Open-secret voting

About this book

"Abstract: Stock debates about transparency and secrecy usually assume that open voting and secret voting are mutually exclusive. But these positions present a false alternative; open and secret voting can be employed as complements in a larger decision-procedure. In what follows I will propose a hybrid or dual procedure of open-secret voting, and attempt to specify the conditions under which that procedure works well. I suggest that open-secret voting can best be justified as an institutional means of obtaining a second opinion from the voting group. A second opinion of this sort might produce informational benefits either for the members of the voting group itself, for outsideparties, or for both. (This is a companion paper to Adrian Vermeule, "Second Opinions" available on SSRN)---John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business web site.