Anonymous ballots are almost universally accepted. One can imagine the problems that would arise if a submitted ballot could be used to identify the voter who casts it. By no means can the First SAR Legislative Council afford to use a non-anonymous election method. One serious practical consequence of such a step would be the drastic drop in the number of voters casting votes. The neutrality principle is best illustrated by the following example.
Candidates are commonly assigned numbers.
Neutrality means that these numbers are irrelevant to voters. To put it formally, voters make rational decisions. These decisions are based on relevant information, such as what a candidate can and will do for the voters if he or she is elected. Voter rationality can provide a candidate with the proper incentive to act in accordance with the interests of voters. This is important, since the interests of voters and those of a candidate may not coincide.