Show your true opinion, even if it takes courage to do so. This Americanism, which presumably refers to counting votes, dates from the turn of the twentieth century and has been used with reference to showing where one’s political sympathies lie, even if one’s view is very unpopular. From the mid-twentieth century on, however, it has been used more broadly for revealing any kind of conviction. Michael Innes used it in Appleby’s Answer (1973): “A mild-mannered man. But he felt he must stand up and be counted.”