Sweden has never had secret ballot. The “Valmyndigheten” election authority themselves have criticized the lack of secrecy and general chaos with Sweden’s ballots. But what do they know? They only administer the elections.
Swedes have a highly developed superiority complex and ability to perform mental gymnastics about the flaws of their country and ways of doing things. No sane person from any other country in the world would consider a system where voters must, in public and under the active scrutiny of other voters and local election officials (who are themselves politicians and party members) pick ballots for the party you intend to vote for and then bring it into the “secret” booth. Any child or idiot can see that’s not secret other than in the most distorted and disingenuous sense of the word.
The government agency was tasked with finding ways of improving their work. One of the things they recommended was for the selection of ballots to be hidden, which has been implemented since then.
It will probably have a negative effect on the ability for smaller parties to get started.
This is the most common counter, but it doesn’t change the fact that the ballot is not secret. Again, you’re picking ballots in public and under the active scrutiny of other voters and election officials, and there is a strong and palpable disincentive to pick ballots from the “wrong” parties, and a strong and palpable incentive for showing your neighbors and friends you pick only the correct ballots before going into the booth. Smaller parties have to come up with nationwide ballots themselves, which is often impossible. People can and do also vandalize, hide, throw away and illegally modify the ballots such that voters who show up can not vote according to their wishes. I have personally experienced TWICE having to ask the election officials out loud to restock the ballots for the party I intended to vote for, and so have countless others. I could go on. These are all known problems that the election authority themselves have pointed out should be rectified, but they never will be, because the system is working as intended. (discouraging votes for the wrong parties)
Yeah, and blank ones if you want to write down the party of your choice. You could bring your own ballot if you so choose, or vote pretty much anywhere else than were you live during a ~ three week long period.
yeah... or you could just implement secret ballot like all sane countries have
> blank ones if you want to write down the party of your choice
this can and does risk resulting in the vote not being counted (due to alleged illegibility, a tiny spelling error or whatever)
> You could bring your own ballot if you so choose
same thing, your own ballot could be considered illegitimate + even in the best case that you obtain a real lawful ballot, only a tiny fraction of people are willing and able to go through the trouble of doing so + again, by requesting a ballot, secrecy is out the window
> or vote pretty much anywhere else than were you live during a ~ three week long period
the suggestions just keep getting more and more ridiculous - no one should have to do any of this! everyone should be able to just rock up and vote with secrecy preserved, without having to prepare or use all these hacks
As per my prior comment directed at you, you have been reminded that the improvement you asked for had been implemented into law.
As per the same comment, the situation for new parties have thereby become worse. You are sure to have experienced the same problems we experienced when getting the Pirate party into parliament when you got the Sweden Democrats through the system.
Which country has "secret ballot" then ? Cause what you described as imperfect is the system that is present in all countries I've ever been in, and I've been in the majority of western europe...
Almost all actual democracies have secret ballot? There’s any number of ways to ensure secrecy is preserved at all times by default. (unlike in Sweden, where virtually no votes are secret because it requires hacking the process)
Swedes have a highly developed superiority complex and ability to perform mental gymnastics about the flaws of their country and ways of doing things. No sane person from any other country in the world would consider a system where voters must, in public and under the active scrutiny of other voters and local election officials (who are themselves politicians and party members) pick ballots for the party you intend to vote for and then bring it into the “secret” booth. Any child or idiot can see that’s not secret other than in the most distorted and disingenuous sense of the word.