Already organized in 10 states, Save Our Secret Ballots (SOS) leads the effort to put this before state voters in 2010.  Americans cherish the right to a secret ballot and want it protected.  Now they can make it so.

Crafted by respected constitutional scholar Clint Bolick at The Goldwater Institute, SOS Ballot’s proposal reads:

“The right of individuals to vote by secret ballot is fundamental. Where state or federal law requires elections for public office or public votes on initiatives or referenda, or designations or authorizations of employee representation, the right of individuals to vote by secret ballot shall be guaranteed.”

As Bolick writes, “Given the important state interests in protecting the secret ballot and freedom of association, the proposed state constitutional provisions should prevail in a clash with federal law,” since workers would retain the right to unionize, in intimidation-free voting booths.

Unions can grow without bypassing secret ballot elections; American union membership increased last year by almost half-a-million.  But union bosses are out of touch.

In a Utah newspaper last month, the head of Utah’s AFL-CIO demeaned secret ballot elections as “bureaucracy-laden” and “anti-democratic.”  Nationally, they’re airing a multi-million-dollar TV campaign to limit the use of secret ballots.

But hypocrisy on this issue is nothing new.

Just a decade ago, the AFL-CIO and United Auto Workers told a federal agency that “other means of decision-making are not comparable to the privacy and independence of the voting booth,” and that secret ballots are best to avoid “the result of group pressures and not individual decision.”   They still insist on secret ballots whenever workers decide whether to oust a union.

EFCA’s principal sponsor, Congressman George Miller, D-CA, co-authored a letter with 15 other Congressmen in 2001, telling Mexico’s government, “the secret ballot is allowed for, but not required, by Mexican labor law. However, we feel that the secret ballot is absolutely necessary in order to ensure that workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they might not otherwise choose.”

American workers deserve the same protection, not to be pressured into signing a union card.  Whether practiced by management or by labor, bullying, coercion and intimidation are wrong and should be punished, not rewarded.

By saving our secret ballots, we protect freedom of conscience, freedom of choice, and freedom from intimation.  The 10 states with SOS campaigns underway include Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah.

Campaigns will soon spread to other states.  Members of Congress who support EFCA will be held doubly accountable when this provision is considered for their state constitutions in 2010.

The secret ballot is a hallmark of civil rights, allowing all of us to vote without fear or reprisal.  America’s courts have consistently ruled that the best way to avoid coerced elections is a secret ballot, not a pledge card signup.  The United States has fought for such free elections around the world, most recently in Iraq.

Former presidential nominee and Senator George McGovern (D, SD), appealed to his former colleagues to defeat EFCA, writing:

“There are many documented cases where workers have been pressured, harassed, tricked and intimidated into signing cards that have led to mandatory payment of dues. . . .Under EFCA, workers could lose the freedom to express their will in private, the right to make a decision without anyone peering over their shoulder, free from fear of reprisal.”

McGovern’s warning is being ignored.  States and citizens can unite against an out-of-control Congress by using state constitutions to protect the cherished right to a secret ballot.  SOS Ballot is working to make this happen.  Join us.

Ernest Istook, recovering after 14 years in Congress representing Oklahoma’s 5th district, chairs the National Advisory Board for Save Our Secret Ballots (www.SOS Ballotallot.org).