In California, a petition to make financial privacy a ballot initiative received almost 600,000 signatures this year, significantly more than the 375,000 signatures required.
To guarantee privacy the ballots were separated from the envelopes after canvassing board members examined postmarks and other information printed on the envelope and determined whether they met legal requirements.
"Our constitution grants here in Kentucky the right for privacy at the ballot box, for a secret ballot," she lightly lectured.
Privacy of a ballot box is quite different than that of a poll".
He said: "In the privacy of the ballot box, the people made a public statement.
"I think in the end, many of their members, in the privacy of the ballot booth, are going to move toward Carl McCall".
Elections officials are reluctant to formalize means to call voters' errors to their attention at the polling place, for fear of violating the privacy of the ballot.
This is one way to explain why voters plumped for the Conservatives in the privacy of the ballot box on 7 May, in spite of what the polls said.
The expectation is that figure will come down in the privacy of the ballot box, the theory being that when asked by a pollster a question that seeks information about a person's belief in equality or human rights, the response will be positive.
Much will depend on just how much ordinary people come to understand -- and trust -- the privacy of the ballot, this wholly new concept in a country where for generations agreements have been brokered between big men in private, or by public communal gatherings.
