commonwealth to be elected on a separate ticket. Five states required separate ballots for presidential electors. Seven states placed candidates for Congress on a distinct ticket. Other offices placed on a separate ballot were: judicial, in four states; justice of the peace, in three states; county officers, in four states; and city or town officers, in three states.[1]Constitutional amendments were sometimes printed separately.
The size of the ballot was regulated in only five states: Massachusetts,[2] Delaware,[3] Indiana,[4] Alabama,[5] and California.[6]
Since the law made no provision for the printing or distribution of the ballots, the party organizations, prior to the day of election, saw that the tickets were printed. Usually a select committee on printing took charge of the entire matter of getting up the ballot, seeing that it conformed to the law, and that the tickets were properly folded, bunched, and distributed throughout the organization. In New York City[7] the tickets for Tammany Hall and the county democracy were distributed under the supervision of a committee of the organization. The assembly district bag was delivered to the assembly district leaders, and by them to the election district leaders. In the Republican party, the tickets were delivered to the district leaders. Thus the district leaders had control of a vital part of the election machinery. They could destroy or fail to distribute the tickets, and then there would have virtually been no election.
The tickets were given to the voter in advance of the election, or they could be obtained near the polling-place on the day of election. Each party customarily had a ticket booth for each polling-place and attached to it a number of ticket peddlers.
6. THE MANNER OF VOTING
As the elector approached the polling-place, he was met by these ticket peddlers, who were only too anxious to supply him with their party tickets, and a close watch was kept to see what party ticket he
- ↑ City elections held at a different time from general elections of course had to have separate ballots.
- ↑ Massachusetts, 1879, ch. 286: the ballot was to be 4 1/2 inches wide and 12 inches long.
- ↑ Delaware, 1881, ch. 328: the ballot was to be 6 inches long and 3 inches wide.
- ↑ Indiana, 1881, ch. 47: the ballot was to be 3 inches wide.
- ↑ Alabama Code, 1881: the ballot was to be not less than 5 nor more than 10 inches long.
- ↑ California Political Code, 1872: the ballot was to be 12 inches long and 4 inches wide.
- ↑ Ivins, Machine Politics, p. 51.
