CHAPTER III
THE DEVLOPMENT OF THE AUSTRALIAN BALLOT IN THE UNITED STATES
INTRODUCTORY
The movement for reform, which reaped its first fruits of victory in Louisville and Massachusetts, received great impetus by the unprecedented use of money in the election of 1888. The effect is easily seen in the record of legislation of the next four years. In 1889 seven states enacted reform laws based on the Australian ballot.[1] In the legislative sessions of the following year five states and one territory placed this law on their statute books.[2] Before the presidential election in 1892 thirty-two states and two territories had provided for the Australian ballot; and by 1896 seven other states were added to this list. In 1897 Missouri abandoned in part the Australian ballot, and adopted separate party ballots.[3] This is the only state which has given up the blanket form of the ballot after once adopting it. By 1916 Georgia and South Carolina remain the only states entirely unreformed. North Carolina has only a local act applying to New Hanover County.[4] New Mexico has a very unsatisfactory compromise law under which separate ballots are printed by the county recorders under the supervision of the chairmen of the county committees of each party; and the ballots are distributed by the parties in advance of the election.[5] Tennessee has applied the Australian-ballot law only to counties having fifty thousand population or over,[6] and to towns having a population of twenty-five hundred or more.[7] Missouri has all the features of the Australian ballot except that it has separate party ballots.[8] Delaware has taken a very reactionary step by permitting an elector to obtain a ballot in advance of the election from the chairmen of the various political
- ↑ Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Tennessee for a part of the state.
- ↑ Maryland, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming.
- ↑ Missouri Laws, 1897, p. 107.
- ↑ North Carolina Laws, 1909, ch. 867.
- ↑ New Mexico, 1905, ch. 127.
- ↑ Tennessee, 1891, ch. 225.
- ↑ Tennessee, 1897, ch. 17. By special acts three other counties are also included.
- ↑ In 1913 the Missouri legislature passed an act providing for the blanket type, but because of constitutional objections the law was not put into effect.
