A secret ballot lets people stand beside one another without revealing which future each has requested.

The secrecy is what lets people stand together despite wanting different things. Nobody has to reveal which future they asked for, so the disagreement stays invisible and the community survives the vote. Privacy here is a mechanism for keeping people in the same room.

Worth remembering when you are tempted to require people to declare themselves. Demanding that everyone state their position publicly changes what they will say and what it costs them. In smaller settings too, anonymous input often produces truer answers than a show of hands, and the difference between the two is worth taking seriously.