the naturalisation of foreigners, or the release of state- debtors, were decided by secret voting. The petalism, or voting by words on olive-leaves, practised at Syracuse, may also be mentioned. At Rome the ballot was introduced to the comitia by the Leges TabeUariae, of which the Lex Gabiana (139 B.C.) relates to the election of magistrates, the Lex Cassia (137 B.C.) to judicia populi, and the Lex Papiria (131 B.C.) to the enactment and repeal of laws. The wooden tabellae, placed in the data, or wicker box, were marked U. R. (uti rogas) and A. (antiquo) in the case of a proposed law; L. (libero) and D. (damno) in the case of a public trial ; in the case of an election, puncta were made opposite the names or initials of the candidates. Tabellae were also used by the Roman judices, who expressed their verdict or judgment by the letters A.
(absolvo), C. (condemno), and N. L. (non liquet).[1]
In Great Britain the ballot was suggested for use in Par liament by a political tract of the time of Charles II. It was actually used by the Scots Parliament of 1662 in proceed ing on the "Billeting Act," a measure proposed by Middleton to secure the ostracism of Lauderdale and other political opponents who were by secret vote declared incapable of public office. The plan followed was this : each member of Parliament wrote, in a disguised hand, on a piece of paper, the names of twelve suspected persons ; the billets were put in a bag held by the registrar; the bag was then sealed, and was afterwards opened and its contents ascertained in the Exchequer Chamber, where the billets were imme diately burned, and the names of the ostracised concealed on oath. The Billeting Act was repudiated by the king, and the ballot was not again heard of till 1705, when Fletcher of Saltoun, in his measure for a provisional government of Scotland by annual Parliaments in the event of Queen Anne s death, proposed secret voting to protect members from court influence. The gradual emancipation of the British Parliament from the power of the Crown, and the adoption of a strictly representative system of election, have not only destroyed whatever reason may once have existed for the ballot in deliberative voting, but have rendered it essential that such voting should be open. It was in the agitations for parliamentary reform at the beginning of the 19th century that the demand for the ballot in parliamentary elections was first seriously made. The Benthamites advocated the system in 1817.[2] At the Peterloo Massacre (1819) several banners were inscribed with the ballot. O Connell introduced a bill on the subject in 1830 ; and the original draft of Lord John Russell s Reform Bill, probably on the suggestion of Lords Durham and Duncannon, provided for its introduc tion. Later on Mr Grote became its chief supporter in the House of Commons; and from 1833 to 1839, in spite of the ridicule cast by Sydney Smith on the " mouse-trap," and on Mr Grote s " dagger-box, in which you stab the card of your favourite candidate with a dagger,"[3] the minority for the ballot increased from 106 to 217. In 1838 the ballot was the fourth point of the People s Charter. In the same year the abolition of the land qualification introduced rich commercial candidates to the constituencies. Lord Melbourne s cabinet declared the question open. The cause, upheld by Macaulay, Ward, Hume (in his resolutions, 1848), and Berkeley, was strengthened by the Report of Lord Hartington s Select Committee (15th March 1870),[4] to the effect that corruption, treating, and intimidation by priests and landlords took place to a large extent at both parliamentary and municipal elections in England and Ireland ; and that the ballot, if adopted, would probably not only promote tranquillity at elections, but protect voters from undue influence, and introduce greater freedom and purity in voting, provided secrecy was made inviolable except in cases where a voter was found guilty of bribery, or where an invalid vote had been given. At Manchester and Stafford in 1869, test ballots had taken place on the Australian principle as practised in Victoria, the voting card containing the names of all the candidates, printed indifferent colours (for the benefit of illiterate voters), and the voter being directed to score out the names of those he did not support, and then to place the card (covered by an official envelope) in the box. It was found at Manchester that the voting was considerably more rapid, and therefore less expensive, than under the old system ; that only 80 cards out of 11,475 were rejected as informal; and that, the repre sentatives of candidates being present to check fake state ments of identity, and the public outside being debarred from receiving information what voters had voted, the ballot rather decreased the risk of personation. At Manchester the cards were not numbered consecutively, as is done in Victoria, so that (assuming the officials to be free from corruption) no scrutiny could have detected by whom particular votes were given. At Stafford the returning officer stamped each card before giving it to the voter, the die of the stamp having been finished only on the morning of the election. By this means the possibility was excluded of what was known in the colonies as " the Tasmanian Dodge," by which a corrupt voter gave to the returning officer, or placed in the box, a blank non-official ticket, and carried out from the booth his official card, which a corrupt agent then marked for his candidate and gave, se marked, to corrupt voter No. 2 (before he entered the booth), on condition that he also would bring out his official card, and so on ad libitum ; the agent thus obtaining a security for his bribe, unless the corrupt voter chose to disfranchise himself by making further marks on the card.
At the close of 1870 the ballot was employed in the election of members for the London School Board, under the Education Act of that year.
introduced the ballot in all parliamentary and municipal elections, except parliamentary elections for universities ; and the code of procedure prescribed by the Act was adopted by the Scotch Education Board in the first School Board election (1873), under "The Education (Scotland) Act, 1872." It is impossible here to analyse the Ballot Act, which not only abolishes public nominations of candidates, but deals with the offence of personation and the expenses of elections. As regards the ballot, a white paper is used on which the names of the candidates are printed in alphabetical order, the voter filling up with a X the blank on the right hand opposite the name he votes for. The paper, before being given out, is marked by the presiding officer on both sides with an official stamp, which is kept secret, and cannot be used for a second election within seven years. The paper is marked on the back with the same number as the counterfoil of the paper which remains with the officer. This counterfoil is also marked with the voter s number on the register, so that the vote may be identified on a scrutiny ; and a mark on the register shows that the voter has received a ballot paper. The voter folds up the paper so as to conceal his mark, but to show the stamp to the officer, and deposits it in the box, which is locked and sealed, and so constructed that papers cannot be withdrawn without unlocking it. Papers inadvertently spoiled by the voters may be exchanged, the officer preserving separately the spoiled papers. If a voter is
incapacitated from blindness, or other physical cause, or- ↑ In Saxony juries still vote by ballot.
- ↑ See the powerful article by James Mill, Westminster Rev., vol. xiii.
- ↑ For a description of Mr Grote s card-frame, in which the card was punctured through a hole, and was thus never in the voter s hands, see Spectator, 25th February 18-37.
- ↑ Parliamentary Papers, 1S68-9, R. 352, 352-1.; and 1S70, R. 115.
