OK so we had a general election on Saturday and now the country pretty much knows where it’s going for the next three years. But did it ever occur to you just how crucial it is to our electoral system that your vote is secret? Well maybe your vote isn’t absolutely secret because the system still needs to know enough to validate the votes cast but we don’t need to go into that much detail right now.

Suppose you are part of a family that really holds strong left or right wing views. But deep down you really feel that you’re not going to vote for the same party the rest of your family supports. You can keep this entirely to yourself. Nobody will know how you actually voted.

That is not the case for blind and vision impaired people.

OK so we had a general election on Saturday and now the country pretty much knows where it’s going for the next three years. But did it ever occur to you just how crucial it is to our electoral system that your vote is secret? Well maybe your vote isn’t absolutely secret because the system still needs to know enough to validate the votes cast but we don’t need to go into that much detail right now.

Suppose you are part of a family that really holds strong left or right wing views. But deep down you really feel that you’re not going to vote for the same party the rest of your family supports. You can keep this entirely to yourself. Nobody will know how you actually voted.

That is not the case for blind and vision impaired people.

I went to vote on Saturday as I usually do and I asked the nice man at the booth to fill my ballot papers in for me. Under the Electoral Act, as a blind person I am entitled to ask for someone of my own choosing to complete the ballot for me, and in fact I can ask someone else to verify that the paper is filled in according to my instructions. I have never gone that far.

The nice man at the booth knows how I voted and he also knows how my partner voted as she is also blind and he helped her as well. I’m sure he is responsible and won’t abuse that knowledge, but the reality is that in order for us to vote, we did have to share our vote with someone. Our votes were not secret.

There are countries where in reality a person’s vote is not confidential enough so people in the know can easily find out how someone voted. People are sometimes killed for voting the wrong way. Through our international links, we are very much aware of blind people who actively choose not to vote at all because it is the best option for them, particularly given that they are not in a position to defend themselves against any action someone might take against them should the truth of their vote become known.

At least in New Zealand we don’t feel under any threat because someone else knows how we voted. But the principle is still the same; we should be able to cast a secret vote just like everyone else.

Our Association continues to call for New Zealand to introduce a system that would allow a blind or vision impaired person to cast a vote with the same confidentiality as is enjoyed by the rest of you. There are a variety of technologies today that could make this a reality. But so far our plea has not been heard. The subject only comes around every three years so we won’t get another chance until, presumably, 2014.

Article 29 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which New Zealand has ratified, calls on governments to ensure that people with disabilities can participate fully in political life and the democratic process without discrimination and on an equal basis with others. We believe this creates an obligation on our Government to take reasonable steps to ensure that we can cast a vote with the same secrecy as the rest of you already enjoy. This obligation becomes more significant as new technologies become available to make it possible.

Now the election is over, we will wait for the new Government to be formed, and we will then act with some urgency to try to persuade the Government to start work on a voting system that could deliver us a secret vote in time for the next election.