Privacy and the Ballot Secrecy

The presidential election in the US is over and we all congratulate Barack Obama on four more years in the White House. After a convincing victory he now starts his second term. He is now, after Bill Clinton, the second democratic President to be re-elected since the Second World War.

Speaking of election: This also includes the ballot secrecy. The following is stated on Wikipedia:

„The secret ballot is a voting method in which a voter‘s choices in an election or a referendum are anonymous. The system is one means of achieving the goal of political privacy.”

Secret ballot. In slight contradiction to this are the facts about a survey saying that 22 % of  registered voters in the US have shared their vote on Facebook, Twitter & Co. Social network users between the ages of 18 and 29 seem to be the most communicative voters.

The following graph can be found on mashable.com:

The ballot secrecy protects the voter. However, with the growing talkativeness of voters the secret ballot may soon be a thing of the past in the US.