DEAR EDITOR -- I have always been under the impression that secrecy when voting at elections is paramount.

Not so, apparently.

I recently went to vote at the elections and presented my official poll card to the clerk. Observing him, I noticed that he first crosschecked the number on my card with the number on his list of voters. He next tore off a voting slip from a book, leaving the counterfoil in the book. He then wrote the number that appeared on my poll card on the back of the voting slip.

Surely anyone who was interested in finding who had voted for who, could do so just by looking on the back of the slip.

When I queried this, I was informed that "It was the law". If this is the case, then I would like to know precisely which section of the Representation of the People Act permits voter's rights to be comprised in this way.

What I witnessed at the polling station was malpractice and means that who I vote for is no longer a matter between me and the ballot box.

G E Mayling

Berkeley Close

Harwood Park

Bromsgrove