require the initials of one judge of each party. In Alabama, Florida, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah the initials are placed upon the stub.[1] In sixteen states the same number is recorded on the poll-book and stub, and when the elector returns his ballot to be deposited in the ballot box, the number on the stub is compared with the number in the poll-book, and if it corresponds the stub is removed and the ballot voted. The stub is always so placed on the ballot that it can be removed without exposing the marks upon the ballot.[2] Ten states, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Louisiana, Virginia, South Dakota, and New Mexico, make no provision for numbering or initialing the ballot or stub before it is delivered to the voter, but each of these ten states indicates the official character of the ballot by a printed or stamped indorsement upon the back. In Idaho, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming the official indorsement is stamped upon the back of the ballot before it is given to the voter.
The requirement of the printed, stamped, or written indorsement serves two purposes: first, it enables the elector to tell at a glance that this is an official ballot; secondly, it guards against the elector returning another ballot than the one given to him, and enables the election officers to detect any attempt to cast an unofficial ballot. If, through the collusion of an election officer, an indorsed ballot is removed from the polls, a vote-buyer can defeat the purpose of the law by marking this ballot and giving it to a bribed elector who votes that ballot and returns unmarked the one given to him by the ballot clerk. This scheme, which is known as the "endless chain" or "Tasmanian dodge," has been used a number of times; but if an official indorsement is required, particularly initialing or numbering the ballot, it is impossible to work this plan except through the collusion of corrupt election officials; for under no circumstances can an official ballot be legally taken from the polling-place before the closing of the polls.
The electors are admitted inside the railing as rapidly as the voters can mark and deposit their ballots. In the interest of secrecy and order, it has been considered necessary to limit the number of persons inside
- ↑ Alabama, 1893, No. 377; Florida, 1895, ch. 4328; Arizona R.S., 1901, secs. 2330, 2338; Utah C.L., 1907, secs. 839, 846; Colorado, 1908, ch. 43.
- ↑ New Jersey, 1911, ch. 183; Howell, Statutes (Michigan), 1913, sec. 236; Connecticut, 1911, ch. 263. Other states following this rule are Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Arizona, California, Montana, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, and Utah.
