Insight

Secret ballot

Researchers find out that though secret ballot is a known fact, it helps to publicise this information before elections

Voting behaviour can be changed. Registered voters were informed about ballot secrecy protection prior to an election. This raised voter turnout for those who had not voted before but did not change the voting patterns for those who had previously voted. The study, by Alan Gerber, Gregory Huber, David Doherty, Conor Dowling, and Seth Hill of NBER, conducted in Connecticut before the November 2010 elections found that though secret ballot is a known fact, it helps to publicise this information before elections.

Title: NBER Working Paper No. 17678

Source: National Bureau of Economic Research