New Op-ed piece at the Wall Street Journal: Donor Disclosure Has Its Downsides Recount Bias

The Wall Street Journal piece co-authored with Bradley Smith starts off this way:

How would you like elections without secret ballots? To most people, this would be absurd.

We have secret balloting for obvious reasons. Politics frequently generates hot tempers. People can put up yard signs or wear political buttons if they want. But not everyone feels comfortable making his or her positions public -- many worry that their choice might offend or anger someone else. They fear losing their jobs or facing boycotts of their businesses.

And yet the mandatory public disclosure of financial donations to political campaigns in almost every state and at the federal level renders people's fears and vulnerability all too real. Proposition 8 -- California's recently passed constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage by ensuring that marriage in that state remains between a man and a woman -- is a dramatic case in point. Its passage has generated retaliation against those who supported it, once their financial support was made public and put online. . . .

Some commentary at Hotair, WSJ, FreeRepublic, and Lucianne.com. Here is an editorial in the Democrat Herald from Oregon where the editorial writers appear to have been effected by our piece.