Let us look at voting first. We may begin with the view according to which the electoral process aims only at aggregating people’s individual preferences regarding the type of decisions they consider in their own interest (rather than in the public interest). Under such a view, there is no strong case for making sure that my fellow citizen be able to know what my actual preferences are. This is especially significant when it comes to direct democracy (e.g., a referendum). However, in democratic systems involving representation, there may be weighty reasons for representatives to know which type of electors they are representing, and hence to favor open ballots. This implies that, even under an “aggregation of private interests” view of democracy, there may be a case for open ballots. This case has nothing to do with the need for fellow voters to know about their neighbor’s actual preferences. Only their representatives need to know about them.