Do secret ballots really matter?

In which of the following situations would you be more inclined to vote your true intentions and be free of intimidation?

a) Your vote will be shared openly, everyone will know how you voted
b) Your vote will be kept secret, no one but you will know how you voted

It would seem impossible for someone to intimidate you, if they didn’t know how you voted; whereas, if your vote was made public, you could be intimidated.

Despite this seemingly obvious truism, labor unions are claiming the opposite; that secret ballots actually enable companies to intimidate employees (who are voting on unionizing). How could companies possibly intimidate someone, if they don’t know how the person voted? This completely defies logic.

The fact that people vote differently on card checks (which are public) and secret ballots, only validates the point that people feel pressured to alter their vote when the vote is open to the public. The bottom line is this: even if you didn’t need to shield voters; there is no harm in doing so, people will only be more honest with their votes, not less.

Why do I bring this up? Two reasons: First, this runs completely counter to the direction unions should be going if they want to grow membership; as I discussed in a previous post, unions stand a much better chance of growing by aligning the value of the employee and the employer. Trying to change laws to allow more intimidation is a gigantic step backwards. Secondly, Senator Barack Obama voted to support the Employee Free Choice Act; which should more aptly be named the “Allow Union Intimidation Act”.