James Johnson - Should Secret Voting Be Mandatory?

Our final chapter builds on this theoretical and historical groundwork. We argue that popular reforms aimed at enhancing inclusion by making it more convenient to vote threaten even such protection as the secret ballot provides. Politically, this creates the erroneous impression that an unavoidable tension exists between inclusion and electoral integrity. And it is the reason why we recommend making voting mandatory. This is a more effective way to promote inclusion than the family of reforms we criticize. But, more importantly, it complements and sustains the protections that the secret ballot offers to voters. Like the secret ballot, it infringes on the liberty of voters in one way in order to protect them from electoral domination. In this instance, it inoculates voters from attempts to buy or suppress turnout. We show that any apparent tension between promoting inclusive participation and protecting voter choice is entirely avoidable.

In short, when implemented in tandem, a pair of institutions – the secret ballot and compulsory voting – which may initially seem to reduce individual freedom in fact effectively protect individual voters from domination. That, we believe, is an important step in restoring popular confidence in elections and in democratic politics.

1 Freedom House (2019). “Democracy in Retreat: Freedom in the World 2019.” Freedom House. ( https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2019/democracy-retreat) 2 R. S. Foa, A. Klassen, M. Slade, A. Rand, and R. Collins (2020). “The Global Satisfaction with Democracy Report 2020.” Cambridge, United Kingdom: Centre for the Future of Democracy.

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