Resolution to Restore the Secret Ballot in Washington State

My resolution to restore the secret ballot in Washington State was adopted by our pooled caucus, which had more than 200 people in attendance, across 34 precincts.

The biggest confusion is in what a secret ballot is, and why it's needed. A secret ballot is one that is -- as the state constitution requires -- prepared and desposited in secret. The reason why we have it is to prevent bribery and coercion. If someone is pressuring or paying you to vote a certain way, and they cannot actually see your ballot, they cannot know how you filled it out; therefore, the ballot is protected from such influence.

We could argue about whether this is important. I think it is. But the facts and history are inescapable: we do not have a secret ballot in Washington State, and the Washington State Constitution requires that we do.

The other big problem some people had with the resolution was the effect on those who need absentee voting, because they are for some legitimate reason incapable of going to the polls. I had mentioned that this would be up to the legislature to address as they saw fit through introduction of a constitutional amendment, but we directly addressed the concern by adding "and that the Legislature introduce a constitutional amendment providing for absentee voting for electors unable to go to the polls" to the end of the resolution.