total number of votes given (there being only one member in each, electoral district) is checked by reference to "la feuille d ap2)d efc inscription des votants," the law still supposing that each voter is publicly called on to vote. If the voter, when challenged, cannot sign his polling card, he may call a witness to sign for him. The following classes of bulletins are rejected: "illisibles, blancs, ne contenant pas une designation suffisante ; sur lesquels les votants so sont fait connaitre ; contenant le nom d une personne n aj T aut pas prite le serment present" (i.e., of a person not nominated). Only the votes pronounced bad by the bureau in presence of representative scrutineers are preserved, in case these should be called for during the " Session pour verification des Pouvoirs." Practically the French ballot did not afford secrecy, for you might observe what bulletin the voter took from the agent, and follow him up the queue into the polling-place ; but the determined voter might conceal his vote even from the undue influence of Govern ment by. scratching out the printed matter and writing his vote. This was always a good vote, and scrutiny of good votes was impossible. The ballot is still used in the elections to the National Assembly, but in the Assembly itself only in. special cases, as, e.g., in the elec tion of a " rapporteur." Under the law of 10th August 1871, the conseils generaux (departmental councils) are elected by ballot. In Piedmont the ballot formed part of the free constitutional government introduced by Charles Albert in March 1848 ; it was extended to Italy in 1861. Voting for the Italian Chamber of Deputies takes place under the law of 20th November 1859, and in public halls (not booths), to which admission is gained by showing a certificate of inscription, issued by the mayor to each qualified voter. A stamped blue official paper, with a memorandum of the law printed on the back (bolletino spiegato], is then issued to the elector ; on this he writes the name of a candidate (there being equal electoral col leges), or, in certain exceptional cases, gets a confidential friend to do so, and hands the paper folded up to the pre sident of the bureau, who puts it in the box (urna), and who afterwards presides at the public " squittinio dei suffragi." No scrutiny is possible ; canvassing and bribery are rare ; and Cavour thought the ballot had quite nullified the clerical power, at least in Piedmont. Greece is the only European country in which the ball ballot is used. The voting takes place in the churches, each candidate has a box, on which his name is inscribed, one half (white) being also marked " Yes," the other half (black) " No." The voter, his citizenship or right to vote in the eparchy being verified, receives one ball or leaden bullet for each candidate from a wooden bowl, which a clerk carries from box to box. The voter stretches his arm down a funnel, and drops the ball into the " Yes " or ; No " division. The vote is secret, but there is apparently no check on "Yes" votes being given for all the candidates, and the ball or bullet is iniitable. In the United States a most im perfect ballot system prevails. In many states there is no register, and therefore personation and double voting are practised. Again, there is no official card, but, as in the Shanty system of New York, candidates touts give out printed and designed cards, which sometimes fraudulently imitate one another in design, so that ignorant voters are misled. Again, the ballot is generally taken in an engine- house, or shed open to the street, so that mob-intimidation may be used, and votes, as in France, are not practically Becret. In Massachusetts, in 1851-2, the Know-nothing or Anti-Irish party, anxious to prevent personation, introduced a secret ballot for state elections, using the Manchester envelope and an official card, with the names of the candidates printed. This led to fraud and wai abandoned, a return being made to the French system. The history of the ballot in Hungary is remarkable. Before 1848 secret voting was unknown there. The electoral aw of that year left the regulation of parliamentary elections to the county and town councils, very few of which adopted the ballot. The mode of voting was perhaps the most primitive on record. Each candidate had a large box with his name superscribed, and painted in a distinguishing olour. On entering the room alone the voter received a rod from 4 to 6 feet in length (to prevent concealment of non-official rods on the voter s person), which he placed in the box through a slit in the lid. By the electoral law of 1874,[1] the ballot in parliamentary elections in Hungary is abolished, but is made obligatory in the elections of town and county councils, where votes are given for several persons at once.[2] This voting, however, carried on by party-lists on differently coloured cards is practically open. There is a strong feeling in Hungary that the ballot would be worked by the Catholic clergy through the Con fessional. As most of the electors are freeholders, there is little intimidation. In Prussia, Stein, by his Stadteordnung. or Municipal Corporation Act of 1808, introduced the ballot in the election of the Municipal Assembly (Stadt verordneten Versammlung}. Under the German Constitu tion of 1867, and the New Constitution of 1st January 1871, the elections for the Eeichstag are conducted by universal suffrage under the ballot in conformity with the Electoral Law of 31st May 1869, which also divided
Germany into equal electoral districts.
of fraud and the large expense of printing and counting ballot papers, several ballot machines or registers have been invented. In that of Vassie there was an arrangement of confluent funnels, by which the voter was prevented from dropping more than one ball into the box. In that of Chamberlain the number of votes given was indicated by the ringing of a bell. In that of Sydserff,[3] the ball was placed by the sheriff in the common duct, and the voter, by moving a lever, guided it into a channel leading to the box of a particular candidate. Generally, it may be said that these mechanical contrivances have been attempts to make the ball-system secret and accurate, each voter depositing a ball, and the accumulated balls showing the state of the poll. This in a large constituency would become unwieldy, and no permanent record of the poll (except the collocation of the balls) would ba obtained. A considerable advance is made in the invention of Mr James Davie, Edinburgh, which we select for detailed description. Of this register an essential part is the wooden chamber (4 feet square by 7 feet in height) which the voter, having received a metal ball from the sheriff, enters by a spring-hinged door to which a lever is attached. On one side of the chamber is a box, on the lid of which stand differently coloured cups, marked each with a number and the name of a candidate. Inside the box is a cylinder traversed lengthwise by a spindle, and having at one end a toothed wheel. By a screw-nut the cylinder revolves on and moves along the spindle. On the cylinder is paper divided into spaces, which correspond with the cups, and above this a sheet of carbonised paper as a printing medium. A pinion connects the cylinder with the door-lever, so that the opening of the door drives round the paper one space. A steel type, suspended on an elastic card, is centred to each cup. The voter having placed the ball in a cup, leaves the chamber
by another spring-hinged door, which in opening displaces- ↑ Hungary is now being divided into equal electoral districts.
- ↑ On the other hand, by the 2d of the original bye-laws of the Bank of England, it was provided that the ballot should be used in the general courts "in any question concerning only one person, matter , w thing."
- ↑ Letters-Patent, No. 63 of 1869.
