The Aquarian Agrarian: Criticism of the Secret Ballot Voting System

Written on December 8th, 2011

Edited in April 2014

Any candidate for public office whose campaign does not emphasize the abolition of the secret-ballot voting system - whether Democrat, Republican, or independent - favors a secret, private government; one which rests on power which is maintained through aggressive, violent force and the threat thereof, rather than on consent, voluntary association, and duly-delegated decision-making authority.

Secret ballots make for secret government; government which is - by force and power disguised as "law" - unaccountable and irresponsible to the people of which it claims exclusive dominion.

Irresponsible, exclusive dominion is indistinguishable from the right of private property; these politicians literally own us. Why should we elect a politician who does not make it an issue that he will only use his violence-defended power but once, in order to release us from his ownership?

Show me the document that proves you ever authorized one of your elected representatives to make decisions on your behalf. You can't do it because the secret-ballot system makes this impossible and "illegal".

"All votes shall be by secret ballot." - Constitution of the State of Wisconsin, Article III, Section 3.

Read "No Treason" by Lysander Spooner.

[The remainder of this entry is a response to someone's comment that "The secret ballot protects my right and yours to vote for whom we choose without intimidation or force. Abolishing the secret ballot would be abolishing the most crucial element of a democratic republic. It's an idiotic idea."]:

It’s fine when people agree to use the secret ballot, like when they freely join labor unions, and vote on issues in them. But we’re talking about the government here. Take the State of Wisconsin for example.

The land of Wisconsin was conquered (stolen) and secured through force. Nobody ever unanimously consented to be governed and protected by the Wisconsin government – especially the people who had the right to the land – and now people have no choice as to who protects them.

Governments have a monopoly on the provision of security, and a “monopoly of legitimate violence” (which Obama has supported). We are forced to pay them taxes, which gives them the power (but not the authority, by which I mean authorization) to defend us against real enemies, as well as any enemies they feel it necessary to invent.

But even if any group of people had ever unanimously consented to be controlled by a government which operates under the secret ballot, those people’s consent would not be binding upon we individuals today. We are absolutely sovereign to control our own destinies, and our ancestors cannot compel us into supporting a system which we wish to have no part in.

Being that we must consent to be controlled by the government which claims the exclusive, monopolistic right to protect us within the territories over which they exercise jurisdiction, the secret ballot only entrenches the government’s power to do things that we do not wish them to do, including to hide the results of the elections from us, or at least from the majority of us, and only show those results to unaccountable bureaucrats.

The secret ballot does not protect us against intimidation and force; the secret ballot is the basis of government intimidation and force. We are not free to resist the government, and that is why all voting is done under duress. We are forced to choose between the lesser of two evils, and we are never free to choose that nobody control us.

If any one of our politicians were asked to produce a list of the group of people who delegated their authority to him, he would legally not be able to do it. Our politicians can also not produce written evidence that they ever swore an oath to support our government’s founding document.

They are not accountable to the people, they are not accountable to a piece of paper, they are accountable to nobody but themselves. Clearly the secret ballot is the problem. Whether and how an open ballot system might be the solution remains to be seen.