There are multiple things to take into consideration here.
For example, there are arguments made that we need to have more strict voter ID laws in order to prevent potential undesirables from voting. Yet that necessitates gathering more data from citizens. If we want the government to be transparent and open with the data it collects, then that necessitates making that data public. It's a very difficult act to balance having an open government while expecting data the government collects to be private, because otherwise you end up with cases like voters conspicuously dropped from voter rolls using information that is unverifiable and unable to be accounted for by the public.
There's also considerations to be made when an act of public policy can directly affect large portions of the population. For example people who might vote to remove or lessen the rights for minorities are entitled to privacy even though their actions can cause direct harm to vulnerable populations. This is made worse through voter suppression as people vote in favor of actions that cement their own power without recourse.
At the same time I can understand why privacy is necessary because in the era of Big Business, it's not unfathomable to imagine businesses using public data like that to make decisions on who to hire or to threaten employees into voting for policies that directly help them. Yet I can't help but feel that people who are ashamed of whom they vote for are people that know some of the policies they're voting for are bad in one way or another, but chooses to support them anyways, although that veers into the 'nothing to hide' argument.
For example, there are arguments made that we need to have more strict voter ID laws in order to prevent potential undesirables from voting. Yet that necessitates gathering more data from citizens. If we want the government to be transparent and open with the data it collects, then that necessitates making that data public. It's a very difficult act to balance having an open government while expecting data the government collects to be private, because otherwise you end up with cases like voters conspicuously dropped from voter rolls using information that is unverifiable and unable to be accounted for by the public.
There's also considerations to be made when an act of public policy can directly affect large portions of the population. For example people who might vote to remove or lessen the rights for minorities are entitled to privacy even though their actions can cause direct harm to vulnerable populations. This is made worse through voter suppression as people vote in favor of actions that cement their own power without recourse.
At the same time I can understand why privacy is necessary because in the era of Big Business, it's not unfathomable to imagine businesses using public data like that to make decisions on who to hire or to threaten employees into voting for policies that directly help them. Yet I can't help but feel that people who are ashamed of whom they vote for are people that know some of the policies they're voting for are bad in one way or another, but chooses to support them anyways, although that veers into the 'nothing to hide' argument.