[EM] proxies and confidentiality

[Jobst Heitzig]

Dear Abd ul-Rahman!

I wrote:
>> ... no person X must know whether or not s/he is a proxy for some 
>> other person Y, and Y must not have a possibility of proving to X 
>> that X is Y's proxy. 
>> ... Is this possible without the use of
>> advanced technology like, say, public key cryptography?

To which you replied:
> Yes. It's called secret ballot, and it is standard process.

Perhaps I'm dumb, but could you please explain how that works?

Just to be sure, let me state more precisely what I think is a necessary
degree of secrecy: *Nobody* but me must know whether I voted, what I
voted, whether I named a proxy, and who the proxy is. I don't see how
this can be done in an easy way!

Yours, Jobst