Today's Voting Will Be by Secret Ballot. Will Tomorrow's?

(By Bret Jacobson, D.C. Examiner) - Hundreds of candidates are running for federal office. When the polls close tonight, more than a hundred million Americans will have voted, all by secret ballots.

But thanks to many of the very politicians running in today’s election, millions of today’s voters could lose their right to a secret ballot in the workplace tomorrow.

It’s cynical, even by political standards, for candidates to accept today’s private votes if they support the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) — a one-bill union bailout for decades of corruption, ineptitude, and insulation from true competition.

Facing a decades-long decline in union membership, labor executives have crafted this law to strip working Americans of the right to cast a private ballot in workplace elections, as they decide whether to join a union. In place of an election, EFCA would impose a petition-like system already proven susceptible to coercion.

In other words, those loveable, incorruptible Teamsters can solicit employees’ support for an organizing drive in front of their peers and continue harassing them until they sign a card. Once enough employees have signed the card, the union automatically “represents” everyone.