# Your voting record is public record, sort of **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 6, 2012, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-voting-record-is-public-record-sort-of/640027 "2012-11-06T00:43:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2012, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-voting-record-is-public-record-sort-of/640027/21 "2012-11-06T19:40:05Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > As always, YMMV. My political knowledge doesn’t extend much beyond my state, and your state may be different. > > In my state, the fact you voted in an election, specific elections, is public record. If you registered for a particular party, that is public record. How many elections you voted in, and which ones (by date, primary, general, whatever) is public record, available electronically or as a printout for a small fee (or free) from the appropriate municipal clerks. > > Lest anyone misinterpret this, _Who_ you voted for is private. Supposedly. And I say that only because crooked clerks could _very_ easily determine which ballot is yours. I’m not suggesting this is common practice. > > Does anyone think this is a bit over the top for those who value their privacy? My first presidential election was 1988. Since then, I’ve voted for Bush Bush Dole Bush Bush Obama I plan to vote for Gary Johnson today. If I cared to, I could look back and figure out who I voted for in most of the Gubernatorial , Senatorial, Congressional, Mayoral, etc. elections, and most of the ‘major’ state initiatives, but I’m really \*supposed \*to be working right now… I don’t really care if people know who I voted for. I suppose that in some places, some people might suffer negative repercussions because of their voting history, but I’ve never experienced any such thing. Perhaps I’m just lucky. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2012, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-voting-record-is-public-record-sort-of/640027/22 "2012-11-06T19:46:48Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Maybe you don’t understand how the voting process works, at least in my state. When you walk in to the polls and give your name, you are given a ballot with a number on it. That number is recorded in the signature book next to your name…\ Yikes, that is scary. Where I am, the only identifying number on the ballot (I checked this morning) is a pre-printed precinct number, which is the same on every ballot. The sign in people and the person handing out the ballots are at different tables. Your situation does seem ripe for abuse. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-voting-record-is-public-record-sort-of/640027/23 "2012-11-06T20:07:10Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > Yikes, that is scary. Where I am, the only identifying number on the ballot (I checked this morning) is a pre-printed precinct number, which is the same on every ballot. The sign in people and the person handing out the ballots are at different tables. > Your situation does seem ripe for abuse. Just got back from voting and that’s how it was here. Signed my name in the book, the other guy (who wasn’t paying the slightest bit of attention to the first guy) handed my my ballots and off I went. 2 big pages chock full of Democracy. ---
**Author:** ![meflin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@meflin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meflin)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-voting-record-is-public-record-sort-of/640027/24 "2012-11-06T20:19:43Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > In this day of directed mailings, if they could link my ballot with my name I would be most afraid that if for example I voted for Prop 64 [CO] (legalizing marijuana) I’d start getting pro-drug email spam and mailings. I have some very bad news for you. > **[Federal judge says no constitutional right to secret ballot in Boulder case](https://www.denverpost.com/2012/09/21/federal-judge-says-no-constitutional-right-to-secret-ballot-in-boulder-case/)** > > Federal judge says no constitutional right to secret ballot in Boulder case Meflin ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-voting-record-is-public-record-sort-of/640027/25 "2012-11-06T20:38:40Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Maybe you don’t understand how the voting process works, at least in my state. When you walk in to the polls and give your name, you are given a ballot with a number on it. That number is recorded in the signature book next to your name. In my state, most votes are by paper ballot, scanned by a machine, but the paper ballots are retained in case of a manual recount. When my state had something similar, the part of the ballot with the number tore off. And there was a poll worker standing near the machine you fed your ballot into that reminded voters to rip their ballot number off the ballot before entering it. Now that we’ve gone to all mail, there’s still a serial number but it has instructions to tear it off before mailing the ballot. The ballots are also to be sent inside a double envelope and only the outside envelope has anything that could identify the voter. The inner envelope does not. I assume that they verify the voter using the outer envelope and then separate those from the actual ballots. Whether or not you vote is a matter of public record (and I’ve no problem with that. Last year, the local alternative paper published [celebrity voting records](http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/10/31/seattle-celebrity-voting-records/)) what you vote for should be secret. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2012, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-voting-record-is-public-record-sort-of/640027/26 "2012-11-06T21:05:49Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > I suspect there is a way; perhaps you never noticed what the poll workers are doing. There needs to be a way of verifying valid votes if needed, especially from absentee ballots. > > A poll worker looks up your name on a computer printout to verify your registration. You sign next to your name so you can’t vote twice. The poll worker picks up a blank ballot, writes down the next voting serial number on it and also next to your name and hands you the ballot. In my polling place this is often done by two or three people sitting next to each other. Nope. What you describe simply is not done here. They look up my name, and my address. I sign my name. Another guy tears off the top form from a sheaf of ballots and gives it to me. The two are NOT correlated. Not HERE. The step you describe – the number going next to my name – Doesn’t Happen Here. It may be different where you are. (And, as I said, if it were so here, I’d complain like hell.) ---
**Author:** ![Dano83860](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a4c791/32.png) [@Dano83860](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dano83860)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2012, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-voting-record-is-public-record-sort-of/640027/27 "2012-11-06T21:38:39Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Maybe you don’t understand how the voting process works, at least in my state. When you walk in to the polls and give your name, you are given a ballot with a number on it. That number is recorded in the signature book next to your name. In my state, most votes are by paper ballot, scanned by a machine, but the paper ballots are retained in case of a manual recount. > > All you need to do to find out what each person’s vote was is to match the number on the ballot with the number on the registration book. The only thing that prevents this is the legal requirement that a representative of both parties be present whenever such action is required; the theory is that while a republican might condone the action, the democrat will not, or vice-versa. > > This doesn’t prevent an unethical clerk, who has access to all ballots, from performing the same action. > > And absentee ballots are even easier. The outside of the submitted ballot has the person’s name. Open the envelope and there is the completed ballot. > > Electronic voting might be a little harder, but less than 5% of our local voters use the optional voting machines right now. The ballots them selves do not have numbers or any other identifying marks. The number you speak of is on the stub which is retained by the issuing clerk. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-voting-record-is-public-record-sort-of/640027/28 "2012-11-06T21:48:57Z")
I kind of feel bad for the one person in my county who lives in a particular school district. S/he effectively has no secret ballot in school district issues because those races are counted at the county level. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-voting-record-is-public-record-sort-of/640027.md?page=1)