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No such thing as secret ballot

Thu., Feb. 5, 2009

The Spokesman-Review

Concerning the editorial on the Opinion page, “Keep ballot secret,” Jan. 29:

If employees of a company are considering joining a union, the vote of those signing a card should be revealed. The votes of our Congress are known. What’s the big secret? Do we toss them out because they refused to vote our way? Many instances, what they voted against turned out to be best for all. Pressure to vote a certain way is always from management and labor.

We desire an open society. Secrecy has no place in it, right? Individual voters on the winning side will soon reveal how they voted. The losers will quickly be known. Secret ballot or not, the majority wins. Think about it. In reality there is no secret ballot in this matter.

Derald Lyman

Spokane

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