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Open Secrets: Voting In The Blogosphere

Secret ballots are taken for granted in America these days, but it wasn't always the norm that it is now. The first president elected by secret ballot was Grover Cleveland in 1892, so until Bill Clinton was elected in 1992, more presidents had been elected by open ballot than in secret.

Polling in private emerged for good reasons -- fears of intimidation and bribery before voting, and retaliation afterward -- and the United States isn't likely to return to officially sanctioned open ballots for the same reasons. But Americans remain free to voluntarily disclose how they voted, and in a political blogosphere that has become increasingly obsessed with transparency, that's exactly what is happening.

On Friday, Instapundit Glenn Reynolds availed himself of the early-voting option in Tennessee and invited his readers to vote themselves by guessing which Senate candidate, Republican Bob Corker, Democrat Harold Ford Jr. or write-in Frank J., won Reynolds' support. Forty percent guessed that he voted for Corker, and 36 percent said Ford. The rest went to Frank J.

The majority guessed correctly. "I liked Harold Ford Jr. when we interviewed him, and I wouldn't shed any tears if he were elected; he'd raise the caliber of the Democrats in the Senate," Reynolds said. "But when push came to shove, I voted for Corker. I liked him, too, and ultimately the combination of Ford's 'F' rating on gun rights and the sleazy 'outing' behavior of the Democrats was such that I just felt I had to vote Republican in this race."

In the local House race, Reynolds sided with Democrat John Greene in a "protest vote" against Republican Jimmy Duncan Jr.. He also backed Democrat Phil Bredesen for governor and, true to his libertarian bent, voted against a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

(Two votes for Democrats and one against an amendment also opposed by the Democratic Party. So why is it that leading Democratic bloggers hate Instapundit so? Oh yeah, his support for the Iraq war.)

Reynolds may well have started a trend in the blogosphere. Today, Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters disclosed not only his absentee ballots in Minnesota but those of his wife as well.

"Both of us supported the Republican candidates on our ballot, and did so gladly," he wrote. They also wrote Morrissey's name in for mayor of Eagan. "I sense a grassroots groundswell for a new mayor here in Minnesota's eighth-largest city," he said. "I'll check after Election Day to see if any other Eagan residents decided to cast votes for Edward Morrissey, and I'll be sure to report on the results. I'm already preparing my concession speech."

People's political leanings generally are quite obvious on their blogs, so such voting disclosures aren't likely to surprise many readers. Even so, it's interesting to see the current generation of Americans so willing to make their ballots open to the world on the Internet when their political forbears fought so hard to keep ballots secret.

Posted by Danny | 09:10 AM

Comments

Frank J never had a chance.

spacemonkey | 10.23.06 12:08 PM

Grover Cleveland was not the first president elected through secret ballots. Voice voting had been abolished in the early nineteenth century. The secret ballot had been the norm for generations before the 1880s.

dtb | 10.23.06 01:06 PM

It was those crooked Internet voting machines, I tells ya. Frank was elected, fair and square. All of my polling (admittedly confined to my house) had Frank J ahead by a wide margin.

K T Cat | 10.23.06 01:11 PM

I found the radio button ballot to be very confusing. If my experience is any indication, most of the votes for Frank J. should've gone to Al Gore.

Laika's Last Woof | 10.23.06 02:23 PM

Frank J. was Diebolded!

Paper Ballots! Hand Count! Halliburton! Jews for Oil!

PWT | 10.23.06 03:10 PM

I appreciate seeing how prominent bloggers (as well as "lesser" blogers) vote. It's one thing to spend months and months, and post-upon-post talking about candidates, it's quite another to cast your vote.

For instance, I've written numerous posts over the last several months on why I might vote for Kinky Friedman for Governor of Texas. However, when the time came to cast my ballot this morning on the first day of early voting in Texas, I voted for incumbent Rick Perry (R).

I explained why to my readers here (and also disclosed my other votes in major races).

Robbie | 10.23.06 03:26 PM

It's a little misleading to equate the development of the written ballot with the "secret ballot." True the voice vote was abandoned early on, but you still had parties and other private actors supplying ballots, rather than the government. So if you wanted to "deliver" the vote, all you needed to do was supply the slate and watch to make sure you voters deposited it. A government-printed standard ballot, coupled with a private means for marking and casting it, make it more difficult to engage in vote-buying, since it made verification difficult.

Allison | 10.25.06 04:19 PM

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