The importance of secret ballots

Chairing the Member by William Hogarth

In 18th and most of 19th century Britain, you had to be a male landowner in order to vote in elections.

You had to go to the polling place, stand in front of the crowd and declare your vote. Or it was decided by a public show of hands. Then your vote was recorded in a polling book.

That was one reason the polling process was so corrupt. The Members of Parliament were usually allies of the local bigwig, who owned a few rotten boroughs as well, boroughs with no population or very few, which could be easily manipulated.

If you voted for his opponent, it was likely that you'd be beaten, your house burned down, and if you were a farmer, your crops and livestock destroyed.

Not until 1872 was the secret ballot introduced. That gave every voter (still all male) the right to keep their vote secret. Go into the booth, put an X opposite the name of your candidate, fold it, and post it in the box. No names attached.

So if you don't want to tell anyone how you vote, you have the right to refuse anybody who asks.