Before the game's referendum mechanics, there was no message search feature, only Ctrl-F.
I know, I didn't contradict this. But leaving the responsibility of doing that to a single person can easily result in votes being lost, be it intentionally or accidentally.
This may sound controversial, but I really LIKE the fact that votes are anonymous. For so many reasons!
Firstly, I do not like to play the two characters I have in the same realm the same. In fact, Sicarius often doesn't agree with his brother Saeculo (and as a result votes against him on certain issues). Yet if these were to become public, he'd have no choice but to support his older brother, lest he suffer a backlash.
On this path of thought, I also think it opens up the possibility of a lot more backstabbing, I read on the Wiki years ago a funny description of being offered a cookie to vote for person A, and then taking the cookie, eating it and voting for person B without person A ever knowing. I like this. I also like the fact that less powerful characters can make their own decision without the threat of repercussions of more powerful characters. If there was only one Duke for example, he could easily force everyone to obey his commands, and anyone who did not, well he could make their lives extremely difficult. (Depending on the government system, would depend on how relevant this is).
This is not to say that I don't think the above would make things interesting, I just think that there are two sides to it.
I have no issue with the default being private, as with the government elections. But we used to do these votes manually, publicly. And some people want to be able to hold public votes now too, and are forced to bypass the game-generated referendum. It'd be nice if there was the option for a public referendum.
