Thinking about Elections

“HOW DO I KNOW MY VOTE IS RECORDED?” I get that question about mail-in/absentee ballots marked as “received” in the ballot tracker. Voters ask, “Does “received” equal “recorded?”

My answer: Since your ballot is secret, you will never see that your specific ballot has been recorded because that would mean that whom you voted for is known. Ballot secrecy means that no one should know or be able to figure out whom you voted for. So how can you know your ballot was counted?

Mail-in/absentee ballots. The information on the exterior envelope and the barcode there are used to verify you are an eligible voter and to record you as having voted. Then, when mail-in ballots are counted, this exterior envelope is separated from the interior privacy envelope with your ballot inside. Once the exterior envelope is separated from its contents, there is no way to associate the voter's identity with their ballot. (Ballot secrecy makes it hard to buy votes or coerce voters to vote a certain way. Ballots or privacy envelopes that have marks on them are not counted because such markings have been used in vote-buying and coercion schemes to identify cooperating voters.)

Polling Place. Your name in the poll book shows you are eligible to vote. Signing the poll book confirms that you are voting. However, your identity is not attached to the ballot you receive. After you fill it out, there’s no way to know it’s yours. Scanning it adds it to the total number of ballots tabulated.

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Voting was done by shouting out your choices in public, often on the courthouse steps, until well into the 19th century. Read about the history of the secret ballot.

https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IN12389