Some argue that individual votes should be public for all to see. Others argue that making the votes public exposes the voters to intimidation or even physical harm.
Related issues are whether legislators’ votes should be public combined with publicizing legislators’ contributors. The thinking is that legislators would not want to appear to be bought. Legislators would be intimidated by the prospect of being thrown of office.
The analogy breaks down when comparing legislators to workers because in union organizing there is no public record of individual physical threats or bribes. The relative power imbalance between an individual worker and either a union or management would seem to argue for a secret ballot.
Workers may still be intimidated or bribed, but the incentive is substantially reduced because the ability to target retribution in the case of a worker who didn’t stay bought or stay intimidated is removed.
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