Summary
Secrecy of the ballot should be maintained throughout the entire voting process.
Obligations
Election Parts
Criteria
- Impartial assistance for voters unable to vote independently was provided
- Regardless of the balloting method used, secrecy of the ballot was maintained throughout the electoral process, including during voting and tabulation. It was not possible to link cast ballots to specific voters during counting and tabulation
- The legal framework offered clear guidance on secrecy of the ballot throughout the election
- The legal framework offered clear guidance with regard to the secrecy of the ballot
Quotes
- States should take measures to guarantee the requirement of the secrecy of the vote during elections, including absentee voting, where such a system exists. This implies that voters should be protected from any form of coercion or compulsion to disclose how they intend to vote or how they voted, and from any unlawful or arbitrary interference with the voting process... The security of ballot boxes must be guaranteed and votes should be counted in the presence of the candidates or their agents.
- Multiple voting should be prevented effectively without, however, violating the principle of the secrecy of the vote.
- Tak[e] proactive measures to eliminate all barriers in law and in practice that prevent or hinder citizens, in particular women, persons belonging to marginalized groups or minorities, persons with disabilities and persons in vulnerable situations, from participating fully in effectively in political and public affairs, including, inter alia, reviewing and repealing measures that unreasonably restrict the right to participate in public affairs, and considering adopting, on the basis of reliable data on participation, temporary special measure, including legislative acts, aimed at increasing the participation of underrepresented groups in all aspects of political and public life;
- The violation of secret suffrage should be sanctioned.
- Security arrangements and safeguards against fraud: ...ensuring that proper arrangements have been made for the security of the polling stations and the ballot boxes/papers during and after the poll and during and after the count.
- The secrecy of the ballot is one of the great pillars on which free and fair, credible and legitimate elections rest. To avoid suspicion, mistrust, political violence, intimidation and fear of political retribution and victimisation voters, election officials, party agents and party supporters need to be assured that their vote will be secret.
- The vote should be cast personally in full secrecy…
- Voting must be individual. Family voting, whereby one member of a given family can supervise the votes cast by the other members, infringes the secrecy of the ballot; it is a common violation of the electoral law. All other forms of control by one voter over the vote of another must also be prohibited. Proxy voting, which is subject to strict conditions, is a separate issue.
- Under no circumstances, except for counting of ballots after close of the polling, should a polling station committee member or other person be allowed to see a voter’s marked ballot. Obviously, this prohibition does not apply to a person legally authorised to assist a blind voter or a voter requiring assistance due to physical infirmity.
- The principle of secrecy of the ballot requires legislation to ensure that secret voting is not only a right on the part of the voter but an absolute obligation.
- ...since abstention may indicate a political choice, lists of persons voting should not be published.
- The list of persons actually voting should not be published.
- The voter should collect his or her ballot paper and no one else should touch it from that point on.
- Appropriate steps should be taken to ensure the secrecy of the ballot, which is one of the most important single features in the democratic process.
- Observers are responsible for seeing that the election have been conducted in accordance with the following requirements… that the secrecy of the ballot has been maintained.
- Ballot secrecy is not only a right on the part of the voter, but an absolute obligation.
- Violation of the secrecy of the ballot must be punished, just like violations of other aspects of voter freedom.
- Election officials should under no circumstances accept deviations from the principle of secrecy of the vote.
- The signing and stamping of ballot papers should not take place at the point when the paper is presented to the voter, because the signatory or the person affixing the stamp might mark the paper so that the voter could be identified when it came to counting the votes, which would violate the secrecy of the ballot.
- No member of a polling station committee or any other person, except during the counting of ballots, should be allowed to see a voter’s marked ballot. Obviously, this prohibition does not apply to a person legally authorized to assist a blind voter or a voter requiring assistance due to a physical infirmity or illiteracy in certain cases. However, a member of a polling station committee should not handle or control the voter’s marked ballot before it is placed in the ballot box.
- Secrecy of the ballot is one aspect of voter freedom, its purpose being to shield voters from pressures they might face if others learned how they had voted. Secrecy must apply to the entire procedure – and particularly the casting and counting of votes. Voters are entitled to it, but must also respect it themselves, and non-compliance must be punished by disqualifying any ballot paper whose content has been disclosed.
- For the voter, secrecy of voting is not only a right but also a duty, non-compliance with which must be punishable by disqualification of any ballot paper whose content is disclosed.