As a non-citizen who had a chance to observe how the process works in California, I was struck by how little emphasis is put in the secrecy of the vote. The whole system looks reasonable except for how easy it can be for poll workers to know what you voted for. Beyond that, the system is clearly geared towards increasing participation and enfranchising as many people as possible (a good thing in a democratic system).
As a non citizen who worked the polls as a clerk, there’s plenty of ballot secrecy. Many people don’t care. But there are procedures in place. Sometimes people do care and they can obscure it.
Once the ballot is in the box, disassociated from the voter then there is no more secrecy concerns.