Voting and Privacy

One of the fundamental Rights in the U. S. Democracy is voting privacy. The justification for such protection is obvious--if how someone voted were known to others, one might be subject to retribution, and the entire institution of voting would be a function of threats and promises. However, the existence of this Right to Privacy can confuse the nature of the act of voting itself. It can lead to the impression that voting is a private matter, an expression of merely personal feelings that are of no concern to anybody else, of the status of e. g. one's liking for broccoli. But, first of all, who one votes for is of concern to, not just somebody else, but to everybody else, because the consequences of that vote bear on everybody else. Hence, the reasons for a vote are a public concern, for which there is no codified protection. So, in a familiar example from past U. S. elections, one's voting for someone on the basis of 'with which candidate would one prefer to have a beer', is justifiably of concern to others. In a more Evolved Democracy, voting privacy would no longer be necessary. Under current circumstances, cultivation of the public conscientiousness of voters, e. g. inculcation of the notion that voting is a means to the general good, not a private venting, would constitute a significant Evolvement.