Obama opposes the secret ballot.

The Wall Street Journal reports that President Obama told 100 top AFL-CIO leaders in a closed meeting that his administration supports the misnamed "Employee Free Choice Act." This will allow for the unionization of a business unit on the basis of signed cards without the need of a secret ballot election.

This permits actual threats by union organizers or simple peer pressure to intimidate workers to sign union cards. In the past, unions were able to win sufficient signatures on the cards, but subsequently lost the election because of secret ballots.

Many workers sign the cards to appease their co-workers, but then vote against unionization in the privacy of the election booth. Obama and the unions know that they cannot win support for unionization through democratic elections.

Obama is now paying off the unions for their support in the election. Unfortunately, this also follows the path of FDR that helped change a recession into the Great Depression. Roosevelt encouraged unionization that artificially increased labor costs and reduced employment. That will occur as a result of Obama's legislation.

Mr. President, the secret ballot is the foundation of democracy. Nothing can justify denying workers the right to vote their true opinion in the privacy of the ballot box in union elections just as in political elections.