been around for a long time. Ancient Greece and Rome sometimes used methods to keep votes private. For example, they might use different colored stones or tablets that were put into a jar.
Modern Secret Ballots
One of the first modern countries to make secret voting a rule was France. Their constitution in 1795 said that "All elections are to be held by secret ballot." This was a big step for fair elections.
Britain started using the secret ballot later. The very first time it was used in Britain was on August 15, 1872, during a special election. The original ballot box from that election, sealed with wax and a liquorice stamp, is now kept in a museum in Pontefract.
How Secret Ballots Work Today
Voting Booths and Privacy Screens
When you go to vote today, you usually step into a voting booth. This is a small area with walls or a curtain that gives you privacy. Inside the booth, you mark your ballot paper. This way, no one can see your choice.
Different Ways to Vote
Some places still use paper ballots that you mark with a pen. Others use voting machines where you touch a screen. No matter the method, the goal is always the same: to keep your vote private. After you vote, your ballot (or your choice on the machine) is added to all the others, and then they are counted.
Images for kids
-
Luis Guillermo Solís, then-President of Costa Rica, votes behind a privacy screen which says "The VOTE is SECRET."
-
A British "how to vote" card from 1880
-
New York polling place circa 1900, showing voting booths on the left.
-
Ballots or scanned images available to public for independent audits
-
Ballot images saved by election scanners
-
ISG TopVoter, a voting machine which assures secret ballot for voters with disabilities.
See also
In Spanish: Sufragio secreto para niños
