Department of Political Science, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, United States of America.
Department of Political Science, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2019 Jan 7;14(1):e0209765. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209765. eCollection 2019.
New democracies go to great lengths to implement institutional protections of the electoral process. However, in this paper we present evidence that shows that even in the United States-where the secret ballot has been in place for generations-doubts about the secrecy of the voting process are surprisingly prevalent. Many say that their cast ballot can be matched to their name or that others could observe their vote choices while they were voting. We find that people who have not previously voted are particularly likely to harbor doubts about the secrecy of voters' ballots. Those who vote by mail in the privacy of their own homes also feel that others are able to discover their vote choices. Taken together, these findings suggest an important divergence between public perceptions about and the institutional status of the secret ballot in the United States, a divergence that may affect patterns of voting behavior and political participation.
新兴民主国家不遗余力地实施选举过程的制度保护。然而，在本文中，我们提出的证据表明，即使在美国——秘密投票已经实行了几代人——对投票过程保密性的怀疑仍然非常普遍。许多人表示，他们的选票可以与他们的名字相对应，或者其他人在投票时可以观察他们的投票选择。我们发现，以前没有投票的人特别有可能对选民选票的保密性表示怀疑。那些通过邮件在自己家中投票的人也认为其他人能够发现他们的投票选择。总的来说，这些发现表明，在美国，公众对秘密投票的看法与制度地位之间存在重要分歧，这种分歧可能会影响投票行为和政治参与的模式。
