state in 1878 the Republican ticket had a flaming pink border which threw out branches toward the center of the back, and had a Republican indorsement in letters half an inch high.[1] In another election in Massachusetts the Republicans used a colored ballot, while the Democratic ticket was white with an eagle so heavily printed as to show through the ballot.[2] In one election in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, the Republican ticket was of medium-weight paper, with the back resembling a playing-card, and, according to statements made, could be recognized across the street. The Democrats had a tissue-paper ticket of a pale-blue color. There were two sizes of this tissue-paper ticket, so that the smaller could be folded in the larger one, and an outsider could not tell that there was more than one ticket being voted.[3] The Democratic ticket used at the polls in Charleston, South Carolina, had a red checked back and was printed with red ink.[4] Tissue-paper ballots were used quite extensively throughout the South.
One object in making the ballots so easily distinguishable was to enable the ignorant elector to obtain the ticket he wished to vote; but it was usually easy to counterfeit the opposition ticket. A facsimile of the opposing party ticket would be printed, containing, however, all or sometimes only a few of another party’s nominees. This was so skilfully done at times as to deceive even the most careful voter. Another reason for making the tickets distinguishable was to discover how the elector voted. This was the greater of the two evils, and greatly facilitated corruption and intimidation.
During the Civil War and Reconstruction period this condition became intolerable, and led to the enactment in fifteen states of laws prescribing the color of the paper and the kind of ink to be used in the printing of the ballot. Maine[5] was the pioneer state in this movement, the law in this state having been passed as early as 1831. Maine was followed, in 1867, by Connecticut,[6] Indiana,[7] and Virginia;[8] by Ohio[9]
- ↑ Nation, XXVIII, 82-83.
- ↑ Forty-sixth Congress, second session, Report 497, p. 23.
- ↑ A Corrupt Ballot Box and Prostituted Ballots, p. 56. For an illustration of the kind of tickets used, see Congressional Record, XIII, Part 5, p. 4343.
- ↑ Senate Report 855, Serial No. 1840, p. xxxv.
- ↑ Maine Laws, 1831, ch. 518, sec. 3.
- ↑ Public Acts of Connecticut, 1867-71, p. 135.
- ↑ Davis, Statutes of Indiana, p. 439.
- ↑ Virginia Laws, 1869-70, ch. 76, sec. 31.
- ↑ Swan and Sayler (Ohio), R.S., 1868, p. 343.
