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 COPYRIGHT DEPOSri 
 
THE 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM 
 
 AS 
 
 EMBODIED IN THE LEGISLATION OF 
 VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 
 
 WITH AN HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 / 
 
 By JOHN H. WIGMORE, 
 
 OF THE BOSTON BAR. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 CHARLES C. SOULE. 
 
 1889. 
 
 

 Copyright, 1889, 
 Br John H. Wigmore. 
 
 University Press: 
 John "Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Workers in the field of foreign statutory law must in 
 this country frequently be at a loss for complete materi- 
 als of recent date ; and in preparing the following pages 
 the editor has not been able to consult the statutes of 
 New Zealand since 1883, or of Tasmania and Western 
 Australia since 1884, or to obtain complete information as 
 to legislation in Victoria or New South Wales since 1885, 
 or in several European countries since 1886. These de- 
 ficiencies are to some extent unavoidable in an American 
 work. No complete set of Australian reports and statutes 
 exists in this country. Pasinomie is not to be procured in 
 Boston, probably not in the United States. The Annuaire 
 de legislation etrangere, published by the Societe de legis- 
 lation comparee, does not appear until twelve months or 
 more after the year with which it deals (the volume for 
 1886 has only recently reached this country) ; and the 
 Bulletin published by the same society, though its reports 
 are as recent as can reasonably be expected, has by no 
 means the exhaustive character of the Annuaire. To pre- 
 pare a complete notice of foriegn legislation to date is 
 perhaps not possible, in the nature of the case, in any 
 country. 
 
 It is believed, however, that the only changes, if any, 
 that are likely to have occurred are the possible adoption 
 of the Australian system in other European States, and 
 a revision of the Tasmanian statutes, which have served 
 since 1858. 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 The side notes to the statutes are collateral references 
 to the other statutes given in full, and are intended to 
 include the principal provisions as to which there is a 
 variation in the practice of different states. The num- 
 bered notes at the end of the Massachusetts statute are 
 comments on the comparative advantages of the different 
 variations. Where two or more statutes of a single coun- 
 try are given, they are referred to in the notes as A, B, 
 etc., according to their order in the text. 
 
 The Queensland and South Australian statutes were 
 selected from the seven Australasian laws for these rea- 
 sons: The seven statutes, as will be seen, fall into two 
 general classes, those of S. Australia and W. Australia being 
 substantially the same, and those of Victoria, Queensland 
 and the remaining states being not materially unlike. 
 The S. Australian statute, as being the most important 
 of its class, and that of Queensland, as having received 
 later revision than the others of its class, are given in full, 
 and the variations of the remaining Australian statutes in 
 all important details are noted in Part VIII. 
 
 Those who are concerned in advancing legislation on 
 the subject are requested to send to the editor, as soon as 
 may be, 1. a copy of the draft of any bill, as soon as intro- 
 duced ; 2. a copy of any law, as soon as enacted and ap- 
 proved ; together with any additional information relative 
 to the history of the movement on behalf of ballot reform. 
 It will thus be made possible, in a subsequent edition of 
 the book, not only to record whatever new legislation 
 takes place upon the subject, but also to make known to 
 other States whatever desirable improvements of detail 
 may elsewhere have been devised, even though they have 
 failed to be enacted. 
 
 J. H. W. 
 
 Boston, Jan. 21, 1S89. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Preface iii 
 
 Introductory Sketch of the History of the Aus- 
 tralian Ballot System 1 
 
 STATUTES : 
 
 Part I. Massachusetts 37 
 
 Notes on Parallel Provisions (of 
 the various Acts) relating to 
 
 the same Subject 52 
 
 Part II. South Australia 68 
 
 Part III. Queensland 75 
 
 Part IV. Great Britain and Ireland ... 85 
 
 Part V. Belgium 105 
 
 Part VI. Kentucky 116 
 
 Part VII. New York 122 
 
 Part VIII. Summary of Statutes in other 
 Countries : — 
 
 A. Tasmania 133 
 
 B. New Zealand 134 
 
 C. Victoria 135 
 
 D. New South Wales 135 
 
 E. West Australia 136 
 
 F. Dominion of Canada 137 
 
 G. Quebec 140 
 
vi CONTENTS. 
 
 Part VIII. Summary of Statutes {continued} . . page 
 
 H. Ontario 143 
 
 L Wisconsin 145 
 
 J. Luxembourg 146 
 
 K. Italy 147 
 
 L. Norway 148 
 
 M. Austria 149 
 
 N. Other Countries 149 
 
 Appendix 153 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Where a community has reason to believe itself 
 to be numbered among the enlightened ones of its 
 age, and its institutions to be pre-eminent among 
 those of civilized mankind as types of liberty and 
 progress, it relaxes (it may be) the constant strain 
 of high endeavor ; an easy complacency settles upon 
 it ; and it awakes one day to realize that a commu- 
 nity having no pretensions to as conspicuous a rank 
 among nations has grasped the torch of progress, 
 and now leads the way with intelligent and ad- 
 vanced methods, pointing the path for its more 
 eminent fellows to pursue. 
 
 With some such reflection as this must England 
 and our own commonwealths look upon the history 
 of ballot reform in the past fifty years. Before rep- 
 resentative government in Australasia had an exist- 
 ence, corruption, fraud, and intimidation (to name 
 none of the less palpable evils that beset an election) 
 thrived abundantly in Great Britain and Ireland, and 
 even in our own country had begun to take root. 
 But it was reserved for stripling states, when to 
 them in their turn the exigency came, not merely to 
 apply, but to invent an effective remedy, and to indi- 
 
2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cate a cure for at any rate the grosser evils that pre- 
 vent an election from being what at the least it should 
 be, the free and accurate expression of the opinions 
 of the electors. It is proposed in the following in- 
 troductory pages to sketch the history of the measure 
 known as the Australian ballot system, as it passed 
 from state to state in Australasia, on to the mother 
 country in Europe, thence westward to Canada and 
 eastward to continental countries, and finally west- 
 ward again to these United States ; and in conclu- 
 sion to take up, briefly, the reasons underlying its 
 effectiveness, and the application of its principles to 
 political conditions in this country. 
 
 I. 
 
 That the system is by birth Australian has once, 
 and once only, been questioned. In 1869, when the 
 British Parliamentary Committee were considering the 
 introduction of the secret ballot, and were examining* 
 witnesses from all parts of the world, it was told 1 
 that in the little town of Maryport, in Cumberland, 
 a similar method of voting had for many years been 
 in successful operation, and it was the grievance of 
 the burgesses of the old town that Australia, far from 
 deserving the credit of an invention, had been only a 
 borrower, without acknowledgment, of the Maryport 
 method, doubtless carried to the colonies by some 
 native of the town. 2 Whether the method used in 
 
 1 Testimony of Francis Taylor, Report of Com. on Pari, and Mun. 
 Elections. Pari. Papers, 1868-9, vol. viii. p. 525. 
 
 2 That a town of Maryport appears on the map of Queensland per- 
 haps adds to the plausibility of this claim. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 Maryport was in fact a similar one, and whether it 
 antedated the colonial system, may be dismissed from 
 our consideration ; for there can be little doubt that 
 the latter was purely indigenous, that its details were 
 prepared and marked out independently, and that no 
 other system was searched for, referred to, or known 
 by the framers of the law. This we have upon the 
 authority of the father of the measure, Francis S. 
 Dutton, member of the Legislature of South Australia 
 from 1851 to 1865, and daring that time twice at the 
 head of the government. The secret ballot was first 
 proposed by him in the session of Legislative Council 
 of 1851, before representative government and uni- 
 versal suffrage had been granted to South Australia. 1 
 At that time the usual attendant vices of open elec- 
 tions already flourished in the young colony. Kiot- 
 ing and violence, bribery, intimidation, and coercion, 
 were only too common, — even more so, some said, 
 than in England. But for several years no action 
 was effected in the direction of reform. In 1856 
 came the Constitution, granting popular representa- 
 tion and manhood suffrage. From 1857 to 1859 
 Dutton was a member of the government, and im- 
 mediately used the opportunity to advance his favor- 
 ite measure. No commission of inquiry was appointed, 
 but with the aid of Chief-Justice (then Attorney-Gen- 
 eneral) Hanson, the details of a plan were elaborated 
 and a bill introduced which, after receiving modifica- 
 tions and additions in the House, became a law under 
 the name of the Elections Act, 1857-8 (No. 12), and 
 
 1 Pari. Papers, supra, p. 353. 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 typifies the system which has since spread to two 
 other continents. " I can safely say," said Dutton, 
 many years later, standing before the Marquis of 
 Hartington's committee, " that no act of my political 
 life has given me so much satisfaction as what I did 
 fifteen or sixteen years ago with reference to the 
 ballot system. If that is possible, I am more strongly 
 in favor of it now, after fifteen years' experience, 
 than when I introduced it before I had any experi- 
 ence about it." It so happened that Colonel (since 
 Sir) Robert Richard Torrens (then recently the 
 author of a system of registration of land titles which 
 has earned him an international reputation and has 
 stimulated Canada and Great Britain to efforts in 
 the same direction) was at that time also a mem- 
 ber of the Government, and, imbued with the argu- 
 ments of Lord Palmerston and John Stuart Mill, had 
 strenuously opposed the introduction of the secret 
 ballot. That its results completely converted him 
 we learn from his own confession. He came to 
 believe that the system he had opposed was " the 
 best and most rapid and facile mode of carrying on 
 elections." The new machinery worked with " the 
 greatest smoothness, ease, and economy." We have 
 his testimony that the aspect of elections was com- 
 pletely changed. Rioting and disorder disappeared 
 entirely. The day of polling saw such quietness 
 that a stranger would not realize that an election 
 was going on. Intimidation by landlords and dic- 
 tation by trades unions alike ceased. Canvassing, 
 at least upon an organized plan, was practically 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 given up. Perhaps Mr. Dutton's most significant 
 statement (and yet the one most difficult for us to 
 picture) is that the very notion of exercising coer- 
 cion or improper influence " absolutely died out of 
 the country." The united sentiment of the colony 
 accorded with these views, and has ever since sus- 
 tained without dissent the policy of the act. By the 
 Ballot Act of 1862 (25 Vict., No. 13) its principles 
 were applied to all elections to public bodies other 
 than the Legislative Council and the Assembly, and 
 thus became applicable from time to time in mu- 
 nicipal elections ; and by the District Councils Act 
 of 1876 (39 Vict., No. 43) and the more recent one 
 of 1887 (50 Vict. No. 41), the system was applied to 
 rural government also. The statute governing legis- 
 lative elections has from time to time been revised 
 (Elections Act, 1S61, No. 20; Elections Act, 1870, 
 No. 18; Elections Act, 1879, No. 141), usually with 
 reference to the suffrage qualification and the regis- 
 tration of electors ; and the ballot system of thirty 
 years ago now extends to all elections alike — mu- 
 nicipal, rural, and legislative — in the colony. 
 
 In Victoria an almost simultaneous movement took 
 place in favor of the secret ballot. The project was 
 introduced by Mr. William Nicholson, and the minis- 
 terial opposition to it speedily resulted in a change of 
 government. Nicholson, at first unsuccessful in form- 
 ing a ministry, afterwards became Chief Secretary, 
 and at the head of the government carried through 
 the measure in 1856, two years after the Constitution 
 had created a representative legislature. The oppo- 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sition to the secret ballot came mainly from the Con- 
 servatives (as was the case later in England), and 
 from a few prominent Liberals; but after its working 
 in practice was seen, the Conservatives were thor- 
 oughly converted, and the country as a unit declared 
 in its favor. Bribery and corruption seem never to 
 have existed in Victoria to such an extent as in neigh- 
 boring South Australia. But other evils politic were 
 not wanting. The new system secured quietness 
 and convenience, and abolished the tumult and wild 
 disorder which formerly prevailed. The various 
 phases of intimidation disappeared ; * and a personal 
 canvass, that formerly indispensable feature of a 
 British election, became almost an unknown occur- 
 rence. 2 Electioneering is largely confined to holding 
 public meetings, at which the merits of candidates 
 and of measures are discussed. About 1861 the op- 
 eration of the secret-ballot system was extended to 
 other than parliamentary elections by the Local 
 Government Act (No. 176). In 1869, upon the re- 
 organization of county and municipal government, it 
 was re-enacted by the Shires Act (No. 358) and the 
 Boroughs Statute (No. 359); and was perpetuated, 
 when these provisions were again fused into one stat- 
 ute, in the Local Government Act, 1874 (No. 506). 
 As applied to parliamentary elections, it is now con- 
 
 1 For instance, "The ballot has saved many a man from having 
 his mortgage foreclosed upon him, as was the case under the old sys- 
 tem." — Melbourne Gazette, 1856, quoted in "Facts about the Ballot," 
 published by the Ballot Society, London, 1857. 
 
 2 This is corroborated by the statement of Mr. Nicholson in " Facts 
 about the Ballot," supra. See this pamphlet for a full account of the 
 adoption and success of the system in Victoria. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tained in the Electoral Act of 1865 (No. 279). Dur- 
 ing nearly thirty years of the operation of the system, 
 only sixteen decisions of the Supreme Court were 
 asked for the construction of the acts containing it. 1 
 
 The new system spread rapidly in the land of its 
 birth. It was adopted in Tasmania Feb. 25, 1858, by 
 the Parliamentary Elections Act (21 Vict., No. 32), 
 which has ever since served without revision ; and in 
 18G5 the Rural Municipalities Act (29 Vict., No. 8) 
 extended the method to elections other than parlia- 
 mentary. In the same year, 1858, New South Wales 
 entered the ranks, and applied the new system to its 
 parliamentary elections (22 Vict., No. 20). Subse- 
 quent statutes embodying the subject are the Muni- 
 cipalities Act, 1867 (31 Vict., No. 12), and the 
 Elections Act, 1880 (44 Vict., No. 13). New Zealand 
 apparently did not adopt the new method in its es- 
 sence until 1870 ; for although a " Regulation of 
 Elections x\ct " was passed, bearing date August 19, 
 1858, by which only the officers of election and per- 
 sons actually voting were admitted to the polling- 
 places, yet the voter was still required, as in England, 
 to declare verbally to the polling-clerk the name of 
 the desired candidate, and no attempt was made to 
 require secrecy of those present at the time. We 
 must therefore say that not until the Regulation of 
 Elections Act, 1870 (33-34 Vict., No. 18), was bal- 
 lot reform adopted in New Zealand. Under the 
 
 1 No decisions since 1883 are accessible to the editor. The above 
 statement is of course made of those provisions only which form a part 
 of the electoral machinery peculiar to the ballot system, and not of 
 those parts of the acts relating to registration, etc. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Revising Act of 1881 (45 Vict., No. 12), and the 
 Municipal Corporations Act of 1S76, 1 it is believed 
 that the secret ballot system is in vogue at all elec- 
 tions in New Zealand. In Queensland (which did not 
 receive responsible government until 1859), and in 
 West Australia (which still continues a crown col- 
 ony), the exact date of the introduction of the sys- 
 tem cannot be stated. In the Queensland Parliamen- 
 tary Elections Act, 1874, appear in substance the 
 same regulations afterwards re-enacted in the Parlia- 
 mentary Elections Act of 1885 (given in Part III., 
 infra). By the Local Government Act 1878 (42 
 Vict., No. 8), these principles were applied to muni- 
 cipal elections, and by the recent Divisional Boards 
 Act of 1887 (51 Vict., No. 7) their operation has 
 been extended to the choice of what correspond to 
 county officers ; so that all elections are now con- 
 ducted according to this system. In Western Aus- 
 tralia, legislative elections are now held under the 
 Ballot Act of 1877 (41 Vict., No. 15), based on the 
 Elections Act of South Australia and embodying its 
 essential principles. Whether in the Election Act 
 of 1870 (33 Vict., No. 13) similar provisions already 
 existed, the editor has not been able to ascertain. 2 
 
 1 This the editor has not been able to consult. 
 
 2 A few words of contemporary testimony as to the working of the 
 system in Australia may be of interest. They are taken from an 
 interview published in the li Boston Herald " of Dec. 29, 1888, with a 
 prominent Australian then stopping in Boston. 
 
 " It ha-s been said that the new system will lead to confusion and 
 delay at the polls. Has this been the case in Australia? " was the first 
 question. 
 
 '• Xot at all. . . . Very little work is done near the polls in the in- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 Meanwhile, the good results of the Australian sys- 
 tem of voting had reached England, where thought- 
 ful men were anxiously looking for some solution of 
 the problem of pure and tranquil elections. The 
 earliest method of choosing members of the lower 
 
 terests of the several candidates ; it may be said none at all. The 
 campaign is conducted much the same as in the States, by means of 
 meetings, pamphlets, and flyers. Work at the polls is impossible, and 
 it does not pay to work at the distance prescribed by law." 
 
 . . . "Is the system of voting now in use generally accepted as 
 satisfactory and regarded as permanent in Australia." 
 
 "Yes ; I think so. I have never known any serious opposition, 
 nor of any attempt to essentially modify it." 
 
 . . . "In regard to the nominations, all who desire to be candi- 
 dates offer themselves as such. This does not lead, as might be sup- 
 posed, to a multiplicity of candidates and a disastrous splitting of the 
 party vote. The Australian is a pretty sensible fellow, and does not 
 encourage candidates who have no chance. Before the day of election, 
 the contest is usually narrowed down to two candidates for each 
 office." 
 
 The speaker illustrated the true freedom of voting attained under 
 the system by citing facts coming under his knowledge in England. 
 
 " The reform was pushed most vigorously by the Radicals, who 
 expected large gains in voting strength from the increased privacy 
 afforded by the new method. . . . The new ballot law did prevent this 
 undue influence by the employing classes, but it also made impossible 
 bull-dozing and terrorism by caucuses and committees. The result of 
 this twofold influence was different from that expected by the Radical 
 leaders. Under the protection afforded by the absolute secrecy of the 
 ballot, more voted against them than for them. The voters attend 
 the Radical meetings and shout themselves hoarse; but when the day 
 of election arrives they go to the polls and, unknown to the Radical 
 committees, vote for the Conservative candidates. This explains why 
 some districts in England, in which it is impossible to hold a Conser- 
 vative meeting without a row, return that party's nominees by large 
 majorities. Rather than be ostracized and maltreated by their com- 
 rades, many of the workingmen join hands with the Radicals before 
 the election, but vote as they choose at the polling-booths, and they 
 very often choose to stand with the more conservative elements of 
 society." 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 House. — used at a time when, as is probable, all the 
 freemen of the shire had a voice in the selection, — 
 'was by the view or show of hands, usually in an 
 open, unenclosed space, or by some similar rough 
 process. 1 Not until after a statute of 8 Henry VI. 
 (1429), restricting the county suffrage to 40-skilling 
 freeholders, do we hear of a poll being taken. As 
 late as the sixteenth century the show of hands was 
 still regarded as sufficient in law, and, though grad- 
 ually a change was insisted upon, not before the stat- 
 ute of 7 & 8 Win. III. c. 125 (1696) was the right 
 to demand a poll finally established. In other re- 
 spects, also, the antiquated methods were only slowly 
 adapted to modern needs. An election frequently 
 lasted eight or nine days. In one instance early in 
 this century the polls were open in Mayo County for 
 fifty-seven days ; though later laws limited the dura- 
 tion of a poll to two days in the country and one day 
 in the boroughs. The usual process was this : The 
 voter entered the polling-booth, gave his name to the 
 poll-clerk, and, if successful in replying as to his qual- 
 ifications, was required to declare aloud for whom he 
 voted, and the clerk ckecked a vote for that candi- 
 date opposite his name in the poll-book. The poll 
 was technically only an adjournment of the elections, 
 which began with what was in fact the nomination of 
 candidates in open meeting. If a poll was demanded, 
 which happened as a matter of course when more 
 than one candidate appeared, the election was de- 
 clared adjourned, and the poll took place at the ad- 
 
 1 Cox, Antient Parliamentary Elections, p. 105. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 journment. 1 By the first half of this century (and 
 matters became worse as each decade passed) serious 
 abuses had fastened themselves upon this system. 
 The development of industrial and social conditions, 
 the increase of popular influence, the gradual shifting 
 of political contests from the battlefield and the 
 court to Parliament and the polls, — these causes, 
 with others, resulted in placing an inordinate strain 
 upon the outgrown methods. Ever since its first 
 days, indeed, in the time of Henry VI., the 
 open poll had shown its failings. One is half 
 amused to read the ingenuous complaint pre- 
 sented in 1451 by certain freemen of Huntingdon- 
 shire, protesting against the election of two knights 
 returned for the shire, and telling a tale of armed 
 opponents, who threatened violence at the polls, 
 "and soe wee departed for dread of the inconven- 
 iences that was likely to be done for manslaughter." 
 Other documents of the times suggest to us that 
 even the credit of having originated " counting 
 out " methods and falsification of returns, with 
 other characteristic practices, may upon investiga- 
 tion be taken from the American ward politician ; 
 for in a preamble to the statute of 23 Henry VI. 
 c. 14 it is regretfully recited that " divers sheriffs 
 of the counties of the realm of England, for their 
 singular avail and lucre, have not made due elec- 
 
 1 Before the reform of 1872 the practice had been adopted in cer- 
 tain boroughs of voting by delivering to the poll-clerk voting-papers 
 signed by the elector and containing the name of the preferred can- 
 didate. The varying procedure was reducible substantially to these 
 two types. 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tions ; " * and this passage is not without its com- 
 panion instances. From this time on, but more 
 abundantly as our own century was reached, vio- 
 lence, corruption, fraud, and intimidation in all 
 its phases and varieties were frequent, — in one 
 place or at one time more or less noticeable than 
 at another place or time, but always increasing, 
 and, especially in the larger cities and their en- 
 virons, 2 resulting finally in a condition of affairs 
 which was described by high authority as " fright- 
 ful." One of the commonest facts of British elec- 
 tions, before 1872, was the controlling influence 
 exercised by large customers over tradesmen of 
 all sorts. Landlords intimidated their tenants, and 
 marched detachments to the polls to vote in 
 their interests. In one place employers coerced 
 their workmen ; and in another the trades unions 
 coerced their members. Worse than all, and hardly 
 to be believed, in larger cities hired mobs often 
 patrolled the streets, keeping away hostile voters 
 and intimidating those who ventured to the polls. 
 A Conservative mob or a Radical or Liberal mob, 
 or both, were in some places a common feature of 
 an election. On one occasion which may serve as 
 an example, some 500 out of 2,000 Conservative 
 voters were prevented by demonstrations of violence 
 from giving their votes. Just as present political 
 methods in our laro-e cities should not be taken as 
 
 o 
 
 1 This -word here signifies the ministerial act of certifying to the 
 result of the election. 
 
 2 See the testimony before the Bribery at Elections Committee, 
 Pari. Papers, 1835, vol. viii. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 types of political conduct in every part of the re- 
 public, so these instances are not to be regarded 
 as representing the condition of things throughout 
 Great Britain. But that they could exist at all un- 
 der the British electoral system was reason enough 
 for a reform. From time to time the secret ballot 
 had been demanded by men of influence as a possible 
 remedy. James Mill and the Benthamites, Peel, 
 O'Connell, Bright, Lord Russell, Grote, Macaulay, 
 — all these names are associated with the efforts 
 of the first half of the century. 1 But secret voting 
 has in England always had to encounter a special 
 argument of predominant influence. It is difficult to 
 sum it up in a few words, but its burden is that the 
 open vote tends to create and maintain the self- 
 respect of the voter, and that the secret vote is the 
 parent of hypocrisy. The strength of this sentiment 
 
 1 The following passage-at-arms will serve to show the vigor with 
 which the movement was carried on in controversial literature : — 
 
 " Objection 26: That Publicity is the main essence of the represen- 
 tative system. Ans. Is the elector's being kicked the main essence 
 of the representative system? Is the elector's being bribed the main 
 essence of the representative system? If they are, the publicity which 
 secures them may be so too. Some people think that if the voter has 
 a right to vote, he has a right to vote without being kicked. Some 
 people think that if he is to choose a legislator for the public, it is 
 good he should do it with as little chance of bribery as may be. Some 
 even go to the length of thinking these are of the main essence. Will 
 anybody tell us how the voter is to do better for being either kicked or 
 bribed? But it is good that the voter should go through great tribu- 
 lation. In the Life of Alexander by Quintus Curtius is the story of a 
 man who, after giving his evidence to the best of his ability, was put 
 to the torture, to see if he ' would say the same under torment.' In 
 like manner, with the voter it is held necessary to see whether he will 
 vote the same under torment." (From Fallacies against the Ballot, icith 
 the Answers: published by the Ballot Society, 1855.) 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 anions many of the more thoughtful men in England 
 is something which perhaps has not been appreciated 
 in this country. 1 We may conceive that to enact 
 compulsory secrecy in voting will to some conserva- 
 tive Americans perhaps appear a step too far ; but 
 the denial of even an optional secrecy such as we 
 now enjoy is a policy which to many of us would 
 be almost incomprehensible. 
 
 In the elections of 1868, however, matters reached 
 a climax, and the month of March. 1869, saw a com- 
 mittee appointed, with the Marquis of Harrington 
 in the chair, to inquire into the existing methods of 
 conducting elections, in order to provide further 
 guarantees for the " tranquillity, purity, and free- 
 dom" of parliamentary and municipal elections. 2 
 The committee held sessions during three months, 
 unearthed various accounts of corruption and intimi- 
 dation at the previous elections, and examined wit- 
 nesses from Australia, the United States, France, 
 Italy, and Greece, steadily endeavoring to secure 
 some comprehensive solution of the problem. They 
 reported, in July, 1869. only the evidence taken be- 
 fore them, but upon reappointment, in the session 
 
 1 See an article by James Mill, in 13 Westminster Rev. 1. See 
 also Edinb. Bev. 1853. pp. 572, 610. This feeling still lingers here 
 and there in England with all the vitality of a traditional sentiment, 
 and it was probably to its influence that the seven years' limitation of 
 the original Ballot Act was due. See 115 Westm. Rev. 443 (1881). 
 Indeed no stronger evidence is needed of the merits of the act than 
 the fact that the secret ballot is not in accord with the traditions of 
 British politics, and is retained in the British electoral system purely 
 for the immense benefits which it is seen to secure. 
 
 2 Faii. Eapers, 1868-1869, vol. viii.: 1870, vol. vi. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 of 1870, they reported a recommendation that the 
 secret ballot be adopted. The fruit of the move- 
 ment was the Ballot Act of 1872, brought in on Feb. 
 20, 1870, by William E. Forster, Secretary Bruce, 
 and Lord Hartington, and recommitted and amended 
 from session to session for more than two years, until 
 on May 30, 1872, it passed the Commons, and sub- 
 sequently took its place among the statutes as 35 & 
 36 Vict., c. 33, — based substantially on the South 
 Australian method, but modified, enlarged, and care- 
 fully applied to the circumstances of its new home. 
 Fortunately we are not without testimony as to its 
 operation. Four years later, on the motion of Sir 
 Charles Dilke, a committee was appointed, with that 
 noted Liberal as chairman, "to inquire into the work- 
 ing of the machinery of the Ballot Act." * They 
 gave the subject a thorough investigation, and sum- 
 moned, among other witnesses, the town clerks of 
 Leeds, Manchester, and Liverpool, leading returning 
 officers, and election agents of both parties. The 
 general and emphatic verdict was that a thorough 
 change for the better had taken place. "All those 
 disorders," said Sir Joseph Heron, town clerk of 
 Manchester, " that used to occur under open voting 
 have ceased altogether. . . . Any one walking 
 through the borough would not know the fact that 
 an election was going on ; everything is so perfectly 
 peaceful;" and yet " it was notorious that, taking the 
 city as a whole, there was more interest felt in the 
 elections than had been known for very many years 
 
 1 Pari. Papers, 1876, vol. xii. 
 
16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 past." To the change in regard to the purity of the 
 election he bears the strongest possible testimony : 
 " I believe that such a thing as bribery does not ex- 
 ist at Manchester;" though it was in these large 
 cities that the disorders of the previous decades had 
 reached their extreme. " The ballot is a blessing to 
 us," said the town clerk of Leeds, Mr. Curwood ; 
 and this testimony was corroborated on all sides. 1 
 The course of legislation since 1872 indicates very 
 
 1 Some fears had been expressed that the new method of marking 
 the vote would have difficulties for the less intelligent voters, but the 
 result showed this to be groundless. In a test vote taken by anticipa- 
 tion in Manchester in 1870, the total number of votes cast was 11,475, 
 and of these only 80 were void for insufficient marking. At the 
 Leeds election of 1874, out of 31,793 votes, only 86 were void for un- 
 certainty or failure to mark ; in the Kent election only 32 votes out of 
 23,000 were lost for uncertainty; and at Liverpool, in 1874, where 
 37,000 voted, the uncertain ballots were only 193 in number. These 
 figures show a proportion of lost votes probably much lower (as poll- 
 ing-inspectors would testify) than the unknown number of miscar- 
 riages which occur in our present system in the awkward use of 
 gummed pasters, or in attempting to erase individual names. All the 
 English figures above quoted were those of the first election under the 
 new system at the places named, and of localities where the illiterate 
 vote reached its extreme, and in this light are even remarkable. There 
 was also some testimony that at the election of 1876, with an increase 
 of nearly 10 per cent in the number of voters, the number of votes 
 rejected for the above reasons became smaller, showing that improper 
 marking is not a constant attendant of the system, but as familiarity 
 increases, tends to disappear. Australian experience also testified that 
 very few votes were lost by mistake or informalities. In regard to the 
 multiplicity of names upon a single ballot, it should be added that 
 the conditions of English elections permit comparison with our own, for 
 at School Board elections there are sometimes as many as 25 candi- 
 dates. As respects polling arrangements under the new system, it 
 was found that at the time of greatest pressure (and that under the 
 cumbrous English provisions for taking the votes of illiterates) votes 
 could be received at the rate of from 150 to 200 per hour, and this 
 even where only four private compartments were provided at each 
 polling-place. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 clearly the degree to which the Ballot Act com- 
 mended itself to the British people. In 1873 the 
 Elementary Education Act (36 & 37 Vict., c. 86) 
 provided for its application to the election of school 
 boards; 1 and in 1884 the Education Department, by 
 a General Order, combined its operation with the 
 new method of cumulative voting. In 1875 the 
 rules relating to municipal elections were revised by 
 the Municipal Elections Act (38 and 39 Vict. c. 40) 
 and in 1882 were placed, without material change, 
 in the Municipal Corporations Act (45 & 46 Vict., 
 c. 50). The Ballot Act was limited to expire Dec. 
 31, 1880, but it has been regularly continued in 
 force from year to year, 2 and may now be regarded 
 as a permanent element of the English electoral sys- 
 tem. In August last it was applied to county elec- 
 tions by the Local Government Act, 1888 (51-52 
 Vict., c. 41), so that the entire field of elections in 
 England and Wales, if not in Scotland and Ireland 
 as well, is now covered by the Australian system of 
 balloting. 
 
 Its success in this quarter had far-reaching results. 
 The adoption of the system by Great Britain gave 
 it a standing which it could not otherwise have had, 
 and communities afflicted with like evils came to 
 
 1 Tn 1870, the Education Act having given the Education Depart- 
 ment power to hold elections in its own way, the ballot had been 
 used at the School Board elections in London (Pari. Papers, 1884-85, 
 vol. xi., Report of Com. on School Board Elections, (Voting)). 
 
 a 43^4 Vict , c. 48; 44-45 Vict., c. 70; 45-46 Vict., c. 64; 46-47 
 Vict., c. 40; 47-48 Vict., c. 53; 48-49 Vict., c. 59; 50 Vict., c. 5; 
 50-51 Vict., c. 63. 
 
 o 
 
18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 study the remedy which had there found favor. 
 Naturally, the new method next appeared in Cana- 
 da. It was adopted by the Legislative Assembly of 
 the Province of Ontario, March 24, 1874 (Ballot Act, 
 37 Vict., c. 5) ; by the Dominion Parliament, May 
 26, 1874 (Dominion Elections Act, 37 Vict., c. 9), 
 and by the Legislature of the Province of Quebec, 
 February 23, 1875. Subsequent Dominion legisla- 
 tion has applied it to local option upon the temper- 
 ance question (Canada Temperance Act, 1878, 41 
 Vict., c. 16). In Ontario it was immediately ex- 
 tended to municipal elections (38 Vict., c. 18, Dec. 
 21, 1874). In Quebec, where municipal elections 
 have been governed by the Municipal Code of 1870, 
 enacted while the old system was in force, the appli- 
 cation of the Australian system to the city of Quebec 
 by the charter recently granted (July 12, 1888, 51-52 
 Vict., c. 78), shows the growing demand, here as else- 
 where, for the extension of the system to all manner 
 of elections. 1 
 
 1 The following extracts from a letter by a Nova Scotian election 
 officer, appearing in "The Nation " of Jan. 10, 1889, will be of 
 interest : — 
 
 " In Canada the Australian ballot system has been in force for the 
 past fourteen years. We have grown familiar with it, and what 
 astonishes me is how any one can call it complex, or having once seen 
 it could possibly endure to work with any other. . . . There are no 
 provisions preventing persons congregating about the polling-booth. 
 In practice it is found that the small polling district and the secret 
 voting do away with all temptation to rioting. In former times here, 
 with open voting and a few large sections, we had furious fights about 
 the booths. ... As to simplicity of working, there was a little diffi- 
 culty at first, though nothing like what was predicted. But now very 
 few mistakes are made or votes thrown away. ... As to preventing 
 bribery, it is not such a success as we should like. It has done a good 
 
INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 In Belgium also a remedy was needed for degen- 
 erate elections. The title of the Act of July 9, 1877, 
 " Sur le secret du vote et sur les fraudes electorates" sug- 
 gests the state of things which brought the subject to 
 the attention of the legislature. Party spirit has 
 always been high in Belgium. The great parties, 
 Liberal and Catholic, were very evenly divided in 
 this kingdom of six million souls, and the contest for 
 the small number of votes which carried the balance 
 of power gave birth to all forms of corruption, — to 
 fraudulent registration, illegal voting, intimidation, 
 improper influence, false counting, marked, altered, 
 and suppressed ballots. 1 The modifications of the 
 electoral law since the time of the constitution (1831) 
 had been only recently codified in the Electoral Code 
 of 1872 ; but England's example inspired a fresh 
 movement of reform, and the Premier, Malon, after 
 a careful study of the Ballot Act of 1872, and suit- 
 able modification of its provisions, brought in, and 
 succeeded in passing, the Act of July 9, 1877, — 
 adopting substantially the English system in a much 
 less cumbrous piece of legislation, but containing 
 some unique improvements. This law applied only 
 to national elections, but was in the succeeding year 
 applied also to provincial and municipal elections ; 2 
 and with the exception of one or two minor amend- 
 
 dea] ; nevertheless, the most of our bribable electors, especially in the 
 country, make it a curious point of honor to vote the way they have 
 been paid to. The Corrupt Practices Act ... is far and away more 
 effectual than the ballot." 
 "Halifax, N. S., Dec. 28." 
 
 1 Annuaire de legislation etrangere (Paris), vol. xvii., 1877, p. 512. 
 
 2 Annuaire, etc., vol. xviii., 1878, p. 466. 
 
20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 merits (noticed in Part V., infra), has remained 
 unaltered. In 1882 the various statutes were con- 
 solidated into a supplement to the Electoral Code 
 of 1872. 1 In 1879 Belgium's diminutive neighbor, 
 the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (which, though 
 nominally dependent on the Kingdom of the Nether- 
 lands, is practically autonomous, making and admin- 
 istering its own laws), in the law of May 28, bore 
 witness to the efficient working of the Belgian meas- 
 ure by adopting it almost in its entirety • 2 and five 
 years later, when the laws relating to elections were 
 revised and codified, proved its own satisfaction with 
 the system by applying it to municipal elections. 3 
 
 Whether compulsory secrecy attended the ballot 
 system introduced into Piedmont by Charles Albert 
 in 1848, and into the kingdom of Italy in 1860 by 
 Victor Emmanuel, the editor is not aware. 4 Cavour, 
 who took an important part in the framing of the 
 law, was always a champion and defender of at least 
 permissive secrecy of voting ; for it was, in his con- 
 viction, the only safeguard against clerical intimida- 
 tion. But when the extension of the suffrage and 
 electoral problems generally were discussed in 1881— 
 82, and the question of the method of voting was 
 reached, it would seem that the example of England 
 and Belgium in pronouncing in favor of compulsory 
 
 1 Supplement an code alphabetique des lois politiques, etc., par H. 
 Wyvekens (Brussels, 1S82). 
 
 2 Annuaire, etc., vol. ix., 1879, p. 592. 
 
 3 Act of Mar. 5, 1884; Annuaire, etc., vol. xiv., 1884, p. 527. 
 
 4 See Pari. Papers, 1S68-69, vol. viii., Test, of John W. Probyn, 
 p. 583. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 secrecy was in the minds of the framers of the law 
 of 1882, and that its careful and detailed provisions 
 for compulsory secrecy were influenced by the pre- 
 vious European legislation based on the Austra- 
 lian system. The electoral reforms of 1882 were 
 comprised in the Acts of Jan. 22 and May 7, after- 
 wards published as one by royal decree of Sept. 14. 1 
 They contain the essence of the Australian system. 
 It will be noticed, however, that nominations are not 
 required to be previously communicated to the au- 
 thorities, since the official ballot is blank, and is writ- 
 ten upon by the voter himself, 2 the candidates being 
 made known beforehand at public meetings held in 
 their interest, or by other methods of publication. 
 
 It remains to notice, in transatlantic governments, 
 the adoption by Norway, in 1884, 3 of compulsory 
 secrecy in voting. The time-honored custom in Nor- 
 way, under the Electoral Act of 1828, had been to 
 vote, at the pleasure of the elector, viva voce or by 
 a signed ballot. In 1884 a system was adopted 4 
 nearly resembling the Italian method, but requiring 
 the use of an official envelope; although, inasmuch 
 as the voter procures his ballot for himself before 
 entering the polling-place, the method is hardly 
 to be considered as completely in accord with the 
 Australian system. 
 
 The electoral statutes of certain other European 
 
 1 Armuaire, etc., vol. xii., 1882, p. 503. 
 
 2 A reading and writing qualification is imposed by the same Act 
 of 1882. 
 
 8 Act of July 1 ; Annuaire, etc., vol. xiv., 1884, p. 624. 
 4 See part viii., L. 
 
22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 countries sometimes contain resemblances to the 
 essential features of the Australian system. In Aus- 
 tria, for example, a blank official ballot-paper is 
 used, and the vote is privately written ; in France, 
 Hungary, and Greece, pre-appointed nominations 
 are required ; but since in none of these states has 
 the Australian system been adopted in its entirety, 
 nor does the presence of this or that feature seem 
 to have any historical connection with the Australian 
 method, it would not be proper in this place to refer 
 at length to those laws. 1 
 
 In the Prussian Landtag the demand has been 
 made, from time to time, for a secret ballot. In- 
 timidation is common enough to need preventive 
 measures of some sort ; and, though the Government 
 has as late as March, 1888, again failed to grant the 
 reform, 2 it is probable that the movement must suc- 
 ceed before long. 
 
 The history of ballot reform in our own country 
 is as yet brief, but is full of earnest and successful 
 action on the part of its friends. 
 
 Of the movement in Louisville, Ky., which resulted 
 in the Act of Feb. 24, 1888 (contained in Part VI., 
 infra), the editor has no. detailed information. 3 By 
 this Act the Australian system, properly adapted, is 
 applied to all elections of municipal officers in Louis- 
 ville. In its working it has certainly accomplished 
 
 1 See further, part viii., infra, N, and Charbonnier, Organisation 
 electorate de tous les pays civilises, Paris, 1883. 
 
 2 Bulletin de la soc. de legisl. comp., June, 1SS8, p. 611. 
 
 8 See " The Nation," Dec. 13, 1888, containing a letter from a citi- 
 zen of Louisville. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 r 
 
 the results which were expected from it. 1 " The 
 election last Tuesday," writes the correspondent in 
 " The Nation," " was the first municipal election I 
 
 1 The following letter testifying as to the operation of the law 
 appeared in the Boston "Advertiser" and the Boston "Globe" of 
 Jan. 11, 1889 : — 
 
 The law was apparently difficult and intricate. It had been pre- 
 dicted that the election would end in confusion and disorder. The 
 chief local newspaper had given the project but cold support. Yet the 
 event confounded all; it was administered with practically uniform 
 ease and success by election officers who certainly did not rise above 
 the average in intelligence. ... I have heard of no case in which a 
 ballot was thrown out in the count because of the failure of the voter 
 to understand what was required of him. 
 
 In addition to demonstrating its perfect practicability, the election 
 tested the power of the law to prevent bribery. It can hardly be pos- 
 sible that there is a city in the Union where open corruption has been 
 more generally practised than in Louisville. 
 
 We do not admit the fact of its corruption without great regret; 
 nor would we desire to be lulled into any false security respecting the 
 efficacy of the means just tried to stamp it out. But it is an undenia- 
 ble fact that in the late election there was, except in one place, no 
 corruption successful, and but little attempted, and that with this evi- 
 dence of its successful working the chances have greatly lessened that 
 bribery will be tried. 
 
 Other objections that had been urged failed wholly to be justified. 
 In no case, as far as I can learn, was there any delay in recording votes. 
 A compartment is provided for every one hundred and seventy-five 
 voters, whereas the Massachusetts law provides one for every seventy- 
 five, and yet the accommodations were in every case ample. So far 
 from interfering with the process of voting, I should not be surprised 
 if actually less time were required than by the old viva voce system. 
 
 Again, the counting of votes proceeded apparently with perfect 
 ease. The results of the election were published in the papers the 
 following morning with the accustomed fulness; nor did the official 
 count, so far as I know, require more time than was the case under 
 the old method. 
 
 In some of its details the law may be improved, but in all essen- 
 tial particulars it is beneficent and effective, and we have seen enough 
 to fix it firmly in the confidence of the people. 
 
 Abram Flexuer. 
 Louisville, Ky., Jan. 3. 
 
24 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 have ever known which was not bought outright. 
 As a matter of fact no attempts at bribery were 
 made." 
 
 In New York the movement had its rise simul- 
 taneously in several different sources. Mr. William 
 M. Ivins, of New York, in " Electoral Reform, and 
 the History of the Yates-Saxton Bill," says : — 
 
 " During the winter of 1887 the Commonwealth Club of New 
 York, which consists of men of all shades of political faith, de- 
 voted a half-dozen meetings to the public consideration of the 
 failure of the law to protect the suffrage, and at the end of the 
 season appointed a committee of well-known and able lawyers 
 and public men of large legislative and administrative experience 
 to draft a bill for presentation to the legislature. Every one of 
 these men was especially qualified for the work to do which he was 
 appointed, and the committee as constituted consisted equally of 
 Democrats and Bepublicans. This committee was subsequently 
 joined by a like committee of the City Eeform Club, appointed 
 for the same purpose, and after many months of careful study 
 prepared a measure which, after being approved by the Com- 
 monwealth Club, the Eeform Club, the City Eeform Club, 
 and the Labor Party, was presented in the Assembly about the 
 middle of the session of 1888, and known as the Yates Bill. 
 Mr. Saxton and Mr. Hamilton had already presented bills look- 
 ing to the same end. These bills were all referred to the Assem- 
 bly Committee on Judiciary, and what was subsequently known 
 as the Yates-Saxton, or Saxton, Bill was reported to the House. 
 The bill, as reported, was substantially the Yates Bill with a few 
 amendments adopted from the Hamilton and original Saxton bills, 
 and this measure finally passed both Houses of the legislature." 
 
 It was vetoed, however, by Governor Hill. But 
 although the veto checked for the moment legisla- 
 tion upon the subject, the movement has continued 
 to increase in numbers and in strength. A Ballot 
 Eeform League has been formed, and a congress of 
 
INTRODUCTION. 25 
 
 the advocates of the reform in all the States is to 
 be summoned during the year, for the purpose of 
 achieving organization and concerted action, and for 
 promoting uniformity and efficiency in the coming 
 legislation. Meanwhile a new bill has been drafted 
 and introduced 1 at the present legislative session, and 
 upon this the friends of the reform expect to unite 
 and to reach success. 
 
 The legislation of 1888 in Massachusetts was based 
 on a popular movement even stronger and more 
 widespread than that which made itself felt in New 
 York. Bills were drawn by Messrs. Bailey, Dana, 
 Hayes, and Whitmore, and were introduced early in 
 the session of 1888. Petitions were received from 
 the Common Council of Boston, from citizens of Bos- 
 ton, Cambridge, Chelsea, Fall River, Lynn, Newton, 
 Somerville, Taunton, Worcester, and many of the 
 rural districts, asking for similar legislation. The 
 subject was laid before the joint committee on elec- 
 tion laws, of which Henry H. Sprague, Esq., was 
 chairman on the part of the Senate, and Alpheus 
 Sanford, Esq., chairman on the part of the House ; 
 and it received exhaustive consideration. The Com- 
 mittee had before them the four bills above men- 
 tioned, the Saxton bill of New York, the Michigan 
 bill (introduced in the legislative session of 1888 in 
 Michigan, but lost through a failure of the two 
 branches to agree), and the British, Canadian, and 
 Australian statutes; and from this abundant material 
 it was endeavored to shape a law which should be 
 
 1 See Appendix I. 
 
26 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 efficient and permanent, adapted to the electoral 
 system of the State, and containing in its details the 
 best features of previous legislation. The result of 
 their work was a bill which, after slight alterations, 
 was enacted by a practically unanimous vote, includ- 
 ing the members of both leading parties, and was 
 approved by the Governor May 30, 1888. 1 
 
 1 This was not the first time that the secret ballot had applied for 
 admission to the Massachusetts statute book. The early ballot law of 
 1647, under which the vote was cast "by wrighting the names of 
 the persons Elected, in papers open or once foulded, not twisted nor 
 rowled up, that they may be the sooner perused" (Colonial Laws, 
 1672, " Elections," p. 47, reprint of 18S7), was passed at a time when 
 the distinction between a compulsory and an optional secrecy had not 
 become important. By the year 1850 there was need enough for a 
 measure of reform, and the Know-Xothiug party took up the cause of 
 the secret ballot, perhaps, to some extent, for the reason that secrecy 
 in the political opinions of its members was almost necessary to the 
 success of the movement. In 1850 a legislative committee, with 
 Amasa Walker at its head, reported strongly in favor of a system of 
 compulsory secrecy, which provided for furnishing official envelopes to 
 all voters, and for counting no ballots not contained in the envelopes. 
 This plan became a law in 1S51 (c. 226), a coalition of Democrats and 
 Free-soilers passing it by a small majority. The law seems to have 
 worked well during its brief existence; although it is evident that 
 practically it contains nothing to prevent bystanders from ascertaining 
 what ballot is put into the envelope. But, in 1853, the Whigs again 
 controlled the legislature, and on February 24 mortally wounded the 
 new law by making it optional to demand or not an official envelope, 
 as the voter pleased. To request an envelope thus ticketed the voter 
 as clearly as could be wished. In May, 1853, a convention sat in Bos- 
 ton to propose amendments to the Constitution, and compulsory secrecy 
 in voting was recommended as one of the amendments. The people, 
 however, failed to accept it. In 1S55 the American party carried the 
 State, and, again passing the envelope bill in the House, were defeated 
 in the Senate by one vote. At the time Charles Sumner was first 
 elected to the U. S. Senate, an incident occurred on the joint ballot 
 which created much comment at the time, and was used as an argu- 
 ment for the effectiveness of the secret ballot as a gauge of real con- 
 viction and a guarantee of liberty of action. After twenty-five fruit- 
 less ballotings, a motion was carried to place each ballot in a sealed 
 
INTRODUCTION. 27 
 
 In Wisconsin, as a result of efforts towards reform, 
 a law was passed in the session of 1887 regulating 
 the conduct of elections in cities of more than 50,000 
 inhabitants, and incorporating some of the features 
 of the Australian system. Preparation has been 
 made in other States during the present winter for 
 securing similar legislation. In Maine, a bill has 
 been introduced at the present session of the legis- 
 lature, by Mr. Looney of Portland, substantially the 
 same in its provisions as the Massachusetts statute. 
 The measure will be supported by prominent mem- 
 bers of both leading parties, and by representatives 
 of the Knights of Labor, and seems, here as else- 
 where, to rest upon a strong popular demand. 
 In Rhode Island a Ballot Reform Club has been or- 
 ganized, and a bill embodying the Australian system 
 has been introduced at the present session of the 
 legislature. In Michigan the efforts to secure legis- 
 lation will doubtless be renewed. In addition to 
 these States, the introduction of similar legislation is 
 also in contemplation in California, Connecticut, New 
 
 envelope. Sumner was then elected on the twenty-sixth ballot. The 
 optional envelope law is still in force in Massachusetts, but it is of no 
 practical value, and is seldom taken advantage of. 
 
 The foregoing facts are drawn partly from two interesting pamph- 
 lets, — one, a letter from Amasa Walker to the Ballot Society of Lon- 
 don, published by them in 1855 as Tract No. 5 ; the other, a modest 
 essay by Edward L. Pierce of Milton, published in the Boston Post, 
 of Aug. 2, 1852, republished in the Dedham Gazette, July 30, 1853, 
 entitled " Secret Suffrage," afterwards reprinted by the Ballot Society, 
 with notes by James Mill, and containing by far the best account 
 (within the knowledge of the editor) of the secret ballot in classic 
 times and of the history of the ballot reform movement in England 
 down to 1855. 
 
28 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Dakota, Delaware, Kan- 
 sas, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, New Hamp- 
 shire, Pennsylvania, Montana, Nebraska, Colorado, 
 Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin, and 
 Oregon, and not improbably in others also. It would 
 seem that, before many years pass, the entire elec- 
 toral machinery of the country will have been re- 
 formed in accordance with the principles of the 
 Australian method. That system has now received 
 the approval of the legislatures of seventeen civilized 
 states. Forty-five times these different legislatures 
 have registered their approval of the system by vari- 
 ous enactments (exclusive of amendments). The 
 people who now conduct their elections by this ma- 
 chinery number nearly eighty-five millions ; they 
 are all citizens of free states, living under constitu- 
 tional government, and enjoying representative in- 
 stitutions. So far, then, as its previous adoption has 
 a significance, the system is shown to be neither an 
 untested experiment, nor a questionable expedient 
 drawn from dissimilar political experience ; for it is 
 not only well tried and long tried, but tested and 
 adopted under political conditions and methods which 
 we have in common with all representative govern- 
 ments. It is not the method of any one country or 
 people, but finds a home wherever a pure and sincere 
 expression of conviction is the constitutional mode 
 of selecting the makers and the administrators of the 
 laws. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 29 
 
 II. 
 
 It remains briefly to suggest the reasons for the 
 success of the Australian system, and a few of the 
 special benefits which it promises to American poli- 
 tics. Amid the minor variations of detail in the 
 numerous statutes, the cardinal features of the sys- 
 tem, as everywhere adopted, are two : first, an ar- 
 rangement for polling by which compulsory secrecy 
 of voting is secured ; second, an official ballot con- 
 taining the names of all candidates, printed and dis- 
 tributed under state or municipal authority. Either 
 of these may, on principle, exist without the other, 
 although the second is almost indispensable as a part 
 of the machinery for the perfect working of the first. 
 Each requirement, however, has an efficiency of its 
 own, and each operates against a special class of 
 evils. 
 
 Let us glance at the first. The conditions of life 
 among us now seem to be such that our statutory 
 prohibitions, to be effective, must aim to operate 
 chiefly by indirect methods. Statutes which seek 
 to prevent by imposing a penalty are in numerous 
 classes of cases practically of no effect, not only be- 
 cause satisfactory evidence of the violation is hard to 
 obtain, but because, through public indifference or 
 private favor, prosecutions for the offence are rare, 
 — perhaps also because the prosecution of single of- 
 fences cannot, in the nature of the offence, prove 
 any serious check upon its repetition ; perhaps also 
 for other reasons. Whatever the causes, it has be- 
 
30 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 come apparent that the best results are to be reached, 
 when preventive legislation is planned, by taking one 
 of three courses : 1. By making the detection of the 
 offence absolutely certain ; 2. By taking away all 
 interest in its commission, or by making it profitable 
 to refrain; 3. By making the offence plrysically im- 
 possible. These methods, of late, are frequent in 
 legislation, as an illustration or two will show. The 
 screen law in force in many states is based on the 
 first principle, and aims to make the sale of liquor so 
 open that any violation of law can instantly be 
 detected. The statutes requiring the registration of 
 pawnbrokers' transactions and the rendering of ac- 
 counts by public corporations, have a similar purpose. 
 Again, acting upon the third principle, we find, for 
 example, that the most effective way to prevent child 
 labor in factories is to require the presence of the 
 child at a school. If we look for an illustration of 
 the second plan, we are reminded of the fire-escape 
 and building-inspection laws, and the extreme diffi- 
 culty which is found in enforcing their observance ; 
 yet when the insurance companies but suggest an 
 increase of rates upon structures which violate the 
 laws of safety, improvements are speedily made. 
 In short, we have besrun to realize that the mere 
 printing of a penal statute is not the only step in 
 prevention, and that the modern method must be 
 the indirect method. The secret of effectively 
 reaching an evil by law is either to insure its 
 detection, to render it impossible, or to make it 
 unprofitable. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 31 
 
 Tedious as it may seem to dwell upon so obvi- 
 ous a matter, it has extreme importance for us, for 
 this truth it is which underlies the effectiveness of 
 the secret ballot and its usefulness for our political 
 conditions. On the one hand it checks bribery and 
 all those corrupt practices which consist in voting ac- 
 cording to a bargain or understanding. No man has 
 ever placed his money corruptly without satisfying 
 himself that the vote was cast according to the agree- 
 ment, or, in a phrase which became only too com- 
 mon during the last campaign, without proof that 
 " the goods were delivered ; " and when there is to 
 be no proof but the word of the bribe-taker (who 
 may have received thrice the sum to vote for the 
 briber's opponent), it is idle to place any trust in 
 such a use of money. In other words, take away all 
 interest in committing an offence, and the offence 
 will soon disappear. But this is trite and well-under- 
 stood, and, in England and Australia, it is not merely 
 a deduction made beforehand from our acquaintance 
 with human nature, but an established fact of expe- 
 rience. On the other hand, the marking of the vote 
 in seclusion reaches effectively another great class of 
 evils, including violence and intimidation, improper 
 influence, dictation by employers or organizations, 
 the fear of ridicule and dislike, or of social or com- 
 mercial injury, — all coercive influence of every sort 
 depending on a knowledge of the voter's political ac- 
 tion. Tumult and disorder at the polls, bargaining 
 and trading of votes, and all questionable practices 
 depending upon the knowledge gained, as the day 
 
32 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 goes on, of the drift of the contest, — it would hardly 
 be necessary to argue in advance, even if England's 
 experience did not prove it, that these practices, 
 wherever they have prevailed, must disappear. In 
 short, the secret ballot approaches these more or less 
 elusive evils, not merely with the weak instrument 
 of a penal clause for this and that offence, but with 
 the effective methods of modern legislation. Bv 
 compelling the dishonest man to mark his vote in 
 secrecy, it renders it impossible for him to prove his 
 dishonesty, and thus deprives him of the market for 
 it. By compelling the honest man to vote in se- 
 crecy it relieves him not merely from the grosser 
 forms of intimidation, but from more subtle and per- 
 haps more pernicious coercion of every sort. By 
 thus tending to eradicate corruption and by giving 
 effect to each man's innermost belief, it secures to 
 the Republic what at such a juncture is the thing 
 vitally necessary to its health, — a free and honest 
 expression of the convictions of every citizen. 
 
 I pass to the other essential feature of the Aus- 
 tralian system, — a feature, if possible more impor- 
 tant to the cause of good politics. This character- 
 istic, it need hardly be said, is a development of the 
 traditional method of nomination in England and 
 Australia. But no long-meditated invention could 
 have been more apt or more efficient to reach certain 
 of the most pressing evils that attend our system of 
 nominations. A rehearsal of them at this place is 
 not needed, for they are familiar through experience 
 to all citizens of our larger cities, and through hear- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 33 
 
 say, at least, to others. 1 " To find the honest men," 
 says Mr. Bryce, in his recent work on " The Ameri- 
 can Commonwealth," 2 " and having found them, to 
 put them in office, and keep them there, is the great 
 problem of American politics ; " and one of the great 
 reasons why they cannot be put there is, briefly, be- 
 cause the road is completely blocked; the extra- 
 legal machinery which necessarily surrounds every 
 election is in the complete possession, in the large 
 cities, of a corrupt party machine, in too many 
 other places, of party managers having more or 
 less ignoble interests to serve ; and the plain re- 
 sult is that since we have no opportunity to vote 
 for the desirable men, we cannot of course elect 
 them. 
 
 " Our elections," says Mr. Ivins, in his telling pamphlet on 
 " Electoral Reform," " are not elections in any true sense of the 
 word, and when we vote we simply register our choice as be- 
 tween two or three men who have already been elected by a 
 machinery unknown to the law, a machinery which is really the 
 personal propert}' of the few, and in which the many have no 
 right which they can enforce. The law being silent as to where 
 the ballots are to come from, as to who shall supply and pay 
 for them, and as to how they shall be distributed, a certain 
 few in the communit}*- have created a Machine to do all these 
 things, which the law necessitates, and does not provide for, and 
 
 1 See " Machine Politics and Money in Elections in New York 
 City," by Wm. B. Ivins; "Money in City Elections," by J. B. 
 Bishop; A. C. Bernheim, in Pol. Sci. Quart, for March, 1888; F. W. 
 Whitridge, article on "Assessments," in Amer. Cycl. Polit. Science; 
 Dorman B. Eaton, article "Primary Elections," in the same work; 
 Theodore Roosevelt, in "Century" for Nov., 1886; Henry George, 
 in 136 N. Amer. Rev. (1883) 201; Bryce, "The American Common- 
 wealth," ii. cc. 60-6S, 88, 89. 
 
 2 Vol. ii. p. 3S5. 
 
 3 
 
34 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 have thereb} T actually* put an end to the very political equality 
 which the ballot is supposed to preserve inviolable. . . . Be- 
 sides vesting the power of nomination in fee-simple in those 
 persons who practically own the machinery for printing and 
 distributing the ballots, the existing system amounts to an 
 almost complete exclusion from official public life of all men 
 who are not enabled to pay, if not a sum equal to the entire 
 salary of the office they seek, at least a very large percentage of 
 it. The poor man, the rnoderatery well-to-do man, and the self- 
 respecting and conscientious man are thus at once cut off from 
 all political ambition, because the only key to success is wealth 
 or machine power." 
 
 It is clear that the evil maintains itself because of 
 the insufficiency of the election laws. Just so long 
 as the law sanctions a method under which the only 
 avenue to an election is through a nomination by a 
 caucus or a convention, so long must we fail to elect 
 the best men, for our hands are tied. " If a method 
 can be found by which all men can be given polit- 
 ical equality before the law, actually as well as 
 theoretically, the evil will die a natural death." To 
 compress the issue roughly into a phrase, — what 
 we need now is not merely free elections, but free 
 nominations also, — not merely a sincere and accu- 
 rate expression of opinion, but an opportunity to 
 nominate and to vote effectively for any one whom 
 we desire. 
 
 This is why the method of nominations open to 
 all and a place in the ballot free to all nominees is 
 an integral and invaluable part of the Australian 
 system of ballot reform. This is one reason why 
 certain of the most glaring evils of popular govern- 
 ment in this country have never fastened themselves 
 
INTRODUCTION. 35 
 
 upon the countries in which the method of open 
 nominations prevails. This is why the ballot-reform 
 movement promises to have effects far wider than 
 the mere achievement of a single reform. It is the 
 opening of a road (perhaps the only road) to the 
 whole field of political improvements. For, if we 
 solve by this means the great problem of our poli- 
 tics, if we are enabled to put honest and capable 
 men in office and to keep them there, we shall have 
 created legislative and administrative officers from 
 whom we may expect the intelligent and fair con- 
 sideration of those further improvements, — a sort 
 of consideration which is now only exceptionally 
 and (it may almost be said) accidentally accorded 
 to them. 1 
 
 1 Mr. Ivins' summing up of the case is clear and succinct: "Let 
 us therefore try to summarize distinctly the causes of the evil, and 
 note the remedies which they naturally suggest : — 
 
 The Evil. The Remedy. 
 
 1. The necessity for voluntarily 1. The printing and distribution 
 printing and distributing the bal- of all ballots at public expense does 
 lot justifies organization for this away with the necessity of organi- 
 purpose. zation for this purpose. 
 
 2. It practically vests the Ma- 2. And will deprive the political 
 chine with the monopoly of the Machines of the monopoly of an 
 election machinery ; essential part of the election ma- 
 chinery. 
 
 3. And, as a consequence, with 3. It will enable any body of citi- 
 the monopoly of nomination. zens of the number prescribed by 
 
 law to have the name of their can- 
 didate printed on the same ballot 
 with the names of all other candi- 
 dates for the same office, so that 
 before the law and before the voters 
 all candidates and all party organi- 
 zations will stand on a perfectly 
 even footing. 
 
36 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 4. It involves the necessity of de- 
 fraying the expenses of both print- 
 ing and distribution by means of 
 assessments on or contributions by 
 candidates, office-holders, or party 
 leaders, 
 
 5. Which facilitates bribery and 
 corruption by affording them con- 
 venient covers ; 
 
 6. And debauches the electors by 
 leading them to become partisans 
 for pay, instead of honestly and 
 from conviction performing their 
 duty as citizens. 
 
 4. This will dispense altogether 
 with the necessity of and excuse 
 for levying political assessments, 
 
 5. And leave no legal cover for 
 bribery. The law can describe and 
 limit all permissible expenditure, and 
 compel the candidate or his agent to 
 make a sworn return with vouchers 
 to a proper public officer for all 
 disbursements. It may punish all 
 violations with sufficiently severe 
 penalties, 
 
 6. And prescribe that no elector 
 under pay of a party or candidate 
 shall be permitted to vote, thus mak- 
 ing it more the interest of candidates 
 and parties not to pay than to pay 
 for election services, and thus deter- 
 ring all honest electors from accept- 
 ing pay." 
 
 Win. M. Ivins, in " Electoral Reform." 
 
AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 I. MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 ACTS OF 1888. 
 
 CHAPTER 436. 
 
 AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR PRINTING AND DISTRIBUTING 
 BALLOTS AT THE PUBLIC EXPENSE, AND TO REGULATE 
 VOTING AT STATE AND CITY ELECTIONS. 
 
 Be it enacted, etc., as folloivs : 
 
 Section 1. All ballots cast in elections for national, 
 state, district, and county officers in cities and towns after 
 the first day of November in the year eighteen hundred 
 and eight}r-nine, and all ballots cast in municipal elections 
 in cities after that date, shall be printed and distributed 
 at public expense, as hereinafter provided. The printing 
 of the ballots and cards of instructions to voters shall in 
 municipal elections in cities be paid for by the several 
 cities respectively, and in all other elections the printing 
 of the ballots and cards of instruction, and the delivery of 
 them to the several cities and towns, shall be paid for by 
 the Commonwealth. The distribution of the ballots to 
 the voters shall be paid for by the cities and towns respec- 
 tively. The term " state election," as used in this act, 
 shall apply to any election held for the choice of a national, 
 state, district, or county officer, whether for a full term or 
 for the filling of a vacancy, and the term " state officer " 
 shall apply to any person to be chosen by the qualified 
 
38 AUSTEALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 voters at such an election. The term " city election " 
 shall apply to any municipal election so held in a city, 
 and the term " city officer " shall apply to any person to 
 be chosen by the qualified voters at such an election. 
 
 NOMINATIONS OF CANDIDATES. 
 
 Sect. 2. Any convention of delegates, and any caucus 
 or meeting of qualified voters, as hereinafter defined, and 
 individual voters to the number and in the manner here- 
 inafter specified, may nominate candidates for public office, 
 whose names shall be placed upon the ballots to be fur- 
 nished as herein provided. 
 
 Sect. 3. Any convention of delegates representing a 
 political party which, at the election next preceding, polled 
 at least three per cent of the entire vote cast in the state, 
 or in the electoral district or division thereof for which 
 the nomination is made, or any convention of delegates 
 who have been selected in caucuses called and held in 
 accordance with a special statute providing therefor, and 
 any caucus so called and held in any such electoral district 
 or division, may for the state or for the district or division 
 for which the convention or caucus is held, as the case may 
 be, by causing a certificate of nomination to be duly filed, 
 make one such nomination for each office therein to be 
 filled at the election. Every such certificate of nomina- 
 tion shall state such facts as may be required as above for 
 its acceptance, and as are required in section five of this 
 act; shall be signed by the presiding officer and by the 
 secretary of the convention or caucus, who shall add 
 thereto their places of residence ; and shall be sworn by 
 them to be true to the best of their knowledge and belief, 
 and a certificate of the oath shall be annexed to the cer- 
 
 („) tificate of nomination (a). 
 
 See Note 3, Sect. 4. Nominations of candidates for any offices to 
 
 be filled by the voters of the state at large may be made 
 by nomination papers signed in the aggregate for each 
 
 (a') candidate by not less than one thousand qualified voters (a!) 
 
 Queens.' '§49;' of the state. Nominations of candidates for electoral dis- 
 
MASSACHUSETTS. 39 
 
 tricts or divisions of the state may be made by nomination Gt. Br., a, §i ; 
 papers signed in the aggregate for each candidate by quali- i 5 e 5 f '' ' 
 
 fied voters of such district or division, not less in number N fy.; § '5; 
 than one for every one hundred persons who voted at the aU( * NoTE 2 > 
 next preceding annual election in such district or division, 
 but in no case less than fifty (a). In the case of a first elec- 
 tion to be held in a town or ward newly established, the 
 number of fifty shall be sufficient for the nomination of a 
 candidate who is to be voted for only in such town or 
 ward (a) ; and in the case of a first election in a district or 
 division newly established, other than a town or ward, the 
 number of fifty shall be so sufficient («). Each voter sign- 
 ing a nomination paper shall add to his signature his place 
 of residence, and each voter may subscribe to one nomi- 
 nation for each office to be filled, and no more. Women 
 qualified to vote for members of the school committee may 
 sign nomination papers for candidates for the school com- 
 mittee. The nomination papers shall before being filed be 
 respectively submitted to the registrars of voters of the 
 cities or towns in which the signers purport to be qualified 
 voters, and each registrar to whom the same is submitted 
 shall forthwith certify thereon what number of the signa- 
 tures are names of qualified voters, both in the city or town 
 for which he is a registrar, and in the district or division 
 for which the nomination is made ; one of the signers to 
 each such separate paper shall swear that the statements 
 therein are true, to the best of his knowledge and belief, 
 and the certificate of such oath shall be annexed. 
 
 Sect. 5. All certificates of nomination and nomination 
 papers shall, besides containing the names of candidates, 
 specify as to each, (1) the office for which he is nomi- 
 nated ; (2) the party or political principle which he repre- 
 sents, expressed in not more than three words ; (3) his 
 place of residence, with street and number thereon, if any. 
 In the case of electors of president and vice-president of 
 the United States, the names of the candidates for presi- 
 dent and vice-president may be added to the party or 
 political appellation. 
 
40 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 Sect. 6. Certificates of nomination and nomination pa- 
 pers for the nomination of candidates for state offices shall 
 
 (b) be filed with the secretary (6) of the Commonwealth at 
 Qu4ns^'§ § 49^ ; least (c) fourteen days previous to the day of the elec- 
 D% B wf)'.^ 8 ' tion (d) for which the candidates are nominated. Such 
 Beig., § 106; certificates and papers for the nomination of candidates 
 
 Kv.. §2; 
 
 N. y., §4. for the offices of mayor and of aldermen in cities shall be 
 
 (c) filed with the city clerks (5) of the respective cities at least 
 p^65. ° TE 1 ' ten days (d) previous to the day of such election, and for 
 
 d the nomination of candidates for all other city offices at 
 
 s. Austr. §46; i eas t six days (d~) previous to the day of such election. 
 
 Queens., §§48, J v y x " 
 
 49; Sect. 7. The certificates of nomination and nomination 
 
 Gt.Br.,B.§§4. . „ . 
 
 14, d, §i(3); papers being so filed, and oemg in apparent conformity 
 
 Ky.fl!; ° with the provisions of this act, shall be deemed to be valid, 
 
 x. \., j 8. unless objection thereto is duly made in writing. Such 
 
 objections or other questions arising in relation thereto in 
 
 the case of nominations of state officers shall be considered 
 
 (,,) by (/) the secretary of the Commonwealth and the auditor 
 
 D^i'ls^and an( l attorney-general, and the decision of the majority of 
 
 Xute i-3, p. 65. these officers shall be final. Such objections or questions 
 
 arising in the case of nominations of city officers shall be 
 
 considered by (e) the board of registrars of voters, together 
 
 Avith the city clerk, if not a member of such board, and 
 
 the city solicitor; and the decision of a majority of these 
 
 officers shall be final. In case such objection is made 
 
 notice shall forthwith be mailed to the candidates affected 
 
 thereby, addressed to their residences as given in the cer- 
 
 (e') tificates of nomination or nomination papers (Y). 
 
 Sect. 8. Any person whose name has been presented 
 (/ ^ as a candidate may cause his name to be withdrawn (/) 
 
 ^ e ™ s, '| 5 ^ from nomination, by request in writing signed by him 
 d, § i (T): and acknowledged before an officer qualified to take ac- 
 knowledgments of deeds, and filed with the secretary of 
 the Commonwealth ten days, or with the proper city clerk 
 five days, as the case may be, previous to the day of elec- 
 tion : and no name so withdrawn shall be printed upon the 
 ballots. Xo nomination published and posted as herein 
 provided shall be subsequently omitted as invalid. 
 
MASSACHUSETTS. 41 
 
 Sect. 9. All certificates of nomination and nomination 
 papers when filed shall be open under proper regulations 
 to public inspection, and the secretary of the Common- 
 wealth and the several city clerks shall preserve the same 
 in their respective offices not less than five years. 
 
 FORM OF BALLOTS. 
 
 Sect. 10. Every general ballot, or ballot intended for 
 the use of all male voters, which shall be printed in ac- 
 cordance with the provisions of this act, shall contain the 
 names, residences, together with street and number, if 
 any, and the party or political designation of all candi- 
 dates whose nominations for any offices specified in the 
 ballot have been duly made and not withdrawn in accord- 
 ance herewith, and shall contain no other names. Except 
 that in the case of electors of president and vice-president 
 of the United States the names of the candidates for presi- 
 dent and vice-president may be added to the party or 
 political designation./ The names of candidates for eachT\ 
 office shall be arranged (j?) under the designation of the ($) 
 office in alphabetical order, according to surnames, except Qaeens.,"§Vs'; ' 
 that the names of candidates for the offices of electors of d! §i'(6); ' 
 president and vice-president shall be arranged in groups, ^ ;?•' *§ 114 > 
 as presented in the several certificates of nomination or^ v §4; 
 
 . N. Y., § 14; 
 
 nomination papers. There shall be left at the end of the an i Note 4, 
 list of candidates for each different office as many blank 
 spaces as there are persons to be elected to such office, in 
 which the voter may insert (h) the name of any person, (h 
 not printed on the ballot, for whom he desires to vote as n"jy.! §'i3: 
 candidate for such office. Whenever the approval of a an<|NoTEi6, 
 constitutional amendment or other question is submitted 
 to the vote of the people, such questions shall be printed 
 upon the ballot after the list of candidates. /Special ba 
 lots in cities, containing only the names of candidates for 
 the school committee, shall also be prepared in like man- 
 ner and printed for the use of women qualified according 
 to law to vote for members of the school committee. The 
 ballots shall be so printed as to give to each voter a clear 
 
42 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 opportunity to designate by a cross mark [x] in a suffi- 
 cient margin at the right of the name of each candidate, 
 his choice of candidates and his answer to the questions 
 submitted, and on the ballot may be printed such words 
 as will aid the voter to do this, as" " vote for one," " vote 
 for three," "yes," "no," and the like. The ballot shall 
 (0 be of the length now required by law (i) and two or more 
 
 134 inland not times such width. Before distribution the ballots shall be 
 ^f^^" so folded in marked creases that their width and length 
 § 27). when folded shall be those of the ballot now required by 
 
 law. On the back and outside when folded, shall be 
 printed " Official Ballot for," followed by the designation 
 of the polling-place for which the ballot is prepared, the 
 date of the election, and a fac-simile of the signature of 
 the secretary of the Commonwealth or city clerk who has 
 (,•) caused the ballot to be printed (j). The special ballots 
 
 Oueen^'Ai 7 ' printed in cities for the use of women qualified to vote for 
 Gt-Br.,A,§2, school committee shall contain the additional endorsement 
 Beig., §§ 123, that they are for such use only. Except as otherwise 
 kW. §§4, 7; herein provided, ballots shall be printed in accordance 
 andXoTEV, with the existing provisions of law. 
 p ' ° 9, Sect. 11. All ballots when printed shall be folded as 
 
 hereinbefore provided and fastened together in convenient 
 numbers in books or blocks, in such manner that each 
 ballot may be detached and removed separately. A rec- 
 ord of the number of ballots printed and furnished to each 
 polling-place shall be kept and preserved by the secretary 
 of the Commonwealth and the several city clerks. 
 
 Sect. 12. There shall be provided for each voting 
 place, at which an election is to be held, two sets of such 
 general ballots, each of not less than one hundred for 
 every fifty and fraction of fifty registered male voters 
 { jc) therein (&), and likewise two sets of such special ballots, 
 
 QutS'^y^ each of not less than one hundred, for every fifty and 
 x"T § I'i6 fraction of fifty women qualified to vote for school com- 
 mittee therein ; and it shall be the duty of the registrars of 
 voters in each city or town in which an election for state 
 officers is to be held, to certify to the secretary of the 
 
MASSACHUSETTS. 43 
 
 Commonwealth fourteen days previous to any such elec- 
 tion, the number of male registered voters in each voting 
 precinct or in each town which is not divided into voting 
 precincts, and in cities the number of women so registered 
 as voters. 
 
 INFORMATION TO VOTERS. 
 
 Sect. 13. The secretary of the Commonwealth, in case 
 of a State election, and the several city clerks, in case of 
 city elections, shall prepare full instructions for the guid- 
 ance of voters at such elections, as to obtaining ballots, 
 as to the manner of marking them, and the method of 
 gaining assistance, and as to obtaining new ballots in place 
 of those accidentally spoiled, and they shall respectively 
 cause the same, together with copies of sections twenty- 
 seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, and thirty of this Act to 
 be printed in large, clear type, on separate cards, to be 
 called cards of instructions ; and they shall respectively 
 furnish the same and the ballots for use in each such elec- 
 tion. They shall also cause to be printed on tinted paper, 
 and without the fac-simile indorsements, ten or more cop- 
 ies of the form of the ballot provided for each voting place 
 at each election therein, which shall be called specimen 
 ballots, and shall be furnished with the other ballots pro- 
 vided for each such voting place. 
 
 Sect. 14. The secretary of the Commonwealth shall, 
 six days at least previous to the day of any election of 
 State officers, transmit to the registrars of voters in each 
 city and town in which such election is to be held, printed 
 lists containing the names, residences, and party or politi- 
 cal appellations of all candidates nominated as herein pro- 
 vided for such election, and to be voted for at each polling 
 place in each such city and town respectively, substan- 
 tially in the form of the general ballot to be so used 
 therein; and the registrars of voters shall immediately 
 cause the lists for each town or voting precinct, as the 
 case n;ay be, to be conspicuously posted (I) in one or 
 more public places in such town or voting precinct. The 
 
44 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 secretary of the Commonwealth shall likewise cause to be 
 published (I) prior to the day of any such election, in at 
 least two newspapers, if there be so many, published in 
 each county, representing, as far as practicable, the polit- 
 ical parties which, at the preceding election, cast the 
 largest and next largest number of votes, a list of all the 
 nominations made as herein provided, and to be voted 
 for in such county, so far as may be, in the form in which 
 (/) they shall appear upon the general ballots. 
 
 QutS!"'^ |J; Sect. 15. The city clerk of each city shall four days 
 ^ 3; -n -o , n at least prior to the day of any city election therein, cause 
 
 Gt. Br.. B, § 9. L J 
 
 d, § i (3); to be conspicuously posted (l) in one or more public places 
 Ky., §5; " in each voting precinct of such city a printed list contain- 
 ing the names, residences, and party or political appella- 
 tions of all candidates nominated, as herein provided, and 
 to be voted for in such precinct, substantially in the form 
 of the general ballot to be so used therein ; and he shall 
 likewise cause to be published (/), prior to the day of such 
 election in at least two newspapers, if there be so many, 
 published in such city, representing the political parties 
 which cast at the preceding election the largest and next 
 largest number of votes, a list of all the nominations made, 
 as herein provided, and to be voted for in such city, so far 
 as may be, in the form in which they shall appear upon 
 the general ballots. 
 
 DELIYEEY OF BALLOTS TO CITIES AND TOWNS. 
 
 Sect. 16. The secretary of the Commonwealth shall 
 send, separately and at different times or by different 
 methods, the two sets of general and special ballots, 
 together with the specimen ballots and cards of instruc- 
 tion printed by him, as herein provided, to the several 
 city and town clerks, so as to be received by them, one 
 set forty-eight hours at least previous to the day of elec- 
 tion, and the other set twenty-four hours at least previous 
 thereto. The same shall be sent in sealed packages, with 
 marks on the outside clearly designating the polling-place 
 for which thev are intended and the number of ballots of 
 
MASSACHUSETTS. 45 
 
 each kind enclosed ; and the respective city and town 
 clerks shall on delivery to them of such packages return 
 receipts therefor to the secretary. The secretary shall 
 keep a record of the time when, and the manner in which 
 the several packages are sent, and shall preserve for the 
 period of one year the receipts of the city and town clerks. 
 
 Sect. 17. The two sets of ballots, together with the 
 specimen ballots and cards of instruction printed by the 
 city clerks, as herein provided, shall be packed by them 
 in separate sealed packages, with marks on the outside 
 clearly designating the polling precincts for which they 
 are intended, and the number of ballots of each kind 
 enclosed. 
 
 Sect. 18. The several city and town clerks shall send 
 to the election officers of each voting-place before the 
 opening of the polls on the day of election one set of bal- 
 lots so prepared, sealed, and marked for such voting-place, 
 and a receipt of such delivery shall be returned to them 
 from the presiding or senior election officer present, which 
 receipt, with a record of the number of ballots sent, shall 
 be kept in the clerks' office. At the opening of the polls 
 in each polling-place the seals of the packages shall be 
 publicly broken, and the packages shall be opened by 
 the presiding election officer, and the books or blocks of 
 ballots shall be delivered to the ballot officers hereinafter 
 provided for. The cards of instruction shall be immedi- 
 ately posted at or in each voting shelf or compartment 
 provided in -accordance with this act for the marking of 
 the ballots, and not less than three such cards and not less 
 than five specimen ballots shall be immediately posted in 
 or about the polling-room, outside the guard-rails. The 
 second set of ballots shall be retained by the respective 
 clerks until they are called for or needed for the purposes 
 of voting, and, upon the requisition in writing of the pre- 
 siding election officer of any voting-place, the second set 
 of ballots shall be furnished to such voting-place in the 
 manner above provided as to the first set. 
 
 Sect. 19. In case the ballots to be furnished to any city 
 
46 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 or town or voting-place therein, in accordance with the 
 provisions of this act, shall fail for any reason to be duly 
 delivered, or in case after delivery they shall be destroyed 
 or stolen, it shall be the duty of the clerk of such city or 
 town to cause other ballots to be prepared substantially in 
 the form of the ballots so wanting and to be furnished ; 
 and upon receipt of such other ballots from him, accom- 
 panied by a statement under oath that the same have been 
 so prepared and furnished by him, and that the original 
 ballots have so failed to be received or have been so de- 
 stroyed or stolen, the election officers shall cause the ballots 
 so substituted to be used in lieu of the ballots wanting, as 
 above. 
 
 ADDITIONAL ELECTION OFFICERS. 
 
 Sect. 20. Two inspectors, with two deputy inspectors, 
 & A additional to those now provided for (m), shall be appointed 
 
 V iz., a warden, *- v ' ■*■ x 
 
 clerk, and two [ n eS iQh voting precinct in cities and in towns divided into 
 
 inspectors. _ . , , . . j. , ■. ,. , . 
 
 The deputy voting precincts, and the provisions ot law relative to m- 
 substitutes as spectors and deputy inspectors shall be applicable to such 
 only * additional officers. Two of the inspectors acting in each 
 
 voting precinct shall be detailed to act as ballot clerks. 
 In towns not divided into voting precincts, two inspectors, 
 with deputy inspectors, shall be appointed, in accordance 
 with the provisions of law applicable to such officers in 
 towns so divided, and the two inspectors thus serving shall 
 act as ballot clerks. The two ballot clerks detailed and 
 appointed as above in each voting precinct and town shall 
 have the charge of the ballots therein, and shall furnish 
 them to the voters in the manner hereinafter set forth. A 
 duplicate list of the qualified voters in each precinct and 
 each town not divided into precincts shall be prepared for 
 the use of the ballot clerks, and all the provisions of law 
 relative to the preparation, furnishing, and preservation of 
 check-lists shall apply to such duplicate lists. 
 
 VOTING SHELVES OR COMPARTMENTS. 
 
 Sect. 21. The officers in each city or town whose duty 
 it is to designate and appoint polling-places therein shall 
 
MASSACHUSETTS. 47 
 
 cause the same to be suitably provided with a sufficient 
 number of voting shelves or compartments (w), at or in M 
 which voters may conveniently mark their ballots, so that Queens .*"'§ 59;' 
 in the marking thereof they may be screened from the ob- Beige's lif* 6 ' 
 servation of others, and a guard-rail shall be so constructed £ y, ,v§ ? ; ™ 
 and placed that only such persons as are inside said rail and NoTE 5, 
 can approach within six feet of the ballot-boxes and of 
 such voting shelves or compartments. The arrangement 
 shall be such that neither the ballot-boxes nor the voting; 
 shelves or compartments shall be hidden from view of those 
 just outside the said guard-rail. The number of such vot- 
 ing shelves or compartments shall not be less than one for 
 every seventy-five voters qualified to vote at such polling- 
 place, and not less than three in any town or precinct 
 thereof, and not less than ten in any voting precinct of a 
 city (0). No persons other than the election officers and (o) 
 voters admitted as hereinafter provided shall be permitted Gt'.^B, § ig ; 
 within said rail (jo), except by authority of the election K yf§ I- 118 ' 
 officers for the purpose of keeping order and enforcing the N- Y "' § 20 * 
 law. Each voting shelf or compartment shall be kept pro- (p). 
 
 .,,.,, ,. , . j. 1 • S. Austr., §59; 
 
 vided with proper supplies and conveniences for marking Queens., § 59; 
 
 ,, , ,, , Gt. Br., B, §21; 
 
 the ballots. Beig., § 97* 
 
 Kv., §17; 
 N*. Y.,§ 20; 
 PREPARATION OF BALLOTS. and Note 1, 
 
 p. 52. 
 
 Sect. 22. Any person desiring to vote shall give his 
 name, and, if requested so to do, his residence, to one of 
 the ballot clerks, who shall thereupon announce the same 
 in a loud and distinct tone of voice, clear and audible, and 
 if such name is found upon the check-list by the ballot 
 officer having charge thereof, he shall likewise repeat the 
 said name, and the voter shall be allowed to enter the space 
 enclosed by the guard-rail as above provided. The ballot 
 clerk (q~) shall give him one, and only one, ballot, and his (?) 
 name shall be immediately checked on said list. If theiv. ; USI 
 voter is a woman, she shall receive a special ballot contain- q" # b" s ''b ^l'o- 
 ing the names of candidates for school committee only, Beig., §123; 
 Besides the election officers, not more than four voters in N. Y., § 21 ; 
 excess of the number of voting shelves or compartments p. 59. 
 
48 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 provided shall be allowed in said enclosed space at 
 
 time. 
 
 / Sect. 23. On receipt of his ballot the voter shall forth- 
 /with, and without leaving the enclosed space, retire alone 
 
 to one of the voting shelves or compartments so provided 
 (?) and shall prepare his ballot by marking (?•) in the appro- 
 
 y'[^ U:>^ ■' * ■' priate margin or place, a cross [X] opposite the name of 
 Gt ie Br S ''t 7 ^2 tne candidate of his choice for each office to be filled, or 
 B 'J 25; P-t.. bv filling: in the name of the candidate of his choice in the 
 
 •• i orm of Di- * ° 
 
 rectionsfor ' blank space provided therefor, and marking a cross [X] 
 
 Beig.,A, § 124; opposite thereto ; (r) and, in case of a question submitted 
 
 Kyi, § 9; to the vote of the people, by marking in the appropriate 
 
 and\oTE9 margin or place, a cross [X] against the answer which he 
 
 p- 62, desires to give. Before leaving the voting shelf or com- 
 
 partment the voter shall fold his ballot, without displaying 
 
 the marks thereon, in the same way it was folded when 
 
 J received by him, and he shall keep the same so folded 
 
 until he has voted. He shall vote in the manner now 
 
 provided by law (s) before leaving the enclosed space, 
 
 •oter giv 
 
 The voter gives aud ghall deposit his ballot in the box with the official 
 
 his name to \ * 
 
 the presiding endorsement uppermost. He shall mark and deposit his 
 
 officer, who an- *■ .. 1 , 
 
 nounces it in a ballot without undue delay and shall quit said enclosed 
 officerinchar* space as soon as he has voted. No such voter shall be 
 animate fcf allowed to occupy a voting shelf or compartment already 
 and the voter 0CCUD ied by another, nor to remain within said enclosed 
 
 then deposits r J ' 
 
 his ballot (1884, S p ace more than ten minutes (t), nor to occupy a voting 
 
 shelf or compartment for more than five minutes in case 
 
 Kv., § 12; all of such shelves or compartments are in use, and other 
 
 N. v., § 23. voters are waiting to occupy the same. No voter not an 
 
 : election officer whose name has been checked on the list 
 
 of the ballot officers, shall be allowed to re-enter said en- 
 
 ! closed space during said election. It shall be the duty of 
 
 the presiding election officer for the time being to secure 
 
 x&e observance of the provisions of this section. 
 
 Sect. 24. No person shall take or remove any ballot 
 
 from the polling-place before the close of the polls. If 
 
 («) any voter spoils a ballot (w) he may successively obtain 
 
 s.^Austr., 5 , Qt j ierg one at a t j me ^ not exceeding three in all, upon re- 
 
MASSACHUSETTS. 49 
 
 iw 'ft spoiled one. The ballots thus returned shall Gt.Br.,B,§28; 
 
 ° Belg., § 125; 
 
 bv aly cancelled, and together with those not Ky., §9; 
 
 distributed to the voters, shall be preserved and with the ' ''* 
 check-list used by the ballot clerks, which shall be certi- 
 fied by them to be such, shall be secured in an envelope, 
 sealed, and sent to the several city and town clerks, as 
 required by law in the case of the ballots cast, and the 
 other check-list used. 
 
 Sect. 25. Any voter who declares to the presiding' 
 election officer that he was a voter prior to the first day 
 of May in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, and 
 cannot read (v), or that by blindness or other physicalj' 
 disability he is unable to mark his ballot (v), shall, uponi(t>) 
 
 , . „ n ,, , . IS. Austr., § 58, 
 
 request, receive the assistance or one or two 01 the election wii; 
 officers in the marking thereof, and such officer or officers G^Br?,B;§26; 
 shall certify on the outside thereof that it was so marked k^'§ \of 3; 
 with his or their assistance, and shall thereafter give no ^ nd ^j^ 5 8 ; 
 information regarding the same. The presiding officer pA6i. 
 may in his discretion require such declaration of disability 
 to be made by the voter under oath before him, and he is 
 hereby qualified to administer the same. 
 
 Sect. 26. If the voter marks more names than there 
 are persons to be elected to an office, or if for any reason 
 it is impossible to determine the voter's choice for any 
 office to be filled, his ballot shall not be counted for such 
 office. No ballot without the official endorsement shall, 
 except as herein otherwise provided, be allowed to be de- 
 posited in the ballot-box, and none but ballots provided 
 in accordance with the provisions of this act shall be 
 counted (10). Ballots not counted shall be marked " de- («o 
 fective " on the back thereof, and shall be preserved. Queens., '§76;' 
 
 Gt. Br., A. §2; 
 Belff., §§ 124, 
 PENALTIES. 147; 
 
 Ky.. § 11 ; 
 
 Sect. 27. A voter who shall, except as herein other- n. Y.,§§13, 
 
 ' L 28 ; and Notk 
 
 wise provided, allow his ballot to be seen by any person 10, p. 63. 
 with an apparent intention of letting it be known how he • 
 is about to vote, or who shall make a false statement as to 
 his inability to mark his ballot, or any person who shall 
 
 4 
 
50 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 interfere, or attempt to interfere with ar T vot -r \ en 
 inside said enclosed space or when niarkin^ \ or 
 
 who shall endeavor to induce any voter before voting to 
 show how he marks or has marked his ballot, shall be pun- 
 ished by fine of not less than five dollars nor more than 
 one hundred dollars ; and election officers shall report any 
 person so doing to the police officer in charge of the polls, 
 whose duty it shall be to see that the offender is duly 
 brought before the proper court. 
 
 Sect. 28. Any person who shall, prior to an election, 
 wilfully deface or destroy any list of candidates posted in 
 accordance with the provisions of this act, or who, during 
 an election, shall wilfully deface, tear down, remove or 
 destroy any card of instruction or specimen ballot printed 
 or posted for the instruction of voters, or who shall during 
 an election wilfully remove or destroy any of the supplies 
 or conveniences furnished to enable a voter to prepare his 
 ballot, or shall wilfully hinder the voting of others, shall 
 be punished by fine of not less than five dollars nor more 
 than one hundred dollars. 
 
 Sect. 29. Any person who shall falsely make or wilfully 
 deface or destroy any certificate of nomination or nomina- 
 tion-paper, or any part thereof, or any letter of withdrawal ; 
 or file any certificate of nomination or nomination-paper or 
 letter of withdrawal, knowing the same or any part thereof 
 to be falsely made ; or suppress any certificate of nomina- 
 tion or nomination-paper, or any part thereof which has been 
 duly filed ; or forge or falsely make the official endorsement 
 on any ballot ; or wilfully destroy or deface any ballot, or 
 wilfully delay the delivery of any ballots, shall be punished 
 by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or by imprison- 
 ment in the jail not more than one year, or by both such 
 fine and imprisonment. 
 
 Sect. 80. Any public officer upon whom a duty is im- 
 posed by this act, who shall wilfully neglect to perform 
 such duty (#), or who shall wilfully perform it in such 
 ( x ) _ a way as to hinder the objects of this act (V), shall be 
 
 Queens.,' § T20; punished by fine of not less than five nor more than one 
 
MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 51 
 
 thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in jail for not more Gt. Br., ,Av§ n ; 
 than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment. and Note ii, 
 
 Approved May 29, 1888. p - 64> 
 
 (a.) 
 
 Form op Ballot used under the above Act. 
 
 (See the model at the end of the book.) 
 
 (5.) 
 
 Polling Arrangements under the above Act. 
 
 The voter enters at the right-hand lower corner, receives his ballot from a 
 ballot officer (not shown in this sketch), and then goes to the shelves, where 
 he finds full instructions posted. He there marks and folds his ballot, and 
 on his way out deposits it in the ballot-box in front of the election officers, 
 as shown. 
 
52 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 Note 1. 
 Presence of the Public at the Polls. 
 
 (Mass., § 21 ; S. Austr, § 59 ; Queens., § 59 ; Gt. Brit., B, § 21 ; Belg., § 97; 
 Ky., §§17, 18; N. Y., §§ 20, 32.) 
 
 The provisions intended to prevent disorder and undue solici- 
 tation at the polls vary in strictness: — 1. In Massachusetts 
 the public are excluded only from the railed space within the 
 voting-room ; that is, only from a space reasonably sufficient 
 to ensure secrecy in marking the vote. 2. In South Australia, 
 Queensland, Kentucky, Great Britain, and Belgium, the public 
 are excluded from the entire polling-room. 3. In New York, 
 the public are excluded from the railed space, and, in addition, 
 " electioneering," presumabby including solicitation, canvassing, 
 etc., is forbidden within one hundred feet of the polling-room. 
 The strong objection to the exclusion of the public from the 
 entire room is that it leaves the puritj 7 of the election entirely in 
 the hands of the agents or inspectors of the respective parties ; 
 for in order to perpetrate almost ever}' fraud it would only be 
 necessary to buy up the election officers of the opposite party. 
 Still more undesirable is such a regulation in the interest of in- 
 dependent candidates, who in most States are not allowed to be 
 represented by separate inspectors ; the independent vote, by 
 an arrangement between the agents of the two leading parties, 
 could easily be disposed of (as the recent example of a far 
 Western cit}' indicates). Reasons of safet}- make it absolutely 
 indispensable that access to a reasonable portion of the voting- 
 room should be permitted to any and every citizen during the 
 entire course of the election. If it is objected that the directions 
 by an illiterate to the officer for marking his vote are, as in the 
 English Act, required to be made aloud in the presence of the 
 representatives of each party, and would be heard by every one 
 present, if the public were admitted, the answer is that these 
 can be and should be made privateby in one of the compartments 
 to (as in Massachusetts) a single representative, selected b} T the 
 voter himself. 
 
 The best plan would seem to be, as in New York, to (1) ex- 
 clude the public from the railed space only ; (2) forbid solicitation 
 or canvassing of any sort in the remainder of the polling-room, 
 and within one hundred feet from the exterior. 
 
NOTES. 53 
 
 Note 2. 
 Number of Electors necessary for a Nomination. 
 
 (Mass., § 4 ; S. Austr., § 48 ; Queens., §§ 48, 49; Gt. Brit., A, § 1 ; 
 Belg., §§ 106, 155 ; Ky., § 2 ; N. Y., § 5.) 
 
 In determining the number of signatures necessary to be 
 obtained in order to put a candidate in nomination, the single 
 object is of course to place all on a practically equal footing, 
 and to impose only such restrictions as are necessary to prevent 
 the ballot from being encumbered with the names of unbalanced 
 persons and men of straw. But even though (as in Massachu- 
 setts) a minimum of fifty be established, very few aspirants will 
 be found who cannot muster a sufficient number of names ; and 
 the better way, since the number of signatures is practically no 
 hindrance, is to place the required number as low even as in 
 South Australia (two), and thus, while losing no benefit, avoid 
 even that appearance of exclusiveness for which the Massachu- 
 setts law has sometimes been attacked. The real restrictions on 
 the number of candidates will be found to be, as English and 
 Australian experience shows, public opinion and the interests of 
 the aspirants. The former will throw ridicule on a candidacy 
 which has no support ; and the latter will, as now, have a power- 
 ful deterrent influence wherever there is not some strong ground 
 for the candidacy. 
 
 A reason in England for fixing the number of signatures as 
 low as ten seems to have been the desire not to pledge or to 
 make public the political action of a larger number of electors. 
 This would be a serious consideration where, as formerly in 
 Greece, 1 a nomination-paper must contain the signatures of one- 
 twentieth of the electors of the district ; and even under the 
 Massachusetts law, if three nominations for a city council are 
 made in a ward containing 1200 electors or less, an opportunity 
 is offered for coercing 150 electors into a virtual pledge which 
 they may consider morally binding upon them at the polls. It 
 would seem to be better to require as few names as possible, — 
 perhaps not more than ten, — thus losing nothing, and avoiding 
 certain probable disadvantages. 
 
 1 Pari. Papers, 1868-9, vol. viii., p. 416; for the present rule, see Part 
 VIII., N., infra. 
 
54 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 In Queensland (§ 55) the device of requiring a deposit, to be 
 returned to candidates receiving one-fifth the vote of the suc- 
 cessful candidate having the smallest number of votes, has been 
 adopted for the purpose of limiting the number of candidates. 
 This may be expedient enough under the political conditions of 
 some communities ; but it is to be remembered that in this 
 country a candidacy may be hopeless as regards the election of 
 the nominee, and yet important and highly desirable as a means 
 of exhibiting the strength of a section of electors or of a partic- 
 ular movement, and of thus compelling the attention of the lead- 
 ing parties and the modification of their platforms and legislative 
 policies. 1 The Queensland provision would bear unfairly, for 
 example, upon the labor vote and the prohibition vote in many 
 States, — to name no other movements whose only hope fre- 
 quently lies in emphasizing their growing strength by the figures 
 of their vote and demanding a clue consideration. It would 
 seem, therefore, that the plan of requiring a returnable deposit 
 is not adapted to our political methods, and that its adoption 
 would be ill-advised. 
 
 Note 3. 
 
 Acceptance of the Nomination. 
 
 (S. Austr., §48; Belg., §107) 
 
 An acceptance of the nomination is required by two only 
 of the seven principal statutes ; but it ought to be a general 
 requirement. In the first place, wherever a securit}* for the 
 expenses of election is required, an acceptance is desirable in 
 order to avoid disputes as to the responsibility of the candidate 
 or his nominators. Secondly, it prevents the unauthorized use 
 of a prominent name, and the difficulties that might ensue in 
 such a case. Thirdly, it places on record the deliberate deci- 
 sion of the nominee to appear as a candidate, and thus, while 
 not preventing a withdrawal for good reasons, it places the 
 burden of explanation upon one who withdraws, and throws 
 difficulties in the way of a withdrawal for improper reasons, and 
 of such ' ' deals " and other political tricks as are now only too 
 common. In the same way, it tends to prevent the practice of 
 
 1 See Bryce, Amer. Commonwealth, ii. 222, where the importance of 
 minority protests is touched upon. 
 
NOTES. 55 
 
 putting up a candidate for the sole purpose of withdrawing him 
 for a consideration to be received from opposing interests. Any 
 regulation which tends to make public the reasons for withdrawal 
 is a good one, for proper reasons will not fear publicity. 
 
 Note 4. 
 Arrangement of Contents of Ballot. 
 
 (Mass., § 10; S. Austr., § 55; Queens., § 58; Gt. Brit, B, § 22; D, § 1 (6) ; 
 Belg., §§ 114, 115; Ky., § 4; N. Y., § 14.) 
 
 The arrangement of the contents of the ballot offers a large 
 field for difference of opinion, although it may be suggested that 
 anv intelligent arrangement will answer the purpose, and that 
 the importance of the different variations that have been adopted 
 is practically not very great. Some of the more noticeable dif- 
 ferences of method will be commented on. 
 
 1. In the beginning the question presents itself whether the 
 names shall be arranged, as in Belgium and New York, in 
 groups representing the nominations of one party for all offices, 
 or as in Canada (see Part VIII., G.), Kentucky, and Massa- 
 chusetts, in groups representing all nominations for the same 
 office, the order of names being alphabetical. The principal 
 consideration in favor of the former mode is that where a read- 
 ing and writing qualification does not exist, it greatly helps the 
 illiterate voter ; for this plan allows a vote to be given for all 
 the candidates of one party by making a single cross at the head 
 of the list, and as the illiterate will know beforehand the position 
 of his party list, he has only to make his cross there and the 
 matter is ended. This consideration would entirely disappear 
 in view of the clause (which presumably would be found in most 
 statutes ) permitting assistance to be given to illiterates by elec- 
 tion officers, were it not for a fact brought out by English ex- 
 perience. It is that man}- illiterates, disliking to make confession 
 and ask assistance, prefer to take the ballot and guess at the 
 name they wish to mark. If this class of voters could be shown 
 to include an} 7 appreciable number, their protection ought to be 
 considered ; although it ma}* be questioned whether a plan other- 
 wise desirable should be rejected for the sake of those who, by 
 refusing to acknowledge the fact of their illiteracy, voluntarily 
 expose themselves to mistake. Another consideration in favor 
 
56 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 of the first method is that the marking of the vote for those 
 who desire to vote an entire ticket is simpler and speedier. 
 It is to be observed, however, not only that this gain would 
 not affect those electors who vote independently of party, but 
 that for the voter who goes outside of the party ticket for so 
 much as a single name (and these voters may be roughly esti- 
 mated at one third or more of the whole number) this mode of 
 arrangement has no advantages, since he must in that case mark 
 individually each of the remaining party candidates for whom he 
 votes, though they fall short one only of the entire number. 
 
 A serious objection to the first method is that it may in many 
 cases be impracticable. Any one who will refer to the discus- 
 sions in the Belgian Chamber 1 will see what disputes they fell 
 into, within a year after putting the system into operation, over 
 the expediency of this method. It applies well enough where 
 two parties only are in the field. But when independent candi- 
 dates are named, and other parties make nominations, its diffi- 
 culty is that it becomes cumbrous, and, unless the New York 
 system of printing separate ballots, six or seven in all, for dif- 
 ferent classes of offices, is adopted, it may prove absolutely 
 impracticable. Even the adoption of the separate ballot system 
 of New York might to some seem only the substitution of one 
 piece of unwieldy machinery for another, A second objection is 
 that where, as in many places at elections of local officers, the 
 national party lines are not drawn, this method becomes useless 
 and out of place. A list of candidates for all such offices is 
 usually nominated by a single convention or committee, but it 
 does not alwa}*s have coherency, and the pei*sonal merits of each 
 candidate generally determine the electors' action. 
 
 Other objections also suggest themselves. The first plan tends 
 to foster a sheep-like and unintelligent manner of voting for the 
 local offices. The voter quickly marks the entire list of his part}*, 
 and if on the same ballot are the names of candidates for the 
 lesser and local offices, whose needs are governed by perhaps an 
 entirely different set of considerations, no suggestion of this is 
 brought to the voter's mind, but he is incited to judge the needs 
 of the nation and of the count}* by one and the same test of 
 policy and in one and the same mental effort. It may also 
 be suggested that in one or two ways it operates unfairly upon 
 
 1 Annuaire de legis. etrang., vol. xviii., 1878, notes to pp. 466, et seq. 
 
NOTES. 57 
 
 individual candidates. It forces them to declare absolutely for 
 one party or another, while they may in fact prefer to sail under 
 a compromise name, such as " Labor Democrat," and yet would 
 rather stand in a party list than be numbered among the inde- 
 pendents. It also handicaps a popular candidate for a lesser 
 office by (to a great extent) influencing the sheep-like voters of 
 the opposite party to overlook their own candidate for the lesser 
 office, and by thus confining the popular candidate to his strict 
 party vote, which may fall far short of a plurality. Moreover, the 
 list of independent candidates, as it appears by the side of the full 
 party lists, suffers in moral weight (for want of a better phrase), 
 has a detached and uninviting appearance, depriving them of 
 that equal footing which it is the great design of the S3'stem 
 that every candidate should have. These objections, it may 
 be answered, apply equally to the present system of voting by 
 tickets. They do ; and it is simply because the people wish to 
 do away with the inequalities and injustice of that system that 
 we should hesitate to use a method of party lists which retains 
 some of the same imperfections. It is a method vastly in ad- 
 vance of the present S3'stem ; but it is not perfect, while the 
 plan employed in Massachusetts, Kentucky, and Canada, though 
 not perfect, is certainly free from the objections that have been 
 mentioned. Perfect equality upon the ballot-paper for all can- 
 didates is what should be insisted upon. 1 
 
 2. In making provision for the benefit of illiterates, other ex- 
 pedients have also been adopted. In England, Belgium, and 
 Quebec (see Part VIII., H), a number is placed to the left of 
 each candidate's name. In Ontario, for elections to the Pro- 
 vincial Assembly, each candidate's name is printed in a differ- 
 ent color (Part* VIII., G). In Belgium (Part V.) the Liberal 
 names are printed in blue ink, the Catholic names in carmine, 
 and the independent nominees in black. The plan of using 
 figures would seem a satisfactory one, although it would be 
 practically useless where, as at most elections, a large number 
 of offices are to be filled, and the voter could not memorize the 
 
 1 The editor will state, as his impression, that the party list method, as 
 adopted by the New York legislature, was a compromise measure (one, at 
 least, of the three bills there introduced being not much more than a sop 
 thrown to reform), and that this method, as finally incorporated in the bill 
 would not be considered as the best by the friends of the system, but only 
 as the best that could be secured. 
 
58 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 order of the names for each office. The color device is also an 
 effective one ; but it would be expensive, and is apt to foster a 
 rivalry based on party emblems rather than on party principles. 
 All these contrivances seem to be unnecessary wherever the elec- 
 tion officers are required to give assistance to illiterates, and 
 would cumber the ballot to no good purpose. 
 
 3. The Massachusetts ballot, an example of which is appended 
 to this volume, shows the feasibility of placing the names of all 
 candidates upon one ballot. If city offices are also to be filled 
 at the same election (a practice which ought to be discontinued, 
 as it has been in Massachusetts), or if presidential electors 
 ("useless cogwheels" that will before long be swept away) are 
 to be elected, the names may be placed on a separate ballot, or 
 may be placed on an additional fold of the same ballot (as the 
 Massachusetts law provides). Whether the titles of the offices 
 should be placed, as in Kentucky (Part VI.) and Ontario (Part 
 VIII., G), at the side of the group of candidates, or horizon- 
 tally above each group, as in Massachusetts, is not a matter 
 of much moment ; but the latter would seem to be the method 
 most convenient, and most in accord with the present customary 
 arrangement, which should be followed so far as possible. 
 
 Note 5. 
 
 Arrangement of the Polling- Room. 
 
 (Mass., § 21 ; S. Austr., § 54 ; Queens., § 59 ; Gt. Brit., B, § 16 ; Belg., § 117 ; 
 Ky., § 8 ; N. Y., § 20.) 
 
 A very simple and inexpensive structure will suffice to furnish 
 entire secrecy in marking the ballot. Perhaps the arrangement 
 shown in the illustration {supra, p. 51) is as good as any. In 
 Kentucky the compartment resembles a sentry-box, and the voter 
 enters and closes the door. It would seem that by this plan very 
 little light would be furnished for marking the ballot. There is, 
 however, a more serious objection. While the act of marking 
 should be screened from all observation, yet the person of the 
 voter should remain in plain sight. This is necessary in order 
 to prevent attempts at fraud, — substitution of non-official bal- 
 lot, exhibiting the ballot, etc. ; and is provided for b}" the Massa- 
 chusetts plan of arrangement. The voter's person should be in 
 sight, not only while marking his ballot, but during the entire 
 
NOTES. 59 
 
 period from the time of receiving the ballot to the time of de- 
 positing it ; and therefore the plan sometimes adopted in Eng- 
 land (and provided for by the Wisconsin law, Part VIII., I.) 
 of using one room for receiving and depositing the ballot, and 
 an adjoining room for marking the vote, is not desirable. The 
 simplest and safest arrangement seems to be that shown in the 
 illustration above, by which the voter, entering at one gate, 
 passes around and deposits his vote, without once retracing 
 his steps or leaving the room. 
 
 Note 6. 
 Delivery of the Ballot. 
 
 (Mass., § 22; S. Austr., § 58, IV.; Queens., § 71 ; Gt. Brit., B, § 50; Belg., 
 §123; Ky, §7; N. Y., § 21.) 
 
 If the Massachusetts polling arrangement be adopted, the 
 ballot clerk will of course be the officer to deliver the ballots 
 to voters, while the presiding officer attends to the business of 
 receiving ballots. But this division of labor should in any case 
 be insisted upon. Three of the above statutes place both duties 
 upon the presiding officer ; but it is manifestly impossible that 
 while attending to his principal duty of questioning voters, re- 
 ceiving the ballots, and verifying the official mark upon them, 
 he can at the same time properly distribute ballots to those 
 applying for them. 
 
 Note 7. 
 
 Identification of Official Ballot. 
 
 (Mass., § 10 ; S. Austr., § 57 ; Queens., § 71 ; Gt. Brit., A, § 2, B, § 24 ; Belg., 
 §§123,151; Ky.,§§4,7; N. T, § 21.) 
 
 An examination of the above sections will show the variety of 
 the modes adopted by the different legislatures for guarding 
 against frauds in connection with the ballot. Each method will 
 sufficiently suggest its special advantages or drawbacks ; but a 
 few points of difference ma}^ here be noted : — 
 
 1. Whether the official mark should be placed on all the 
 ballots before the opening of the polls (as in Massachusetts) or 
 upon each one immediately before delivery to the voter (as in 
 England) is a matter for some doubt. When there is a press of 
 voters, the placing of the official mark, if done at the time of 
 
60 AUSTKALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 the deliver of each ballot, is apt to be hurried, and its inadver- 
 tent omission may disfranchise an innocent voter. For this 
 reason it was proposed in England, in 1876, to do away with 
 the official mark, or to permit it to be placed in advance on all 
 the ballots; but neither proposal was adopted. Probably the 
 inconvenience in England largely resulted from the practice, 
 already referred to, of requiring the presiding officer to dis- 
 tribute and to receive ballots at the same time. The danger of 
 counterfeiting the design seems not to be greater under the 
 Massachusetts method, for in either case the block must be pre- • 
 pared beforehand. Whatever the method followed, a stamp is 
 better than the pencilled initials of the ballot clerk (as in S. 
 Australia). 
 
 2. The numbered counterfoil system requires a few words. 
 It is now in use in Great Britain, Ontario, W. Australia, and, 
 in a simpler form, in Victoria. Its principal purpose is of course 
 to be able to identify the ballot of any voter afterwards proved 
 to have voted illegally or to have been bribed, and to discard 
 his vote with certainty, saving, perhaps, the need of a new elec- 
 tion. It is cumbrous, however, and tends to create errors, and 
 the testimony in England, in 1876, was that its advantage was 
 not great. The plan (in use in Queensland and New Zealand) 
 of folding and gumming a corner of the ballot marked with the 
 elector's number, is tedious and not satisfactory. It is a ques- 
 tion whether, considering all things, the object is important 
 enough to require these precautions. 
 
 3. To prevent what has been known as the " Tasmanian 
 dodge," an ingenious device was adopted in Quebec (see Part 
 VIII. G.), and subsequently by the Dominion Parliament, which 
 checkmates what has often been supposed to be theoretically, if 
 not practically, possible. The "Tasmanian dodge" (which 
 appeared in Australia once only, in 1868, where it was imme- 
 diately detected, and has apparently not been attempted in 
 England), consists in sending in a voter who manages to deposit 
 a counterfeit ballot (or empty envelope, if an envelope is re- 
 quired, as it should not be) and to bring out his own genuine 
 one ; which is then marked in ink by the local manager without, 
 and given to another henchman, who in turn brings out a fresh 
 ballot, and the process is repeated. In Quebec the election 
 officer as he gives out the ballot, places on the back of a coun- 
 terfoil or "annex" the voter's registered number; and when 
 
NOTES. 61 
 
 the voter returns with the ballot marked, it is easy to see by 
 comparing the number on the back of the "annex" with the 
 registered number of the person presenting it, whether it is the 
 same person to whom the ballot was delivered. The annex is 
 then torn off and destroyed, and, while entire secrecy of voting 
 is preserved, the Tasmanian dodge is effectually prevented, even 
 in theoiy. This device merits a wider adoption. 
 
 Note 8. 
 
 Assistance to Illiterates and to others. 
 
 (Mass., § 25 ; S. Austr., § 58, VII.; Queens., § 73 ; Gt. Brit., B, § 26 ; Belg., 
 § 123; Ky., § 10; N. Y., § 25.) 
 
 Assistance is allowed to illiterate electors in Great Britain, 
 New York and Massachusetts, as well as in New Zealand, Can- 
 ada, and Italy (Part VIII.) . Where a reading and writing qualifi- 
 cation does not exist, there can be no doubt that this is eminently 
 just, and that if illiterates are to be disfranchised (as they should 
 be) it may be done in a more straightforward wa} T . Under the 
 New York and Massachusetts laws the illiterate may select one 
 of the election officers to assist him. It would seem that the 
 presence of two officers, if possible, should be required ; for as 
 was found in England, attempts may be made to carry out bar- 
 gains by pleading illiteracy and proving to the officer of the 
 voter's party that the bargain is kept. Moreover, intimidation 
 or fraud may occur if only one officer is present. It is better 
 that in ever}* case one officer of each party represented should 
 be at hand. The publicity is no objection, for the voter's party 
 is even more easiby ascertained from his choice (if he is given it) 
 of a single officer to assist him. In England, in 187G, 1 many 
 retui'ning officers wished the privilege of receiving assistance to 
 be withdrawn, as subject to abuse, and the Committee so recom- 
 mended ; but it would seem that the objection of the officials 
 arose largely from the cumbrous English provisions for reading 
 and signing a long declaration of illiterac}*. The verbal one 
 permitted b}- the acts of this country seems sufficient. But a 
 record should be kept, as it is in Great Britain, Belgium, and 
 Kentucky, of all ballots marked with the assistance of the 
 officers, whether for illiteracy, blindness, or any other cause. 
 
 1 Pari. Papers, 1876, vol. xii. 
 
62 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 Note 9. 
 
 Mode of Expressing the Vote. 
 
 (Mass., § 23 ; S Austr., § 58, VI. ; Queens., § 73; Gt. Brit., A, § 2, B, § 25 
 C. " Form of Directions for Voters ; " Belg., A, § 124, B, § 1 ; Ky., § 9 ; 
 N. Y., § 22.) 
 
 Although this is one of the most interesting portions of the 
 sj'stem, very little can be here said which will not suggest itself 
 to those who examine the provisions of the different statutes. 
 The two rival methods are that of striking out names not voted 
 for, and that of marking a cross for the preferred candidates. 
 The weak point (relatively) of the former is its tediousness, and of 
 the latter is the opportunity offered for making the mark in other 
 than the exact place and mode. Various plans are used for reduc- 
 ing this opportunity to a minimum. The best theoretical method 
 is the Belgian, which leaves a small white spot for the voter to 
 blacken ; or perhaps the black ballot (proposed by Mr. Pearson 
 of Stockport, Eng.) having white squares for the voter's mark. 1 
 Probably the best practical plan is that of the Dominion statute, 
 all left-hand margin being discarded, and the upright line at the 
 right being omitted. But it may be asserted that there is no 
 real difficulty in the method, so far as ascertaining the elector's 
 desire (which is the fundamental object of election proceedings) 
 is concerned. The difficulties, if any, which have occurred with 
 respect to this method of marking, have arisen, in the great 
 majority of cases, solely from the provision in the British and 
 Canadian statutes making void a ballot which contains "any 
 mark by which the voter may afterwards be identified," which, 
 in the hands of a few returning officers and many of the courts 
 (especially in Scotland and in Canada) 2 has been applied in an 
 unpractical and over-suspicious manner. It would be better to 
 consider solely "the voter's intention (which, as the testimony 
 cited in the Introduction shows, seldom causes much difficulty), 
 and to leave the question of collusion to be otherwise deter- 
 mined ; perhaps, as a compromise measure, putting the burden 
 
 1 Pari. Papers, 1876, vol. xii., app. to Report. 
 
 2 The editor has already collected most of the material for an annotated 
 edition, to be published before the fall elections, of the provisions common 
 to the various statutes, including references to the decisions of the last thirty 
 years in Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, and Australia. 
 
NOTES. 63 
 
 on one who charges at the counting that a peculiar mark has 
 been corruptly used, or, better still, as in the New York Act, 
 imposing a penalty on one who marks collusively, but not plac- 
 ing upon the election officers the duty of entertaining the ques- 
 tion, or allowing it to be raised at the counting of the votes. 
 The construction of the ballots should continue to be governed 
 b} T the present plain principle of election law that the voter's 
 intention, whenever it clearly appears, should be given effect. 
 
 Note 10. 
 What Ballots shall not be Counted. 
 
 (Mass., § 26; S. Austr., § 64; Queens., § 76; Gt. Brit., A, § 2; Belg., 
 §§ 124, 127 ; Ky., § 11 ; N. Y., §§ 13, 28.) 
 
 To the ordinary causes of rejection applicable to all ballots 
 (e. g. that the vote is uncertain, because it is illegible or because 
 too many names are voted for), it would seem that the present 
 system should properly add but one cause peculiar to itself, — 
 failure of the ballot to bear proof that it was lawfully received 
 from and deposited with the officials of the election. In some 
 statutes the absence of prima facie proof of this sort, in other 
 words, the want of the official identifying mark, whatever it may 
 be, justifies the rejection of the ballot (New York, ubi supra). 
 In other statutes regard is paid to the actual, not merely the 
 prima facie genuineness of the ballot ; as in Massachusetts, 
 where " none but the ballots provided in accordance with the 
 provisions of this act shall be counted," that is (probably, 
 though not clearh'), all ballots actually provided b3' the Secre- 
 tary, and actually received by the elector from the ballot clerk, 
 must be counted. Between the two princples a choice must be 
 made. The former, b}^ fixing a definite test, gains in decisive- 
 ness and speed ; the latter has the advantage of occasionally 
 saving an honest vote from rejection. 
 
 The only other cause for rejection commonVy sanctioned is the 
 use of a collusive mark. As to the advisability of this provision 
 an opinion has been already expressed (Note 9). It is not 
 adopted in either the Kentucky, New York, or Massachusetts 
 statutes. 
 
64 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 Note 11. 
 
 Responsibility of Officials for Neglect of Duty. 
 
 (Mass., § 30 ; S. Austr., § 85 ; Queens., § 120 ; Gt. Brit., § 11 ; N. Y. § 31.) 
 
 That a general clause imposing a penalty upon an officer 
 neglecting any duty placed upon hini by the statute should be 
 included therein seems unquestionable. Whether any provision 
 should be made for abrogating or modifying the officer's respon- 
 sibility in damages to one injured by his failure to perform the 
 duty is a matter for some consideration. It seems that the 
 duties of stamping the ballot, delivering it, receiving it, etc., are 
 ministerial only (Pickering v. James, L. R. 8. C. P. 489 ; 55 
 L. T. 135; 11 Cent. L. J. 141), and that an officer is therefore 
 at common law liable for any loss incurred through his failure, 
 whether wilful or inadvertent, to perform such a duty. Pro- 
 vision, then, ought to be made for fixing a pecuniary limit to 
 the civil liability of an officer, so that the maximum extent of 
 his responsibility in case of loss might be known beforehand to 
 himself and to all others concerned. To leave in force the com- 
 mon-law rule of indefinite responsibility, where the compensation 
 of the position is comparatively a mere bagatelle, would be 
 unjust, and would deter desirable men from accepting the duties. 
 But care should be taken, in such a case, to make it clear 
 (See Brett, J. in Pickering v. James, supra) that the statutory 
 provision entirely supersedes the common law liability. 
 
 Note 12. 
 
 Informalities. 
 
 (S. Austr., § 71 ; Queens., § 85 ; Gt. Brit., A, § 13 ; Ky., § 26.) 
 
 It is perhaps advisable to insert a clause curing all informal- 
 ities which do not affect the merits of the contest. This, how- 
 ever, would be extremely difficult to phrase properly, and had 
 better be omitted than poorly done. The English provision has 
 been more difficult to construe than it should have been, and is 
 hardly a good model for a provision of similar purpose. 
 
NOTES. 65 
 
 Note 13. 
 
 Objections to Nominations. 
 
 (Mass., § 7; Gt. Brit., B, § 13, D, § 3.) 
 
 In order to avoid the possibilit}* of causing a new election 
 upon trifling grounds, it is a great advantage to settle finally all 
 questions relating to nominations before the election takes place. 
 For this purpose a time and place are prescribed in the above 
 statutes for making and hearing objections to the legality of 
 nominations. The decisions of the tribunal are in Massachusetts 
 final, in Great Britain are final only where an objection is held 
 invalid. The former provision would perhaps in some places 
 confer a dangerous power on an extra-judicial body. 
 
 Neither of the above statutes contains the very desirable pro- 
 viso that, in case of the rejection of a nomination for non-fulfil- 
 ment of the statutory requirements, if the defect is within a cer- 
 tain limited time repaired, the nomination may be again filed 
 and shall then be treated as valid. 1 
 
 Note 14. 
 
 Method of RecJconing Time. 
 
 (S. Austr., § 101 ; Gt. Brit., B, § 56 ; Ky., § 2.) 
 
 Framers of future statutes should not omit to declare whether 
 Sundays are to be included in the computation of the periods 
 for filing nominations, etc. ; nor to make it entirely clear to 
 what point the reckoner is carried by such provisions as " five 
 days before the day of," or " five days at least before the day 
 of" this or that event. 
 
 Note 15. 
 
 Deposit or Security from Candidates. 
 
 (Queens., §§ 49, 55; Gt. Brit., E ; Ky., § 2.) 
 
 In Australia the object of the deposit — to discourage reckless 
 candidacies — has already been commented on (Note 2.) In 
 
 1 See the New York bill of 1889, Appendix I. 
 5 
 
66 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 Great Britain, Canada, and Kentucky, it is a method of distribut- 
 ing the expense among the candidates. In this aspect it ought 
 not to commend itself to those who are trying to escape from the 
 evils of a machine corruption which rests largely on a similar 
 sj'stem of assessments upon candidates. The cases are not en- 
 tirely parallel, but the assessment of candidates, whether by the 
 State or by a political committee, has many identical evils which 
 will easily suggest themselves. We ought, moreover, to remem- 
 ber that in the Dominion elections the whole number of parlia- 
 mentary candidates is seldom half a dozen, and the amount 
 assessed being only $50 each, the sum collected is not intended 
 to reimburse the election expenses of the district ; while in Eng- 
 land, where the security required from the candidates is much 
 larger, the requirement is simply a part of the traditional sj'S- 
 tem ; the returning officer is personally liable for the expenses, 
 and is not unlike an officially-appointed agent of the candidates, 
 entitled to demand security in advance. In our own country, 
 on the contrary, we have always recognized that, so far as the 
 State takes electoral machinery into its own hands, to that ex- 
 tent it should undertake the expenses. In other words, the plan 
 of imposing election expenses by law upon candidates proceeds 
 upon the entirely false theory that it is the individual candidates, 
 and not the people, for whose interests and needs the election 
 was instituted. That this principle already finds support among 
 a certain sordid few, to whom, as a recent writer has said, place- 
 hunting is a career, makes it none the less unfortunate that it 
 should be sanctioned in legislation. But upon whatever prin- 
 ciple or theory the assessment of candidates may rest, perhaps 
 the best reason for refusing to adopt it is, as has been said, that 
 it savors too much of the very system of party assessments that 
 we are now endeavoring to sweep away. 
 
 Note 16. 
 
 Space for Additional Names on Hallot. 
 
 (Mass., § 10; N. Y., § 13; Ky., § 9.) 
 
 A provision requiring space to be left, in the case of each 
 office, for any additional name (or for as many as there are 
 vacancies to be filled) that the elector may choose to insert, 
 
NOTES. 67 
 
 is essential to the complete theoretical fairness of the system ; 
 and the ballot can be arranged, 1 without inconvenience, so 
 as to permit this. 
 
 Note 17. 
 
 Withdrawals. 
 
 (Mass., § 8; S. Austr., § 54 ; Gt. Brit., A, § 1, D, § 1 (7) ; N. Y., § 11.) 
 
 Ill none of the above statutes has a clause been inserted to 
 provide against an important contingenc}', — the corrupt with- 
 drawal of a candidate, in collusion with the opposite party or 
 candidate. Without some such provision this becomes a vulner- 
 able point in the system. Opportunities will frequently exist, 
 with respect to candidates for many of the less prominent offices, 
 at the last moment to make a " deal," to apply pressure, or even 
 to purchase outright ; and thus, with their candidate withdrawn 
 and the time for nominations expired, the party or the section of 
 electors is defeated even without an election. 
 
 This possibility may be easily obviated b} r allowing a dajr or 
 two (after the expiration of the period for withdrawing) within 
 which to substitute another candidate. 
 
 1 See the model at the end of the book. 
 
II. SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 
 
 ELECTORAL ACT, 1879 (42, 43 Vict., No. 141). 
 
 [PRELIMINARY (Sects. 1-4).] 
 
 [Paet I. — Appointment of Officers, and 
 Registration (Sects. 5-45).] 
 
 Part II. — Conduct of Elections (Sects. 46-71). 
 
 46, 47. (Form of election-writ ; the polling day to be 
 
 not less than two and not more than thirty clays from the 
 
 Mass., §6; day of nomination.) (a) 
 
 49 U ; eeD 48. In order that any person may become or be a can- 
 
 u,'D*'§ B i(3)f' didate at any election, he shall be nominated by not less 
 
 ]| e ! s ''A 105 ' tnan two persons (5) entitled to vote at such election, in 
 
 N. y., § 8. manner following, that is to say, after the issue of the 
 
 (*) writ and before the time fixed for the nomination, there 
 
 Queens., §49; shall be delivered to the returning officer (c) a nomination 
 
 Beig., 1 §§ 106, ' paper, in the form, or to the effect of the form in the Tenth 
 
 Kv.'§2- Schedule hereto, naming such person as a candidate at 
 
 N t - '! 5; 53 d sucn election, and signed by the persons nominating as 
 
 aforesaid, and having at the foot thereof a statement, un- 
 (c) . 
 
 Mass. § 6; der the hand of the person so nominated, that he consents 
 
 Queens., §49; .„ , ., ,. 
 
 Gt. Br., b, § 8, to act it elected, (c ) 
 
 Bei|.,§ 106; 49. (Publication by Returning Officer of dates of nom- 
 
 N 7 Y §'4 ination and election and of polling-places.) 
 
 .,. 50. The Returning Officer shall at noon, on the day of 
 
 Beig., § 107; nomination, attend at the chief polling-place, and there 
 
 and Note 3 r or ' 
 
 p. 54. publicly produce the several nomination papers he shall 
 
SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 69 
 
 have then received, and give notice (d) of the names of (rf) 
 
 the persons nominated. 15* SS "' U ' 
 
 51. In case there shall be no greater number of candi- ^ eens -> §§ 50 > 
 dates duly nominated than are required to be elected, the SK^--*; 8 ' ^ 9 ' 
 Returning Officer shall declare such candidate or candi- Belg.. § 112 ; 
 dates to be elected, and make his return accordingly. n. y., § 10. 
 
 52. In case more such candidates shall be duly nomi- 
 nated, the Returning Officer shall give notice thereof (cT), 
 of the names of the candidates, and of the day and time of 
 taking the poll. 
 
 53. (Polling-booths to be provided, and poll-clerks and 
 doorkeepers to be appointed.) 
 
 54. Each polling-booth shall have separate compart- 
 ments (e), and shall be provided with a ballot-box having ( e ) 
 
 an inner cover, with a cleft therein, for receiving the vot- Queens., § 59; 
 ing papers, and a lock and key, and an outer cover with a Bei^' 5 lit- 16 ' 
 lock and key; and the said compartments shall be con-K.Y->§ 8 ; 
 structed so as to screen any voter therein from observa- and Note 5, 
 tion, and shall be furnished with pencils for the use of 
 voters. 
 
 55. The Returning Officer shall cause voting papers to 
 be printed which shall contain the Christian and surnames 
 
 of the several candidates arranged (/) in alphabetical (/) 
 order according to such surnames; and if there are two Q^ensf, §58; 
 candidates of the same surname, then according to the ^% B 1 r, ( ' ? , .§ 22 » 
 Christian name of such candidates ; and if there are two Belg., §§ 114, 
 candidates of the same Christian name and surname, then Ky., §4; 
 
 t i -i r 1 ti ± , N.Y.. §14; and 
 
 according to the residences ot such candidates, arranged note 4, p. 58. 
 in the like order, and a square printed opposite the name 
 of each candidate, and he shall obtain a sufficient num- 
 ber (#) of voting papers. (9) 
 
 56. Before the hour of polling the Returning Officer Queen.^, § 58 ; 
 shall deliver to the substitutes at each polling-booth a list ^fy. §'i6 5 
 of the electors on the said roll who have been registered in f ra i § 56 - 
 for six months, and who claim to vote at such polling- 
 booth, herein called " list of voters," together with a copy 
 
 or copies of the roll in force for the division or district, as 
 the case may be, for use at the said polling, and shall sign 
 
70 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 each page of such list ; and shall also deliver to each sub- 
 stitute, and himself retain such numbers respectively of 
 (h) the voting-papers as shall be sufficient (A) for the use of 
 
 note (g)l an *' the electors at such booth. 
 
 57. Before delivering the voting papers to the electors, 
 (*) each Returning Officer, or his substitute, shall initial (z) 
 
 Queen's., §7i; such papers on the face thereof, and fold them, and keep 
 B § 24- A ' ^ 2 ' an exact account of all initialled voting papers. 
 Brfg-i §§ 123 , 58. On the day of election the poll shall be taken at 
 Ky., §§ 4, 7; the several polling-places according to the following regu- 
 
 N. Y., § 21; . r & r o » o 
 
 and Note 7, latioilS : 
 
 I. (Hours of opening ; care of the ballot-box.) 
 II. (Hours of closing.) 
 III. Every person proposing to vote shall state to the 
 presiding officer, or to some one of his clerks, his Christian 
 name and surname, and if so required any other of the 
 particulars, necessary to be expressed in the roll, which 
 the said officer may require for the sole purpose of ena- 
 bling him to ascertain the name upon the roll intended by 
 such person. 
 
 (j) IV. The presiding officer or voting clerk (?) shall as- 
 
 Mass. 5 22- 
 Queen's., § 7i; certain if the name intended by the voter is upon the list 
 
 Beig., r '|i23- ' of voters ; and if so found he shall, subject as hereafter 
 
 n 5 y' V^i-and provided, deliver to such voter a voting paper bearing the 
 
 Note 6, p. 59. initials of the Returning Officer, or his substitute, and 
 
 shall place a mark against the voter's name on the list of 
 
 voters. 
 
 V. If a person representing himself to be a particular 
 elector named on the roll applies for a voting paper after 
 another person has voted as such elector, the applicant 
 shall, upon duly answering the questions in the Eleventh 
 Schedule, be entitled to receive a voting paper in the same 
 manner as any other voter. 
 
 VI. The voter shall forthwith retire alone to some un- 
 occupied compartment of the said booth, and shall there 
 m private, and without delay, indicate the name of each 
 
 (£) candidate for whom he intends to. vote by (k~) making a 
 
 Mass. 6 23* ' . . 
 
 Queens., § 73; cross, the centre of which cross shall be contained within 
 
SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 71 
 
 the square opposite the name of such candidate, and shall Gt. Br., A, § 2, 
 then fold the voting paper, and immediately deliver it so "Form' of' 
 folded to the presiding officer, who shall openly forthwith, vS • » S f ° r 
 and without unfolding the same, deposit it in the ballot- ^ e, s i ' A Ȥ 124 ' 
 box ; and the voter shall then quit the polling-booth. Ky, § 9; 
 
 »,.,.„, N.Y., §22; and 
 
 VII. Any voter may signify to the presiding officer that Note 9, p. 62. 
 by reason of blindness (7) he is unable to comply with the (I) 
 
 last preceding regulation; and thereupon the presiding Queens?, § 73 : 
 officer, if satisfied that such voter is afflicted with blind- Bei^fi^lf' 
 ness, shall permit any agent named by such voter to ac- ^y- § i° ; 
 company him into the compartment set apart for the a " dNoT E8, 
 purpose, to mark the voting paper on such voter's behalf, 
 and hand the same to the Returning Officer, who shall 
 deposit the same in the ballot-box. 
 
 VIII. Any person who, by mistake or accident, shall 
 spoil (m) any voting paper, may, before the same shall (m) 
 
 have been deposited in the ballot-box, upon signifying G* 8 Br.,'B > §28; 
 the same to the Returning Officer and delivering up the §^}f '§ |* 25 ' 
 spoiled voting paper, obtain a fresh voting paper ; and the N - *■> § 24 - 
 spoiled voting paper shall be then and there destroyed by 
 burning the same. 
 
 IX. (Provision for closing and sealing the ballot-box.) 
 
 59. The Returning Officer (or his substitute), the poll 
 clerks, and doorkeepers and scrutineers (not exceeding 
 two for each candidate, to be appointed in writing), and 
 electors about to vote, shall alone (w) be permitted at any ( n ) 
 
 one time, without the consent of the Returning Officer or Queens; §^9; 
 his substitute, to enter or remain in the polling-booth ™ t ', Br, ' R B n 'J 2l; 
 
 *■ ° Belg., § 9/ ; 
 
 during the taking of the poll. £y. § i7; 
 
 & & ^ N.Y., §20; and 
 
 60. (Questions to voters as to qualifications, etc.) Note1, p . 52. 
 
 61. If the person so proposing to vote shall refuse to 
 answer any question or shall answer the same in such 
 manner as to show that he is not qualified to vote, he shall 
 not be permitted to vote, and he shall forthwith return to 
 the presiding officer the voting paper, if any, delivered to 
 him, and which paper shall thereupon be immediately de- 
 stroyed by the said presiding officer. 
 
72 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 62. (Ballot-boxes to be delivered to the respective Re- 
 turning Officers.) 
 
 63. All voting papers issued to any substitute, and not 
 used by him, and all lists of voters, shall be returned by 
 him to the Returning Officer, with the ballot-box. 
 
 64. (Proceedings relative to the counting of the voting 
 papers.) 
 
 (o) . . . The Returning Officer shall reject (o) all voting 
 
 Oueens 5 ?76 ■ P a P ers llot initialled, or which shall contain crosses against 
 Gt.Br., A, §2; t,} ie nam es of a larger number of candidates than are re- 
 
 Belg., §§ 12i, . . , 
 
 147'; quired to be elected, or shall contain anything marked or 
 
 n 7 y., §§i3, written other than the initials of the Returning Officer or 
 io,' p. n 63. NT ° TE nis substitute and the cross indicating the name of such 
 candidate for whom the elector intends to vote. . . . 
 
 67. The Returning Officer of the district shall send to 
 the Returning Officer of the province, a return, in a tabu- 
 lar form, of the number of electors on the roll, the number 
 of voting papers found in the ballot-boxes, the number of 
 voting papers allowed, the number of voting papers re- 
 jected, distinguishing the number, 1st, not initialled by 
 the Returning Officer or his substitute ; 2d, voting for 
 more candidates than entitled to be elected ; 3d, contain- 
 ing writing or marks by which the voter can be identified ; 
 4th, unmarked or informally marked voting papers. 
 ( P ) 71. No election shall be held to be void (p) in conse- 
 
 Gt.Br! A.f§ 8 i3: quence solely of . . . any error on the part of any Return- 
 Note § 12 6; a 64 d i n » Officer or deputy, which shall not affect the result of 
 the election, or of any error or impediment of a mere 
 formal nature. . . . 
 
 Part III. — Offences and Penalties (Sects. 72-86). 
 
 72. Every person who — 
 
 I. Forges or fraudulently defaces or fraudulently de- 
 stroys any nomination paper, or delivers to the Returning 
 Officer any nomination paper, knowing the same to be 
 forged ; or 
 
 If. Forges or counterfeits or fraudulently defaces, or 
 
SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 73 
 
 fraudulently destroys any voting paper or the initials on 
 any voting paper ; or 
 
 III. Without due authority supplies any voting paper 
 to any person ; or 
 
 IV. Fraudulently puts into any ballot-box any paper 
 other than the voting paper which he is authorized by law 
 to put in ; or 
 
 V. Fraudulently takes out of the polling-booth any 
 voting paper ; or 
 
 VI. Without due authority destroys, takes, opens, or 
 otherwise interferes with any ballot-box or voting papers 
 then in use for the purposes of the election ; or 
 
 VII. Refuses to deliver to the Returning Officer or his 
 substitute any voting paper in his possession, whether he 
 shall have obtained such voting paper for the purpose of 
 recording his vote or not, — 
 
 Shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and be liable, if he is 
 a Returning Officer, or an officer or clerk in attendance at 
 a polling-booth, to imprisonment for any term not exceed- 
 ing two years, with or without hard labor ; and, if he is 
 any other person, to imprisonment for any term not ex- 
 ceeding six months, with or without hard labor ; and any 
 attempt to commit any offence specified in this section 
 shall be punishable in the manner in which the offence 
 itself is punishable. 
 
 73. In any indictment or other prosecution for an of- 
 fence in relation to the nomination papers, ballot-boxes, 
 and voting papers at an election, the property in such 
 papers and boxes may be stated to be in the Returning 
 Officer at such election. 
 
 85. If any Returning Officer for the said province, or 
 any District Returning Officer, after having accepted office 
 as such, shall neglect or refuse to perform (<?) any of the (?) 
 duties which by the provisions hereof he is required to Queen's., § 120; 
 perform, every such Returning Officer or District Return- jj!'?!^!; 115 
 ing Officer shall, for every such offence, forfeit any sum and Note 11, 
 not less than Ten nor exceeding Two Hundred Pounds, 
 aud in like manner if any substitute, clerk, or other officer 
 
74 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 or person appointed or required to perform any duty, un- 
 der or by virtue of this act, shall neglect or refuse to per- 
 form Qq) any of the duties which by the provisions hereof 
 he is required to perform, every such clerk or other officer 
 or person shall, for every such offence, forfeit and pay any 
 sum not less than Five and not exceeding Fifty Pounds. 
 
 [Part IV. — Court for the trial of Disputed 
 Returns (Sects. 87-100).] 
 
 Part V. — General Matters (Sects. 101-106). 
 
 101. When any matter or thing is hereby directed to be 
 performed on a certain day, and that day shall happen to 
 be a Sunday, Good Friday, Christmas Day, or other pub- 
 lic holiday, the said matter or thing may be performed on 
 Gt.Br., b,§56; the next succeeding day, not being any of the days afore- 
 
 Ky., § 2; and . , , N 
 
 Note 14, p. 65. Said (r). 
 
III. QUEENSLAND. 
 
 Elections Act, 1885 (49 Vict. No. 13). 
 
 [Part I. - Definitions and preliminary matter 
 [Part II. 
 [Part III. 
 
 (Sects. 1-5).] 
 
 Qualifications of electors (Sects. 
 6-8).j 
 
 Registration (Sects. 9-43).] 
 
 Part IV. — Election writs and officers; nomina- 
 tions AND CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS (SECTS. 
 
 44-78.) 
 Election Officers (Sects. 44-46). 
 
 45. Every person appointed a returning officer, presid- 
 ing officer, or poll clerk under this Act, shall before he 
 enters on the duties of such office, make and subscribe a 
 solemn declaration before some justice in the following 
 form : — 
 
 I, A. B., do hereby declare that I accept the office of Return- 
 ing Officer [or Presiding Officer at , or Poll Clerk, as the case 
 may be~] for the Electoral District of , and I hereby promise 
 and declare that I will faithfully perform the duties of im- office 
 to the best of my understanding and ability, and that I will not 
 attempt to improperly ascertain or discover, or by an}' word or 
 action directly or indirectly aid in discovering the person for 
 whom an }' vote is given. And that I will keep secret all knowl- 
 edge of the person for whom any elector has voted which I ma} r 
 
76 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 obtain in the exercise of my office, unless in answer to any ques- 
 tion which I am legally bound to answer. 
 
 A. B. 
 Declared before me this ) 
 day of , 18 . j 
 
 C. D , J. P. 
 
 And such justice shall transmit the declaration so 
 made by the first convenient opportunity to the Colonial 
 Secretary. 
 
 Writs (Sects. 47, 48). 
 48. The returning officer shall endorse upon the writ 
 so directed to him the day on which he receives it, and 
 shall forthwith give public notice of the day and place of 
 nomination, and of the day of polling mentioned in the 
 writ, and of the several polling-places, and of a convenient 
 house or place within the electoral district, to be named 
 by the returning officer, as the place of nomination at 
 which he will be present between the hours of four and six 
 o'clock after noon on the day preceding the day of nomi- 
 nation for the purpose of receiving the nomination papers 
 of candidates, and shall also as soon as possible give public 
 {?) ,. . . notice of any polling-place appointed after the issue of the 
 
 note (c). writ. 
 
 Mass., § 4; Provided that a nomination paper may be received by 
 
 g^b^aVi- tne return i n g officer at any time or place before the said 
 
 Belg., §§ 10G, l 10ur f f our o'clock («). 
 Kv.' § 2; 
 
 n. y., §5; and Nominations (Sects. 49-55). 
 
 Note 2, p. 53. v - 
 
 (d) 49. In order that any person may be or become a candi- 
 Mast.,§ 6- date at an election, he shall be nominated by not less than 
 GtBr^B §§4' s i x persons (6) entitled to vote at such election, in manner 
 Bei D ' i 105^' f°^ ow i n o5 that is to say, before six o'clock after noon of 
 Ky-> § 2; the day preceding the day of nomination named in the 
 
 N. Y., § 8. L . 
 
 ( e ) writ (<i), there shall be delivered to the returning officer 
 S^Austf 6 ^ 48- (0' wno shall if required give a receipt for the same, a 
 d% B i'hv § 8 > nomination-paper naming such person as a candidate at 
 Belg., § 106; such election and signed by the persons nominating him in 
 
 Ky., §2; & J r o 
 
 N". Y. § 4. the following form : — 
 
QUEENSLAND. 77 
 
 We, the undersigned electors of the Electoral District of , 
 do hereby nominate [state Christian name and surname] of 
 [state residence and occupation] for the office of member of 
 the Legislative Assembly for the said district in pursuance of a 
 writ of election issued the day of 18 . 
 
 Dated this day of , 18 . 
 
 [Here are to follow the signatures.] 
 
 And such person or some person in his behalf shall, at 
 the time of delivery of such nomination-paper, pay (/) to (/) 
 the returning officer in sterling money or bank notes the of. Br ^E;' 
 sum of twenty pounds, to be dealt with as hereinafter pro- notk 15' pais, 
 vided ; and no person who is not so nominated, or by or for 
 whom or on whose behalf such payment is not made, shall 
 be or be deemed to be, a candidate at the election. 
 
 50. Immediately on the receipt of a nomination-paper it 
 shall be the duty of the returning officer to post (g~) a copy (g) 
 thereof outside the nearest police office, or if there is no n ote(h)'. " ' 
 police office at the place of nomination, then in some con- 
 spicuous place there. 
 
 51. (Uncertificated insolvent incapable of nomination or 
 election.) 
 
 52. If the number of persons who are duly nominated 
 as candidates at any election does not exceed the number 
 of members to be elected, the returning officer shall, at 
 noon on the day of nomination at the place named as 
 aforesaid for the delivery of the nomination papers, pub- 
 licly declare such candidates to be duly elected, and make 
 his return accordingly. 
 
 53. If the number of persons who are duly nominated 
 as candidates at any election exceeds the number of mem- 
 bers to be elected, then for deciding between such candi- 
 dates a poll shall take place on the day named in the writ 
 for that purpose at the several polling places for the dis- 
 trict, and the returning officer shall, at noon on the day 
 and at the place named as aforesaid for the delivery of the 
 nomination-papers, publicly announce (li) the names of the 00 
 
 ■t 1 • -i a i Mass., §§ 14, 
 
 persons who have been duly nominated as candidates, and 15; 
 that a poll will be so taken, and shall also forthwith pub- ' ustl ' § 
 
i a AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 Gt. Br., b, § 9, lish (Ji) the like announcement in some newspaper pub- 
 Beig., § U2; lished in the district or, if none such is published, then in 
 N^Y. §10. the newspaper published nearest to the district. 
 ,--, 54. If an j candidate is desirous of retiring (i) from his 
 
 Mass., § s; candidature, he may, not later than two clear days after 
 
 Gt. Br., A, § 1, J J J 
 
 D , § i (7); the day of nomination, sign and deliver to the return- 
 N. Y. § n. J . . 
 
 ing officer a notice in the following form, or to the like 
 
 effect : — 
 
 To the Returning Officer of the Electoral District of 
 
 I, A. B., do hereby retire from being a candidate for election 
 for the Electoral District of at the ensuing election. 
 Dated this clay of , 18 . 
 
 (Signed) A.B. 
 
 Witness C. D. 
 
 The returning officer on the receipt of such notice shall 
 omit the name of the person so retiring from the ballot 
 papers to be used at the election, or, if any of such papers 
 have been printed, shall erase his name therefrom. The 
 person so retiring shall not be capable of being elected at 
 the election. (Provision for declaring the remaining can- 
 didates elected without a poll, as in § 52, in case their 
 number does not exceed the number to be elected.) 
 
 55. (Provision for returning to each candidate retiring, 
 or declared elected without a poll, or receiving at least one 
 fifth of the number of votes obtained by the successful 
 candidate having the smallest number of votes, the sum 
 
 /.■) advanced by him at the time of nomination (,/).) 
 
 See § 49, ante, 
 note (f). 
 
 Poll (Sects. 55-78). 
 
 56. For taking the poll at an election, the returning 
 officer shall cause booths to be erected or rooms to be hired 
 and used as such booths in one place at each polling-place 
 as occasion may require. 
 
 57. (Provision for appointment 03^ the returning officer 
 of a presiding officer and one or more poll-clerks for each 
 polling-place.) 
 
QUEENSLAND. 
 
 79 
 
 58. Forthwith after a poll stands appointed for any 
 election, the returning officer shall cause to be printed or 
 written ballot papers containing the candidates' names in 
 alphabetical order, and nothing else, according to the fol- 
 lowing form (/c) : — 
 
 JOHN DOE. 
 
 RICHARD ROE. 
 
 JAMES SMITH. 
 
 HENRY THOMPSON. 
 
 (i) 
 
 Mass., § 10; 
 s. Austr., § 55; 
 Gt. Br., B, § 22, 
 D, §1 (6); 
 Belg., §§ 114, 
 115; 
 
 Ky., § 4; 
 N.Y., § 14; 
 and Note 4, 
 p. 55. 
 
 and shall supply to the presiding officer of each polling- 
 place so many of such ballot papers as shall be fully equal 
 to the number of electors likely to vote at such polling- 
 place (7), and shall keep for himself a like sufficient num- 
 ber for the polling-place at which he is to preside. If two 
 candidates have the same Christian name and surname, the 
 residence and description of each candidate shall be added 
 to his name on the ballot paper. 
 
 59. At every booth or polling-place there shall be one 
 or more compartment or compartments (w) provided with 
 all necessary materials for the purpose of enabling the 
 electors to mark the ballot papers as hereinafter provided, 
 and in such booth or polling-place no person shall be 
 entitled to be present (w) other than the presiding officer, 
 the poll-clerk, the candidates, and the scrutineers of the 
 several candidates to be appointed as hereinafter provided, 
 and the electors who for the time are voting. 
 
 The presiding officer or poll-clerk may summon to his 
 assistance in such booth or polling-place any member of 
 the police force for the purpose of preserving the public 
 peace or preventing any breach thereof, and for removing 
 out of such booth or polling-place any person who in his 
 opinion is obstructing the polling or wilfully violating any 
 of the provisions of this Act. 
 
 60. (The presiding officer shall furnish a ballot-box, 
 which shall be examined before the balloting begins.) 
 
 (0 
 
 Mass., § 12; 
 S Austr., § 5G; 
 Kv., § 3; 
 N*. Y. § 16. 
 
 (m) 
 
 M^ss., §21; 
 S. Austr., § 54; 
 Gt.Br.,B,§ 16; 
 Belg., § 118; 
 Kv.. § 8; 
 N' V.. § 20; 
 and Note 5, 
 p. 58. 
 
 («) 
 
 Mass., § 21 ■ 
 S. Austr., §59; 
 Gt. Br., li.; 21; 
 Belg., § 97; 
 Ky., §17; 
 N. Y., § 20; 
 and Note 1, 
 p. 52. 
 
80 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 61. (The polls are to open at 8 o'clock and close at 4 
 o'clock, except under certain circumstances.) 
 
 62. (Provision in detail for the appointment and quali- 
 fication of candidates' scrutineers for each polling-place.) 
 
 63-70. (Interrogations and oaths as to qualifications, 
 etc., for persons claiming to be entitled to vote.) 
 
 71. When an elector has satisfied the presiding officer 
 that he is entitled to vote at the election, the presiding 
 
 (o) officer (o) shall deliver to him a ballot paper. Before 
 
 Mass. § 22 1 
 
 s. Aiistr., § ? 58, delivery of the ballot paper to the elector the presiding 
 Gt.Br., b,§50; officer shall mark (p) the same on the face thereof with 
 Kv g sV- 23 ' n * s initials in ink or pencil, and shall also write Qp) upon 
 N"y., §21; the back of the left-hand upper corner of the ballot paper 
 
 and Note 6, . L L . i l 
 
 p. 59. in ink or pencil the number set against the name of the 
 
 & c ,. elector in the electoral roll. 
 
 Mass., § 10; 
 
 s. Austr., §57; The presiding officer shall then, and before delivery of 
 b.,§24; ' ' the ballot paper to the elector, fold down (p) the corner 
 lsif ' ' of the paper so as to entirely conceal the number so writ- 
 
 n 7 y^ f^i- * en ' anc ^ sna, ii securely fasten the fold with gum or other- 
 and Note 7, wi&e in such a manner that the number cannot be discovered 
 
 p. 59. 
 
 without unfastening the fold. 
 
 72. Upon delivery of the ballot paper to the elector, the 
 presiding officer or poll-clerk shall, upon the copy of the 
 electoral roll in use by him, or, in the case of a presiding 
 officer other than the returning officer, upon the certified 
 copy of the roll supplied to him by the returning officer, 
 make a mark against the name of the elector. The mark 
 so made on the roll shall be prima facie evidence of the 
 identity of the person to whom the ballot paper is de- 
 livered with the elector whose name is so marked on the 
 roll, and of the fact that such elector voted at that election. 
 
 The number marked upon the back of the ballot paper 
 shall, upon a scrutiny, be conclusive evidence that such 
 ballot-paper was delivered to and used by the person who 
 claimed to vote as the person against whose name such 
 number is set in the electoral roll. 
 
 73. The elector, having received a ballot paper, shall, in 
 one of the compartments or ballot rooms provided for the 
 
QUEENSLAND. 81 
 
 purpose, strike out (g) from his ballot paper the names of (?) 
 such candidates as he does not intend to vote for, and shall s. Austr., § 58, 
 make no other mark or writing thereon, and shall forthwith Gt.Br.,A., §2, 
 fold up the paper in such manner as will conceal the names u'^fm S' 
 of the candidates, and deposit it in the ballot-box in the directions for 
 
 ... . . voters" ; 
 
 presence of the presiding officer. Provided that while an Beig., a,§ 124, 
 elector is in a compartment preparing his ballot paper no kV., §9; 
 other person shall be allowed in such compartment. Pro- an ' d note 9, 
 vided, nevertheless, that in case any elector is unable to p-62- 
 read, or is blind (r), he shall signify the fact to the pre- (>•) 
 siding officer, who shall thereupon, in the booth or polling- s^Austr., §' 58, 
 place, and in the presence and sight of the poll-clerks, GtBr. B §20- 
 candidates, and scrutineers, strike out the names of the ^elg., § 123; 
 
 ivy., $ 10: 
 
 candidate or candidates other than the candidate or can- N. Y., § 25; 
 
 and Note 8, 
 
 didates for whom the elector says that he desires to p. 61. 
 vote. 
 
 No elector shall take out of the booth or polling-place 
 any ballot paper either before or after the same has been 
 so marked. 
 
 Any elector wilfully infringing an} r of the provisions of 
 this section, or obstructing the polling by any unnecessary 
 delay in performing any act within the ballot room, shall 
 be guilty of a misdemeanor. 
 
 74. (Provisions for disposing of second votes tendered 
 on the same name.) 
 
 75. An elector may vote for any number of candi- 
 dates not exceeding the number of members then to be 
 elected. 
 
 76. Every ballot paper which (s) — (?) 
 
 (1) Does not bear the initials of the presiding officer, s. Austr., §'64; 
 
 Gt.Br.,A,§2; 
 
 01 ' Belg., §§124, 
 
 (2) Does not appear to have the elector's number j^v'sii- 
 
 written upon the back of it by the presiding N - Y.,§§13, 
 
 L J L ° 28; and Note 
 
 officer as hereinbefore provided, or 10, p. 63. 
 
 (3) Has such number torn off, or 
 
 (4) Contains a greater number of names of candidates 
 
 not struck out than the number of members to 
 be elected, or 
 
 6 
 
82 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 (5) Has upon it any mark or writing not by this Act 
 authorized to be put thereon, 
 shall be rejected at the close of the poll. 
 
 77. (Provision for adjournment in case of a riot.) 
 
 78. (Power given to the presiding officer to maintain 
 order.) 
 
 Part V. — Declaration of the Result, and Return 
 of Writs of Election (Sects. 79-87). 
 
 85. No election under this Act shall be liable to be 
 
 (t) questioned (t) by reason of any defect in the title, or any 
 
 Gt.Br S ,A,§i3; want of title, of any person by or before whom such 
 
 angora 12 election is held, if such person really acted at such elec- 
 
 P- 64 - tion, nor by reason of any formal error or defect in any 
 
 declaration or other instrument, or in any publication 
 
 made under this Act or intended to be so made, nor by 
 
 reason of any such publication being out of time. 
 
 87. All expenses which a returning officer necessarily 
 incurs in and about an election under the provisions of 
 this Act shall be defrayed out of such moneys as shall be 
 appropriated by Parliament for that purpose. 
 
 Part VI. — Corrupt and Illegal Practices 
 
 (Sects. 88-110). 
 
 95 . . . (2). Any person who, before or during an elec- 
 tion, knowingly publishes a false statement of the with- 
 drawal of a candidate at such election for the purpose of 
 promoting or procuring the election of another candidate, 
 shall be guilty of an illegal practice. 
 
 99. Every person who corruptly induces or procures 
 any other person to withdraw from being a candidate at an 
 election, in consideration of any payment or promise of pay- 
 ment, and every person who withdraws in pursuance of 
 such inducement or procurement, shall be guilty of illegal 
 payment. 
 
 100. Every bill, placard, or poster having reference to 
 an election shall bear upon the face thereof the name and 
 
QUEENSLAND. 83 
 
 address of the printer and publisher thereof ; and every 
 person who prints, publishes, or posts, or causes to be 
 printed, published, or posted, any such bill, placard, or 
 poster, as aforesaid, which fails to bear upon the face 
 thereof the name and address of the printer and publisher, 
 shall, if he is the candidate, or the agent of the candidate, 
 be guilty of an illegal practice ; and if he is not the can- 
 didate, or the agent of a candidate, shall be liable on 
 summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred 
 pounds. 
 
 Part VII. — Supplemental Provisions (Sects. 111- 
 126). 
 
 116. Every person who intrudes into any booth or poll- 
 ing-place, other than the presiding officer, poll-clerk, can- 
 didates, scrutineers, and electors actually voting, shall be 
 guilty of a misdemeanor. 
 
 120 . . . (2). Every justice, presiding officer, or other 
 officer or person who wilfully neglects or refuses to per- 
 form (u) any of the duties which by the provisions of this («) 
 Act he is required to perform, shall for every such offence s. Austr., §85; 
 forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding fifty pounds. N. Y.' § 31; ' 
 
 121. Every presiding officer or other person who places a^NoTEii, 
 or is privy to placing in a ballot-box a ballot paper which has 
 not been lawfully handed to and marked by an elector shall 
 be guilty of felony, and shall be liable on conviction to be 
 kept in penal servitude for any period not exceeding seven 
 years, and not less than two years, or to be imprisoned for 
 any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard 
 labor. Proof that a greater number of ballot papers is 
 found in a ballot-box, or is returned by a presiding officer 
 as having been received at a polling-place, than the num- 
 ber of electors who voted at such polling-place, shall be 
 prima facie evidence that the presiding officer at such 
 polling-place was guilty of an offence against this section. 
 
 124 (1). Every returning officer, presiding officer, poll- 
 clerk, scrutineer, or other person who knowingly and wil- 
 fully unfastens the fold upon a ballot paper within which 
 
84 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 the number of an elector is written, unless he is by the 
 lawful command of some competent court or other tribunal 
 required to do so ; and, — 
 
 (2). Every returning officer, presiding officer, poll-clerk, 
 or scrutineer who attempts to ascertain or discover, or di- 
 rectly or indirectly aids in ascertaining or discovering, the 
 person for whom any vote is given, except in the case of 
 a person voting openly, or who, having in the exercise of 
 his office obtained knowledge of the person for whom any 
 elector has voted, discloses such knowledge, unless in an- 
 swer to some question put in the course of proceedings 
 before some competent court or other tribunal ; and, — 
 
 (3). Every returning officer, presiding officer, poll-clerk, 
 or scrutineer who places upon any ballot paper any mark 
 or writing not authorized by this act, 
 
 Shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction 
 thereof shall be liable to imprisonment for any term not 
 exceeding two years, with or without hard labor. 
 
 [Part VIII. — Temporary Provisions (Sects. 127- 
 131).] 
 
IV.— GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 
 
 A. Ballot Act, 1872. 
 
 B. First Schedule. 
 
 C. Second Schedule (including forms for nomination 
 
 and ballot papers). 
 
 D. Municipal Elections Act, 1875 (sect. 1, subs. 3, 6, 7). 
 
 E. Parliamentary Elections {Returning Officers} Act, 
 
 1875. 
 
 A. 
 
 Ballot Act, 1872 (35 and 36 Vict., c. 33). 
 
 Part I. — Parliamentary Elections. 
 
 Procedure at Elections. 
 
 1. A candidate for election to serve in Parliament for a 
 county or borough, shall be nominated in writing. The 
 writing shall be subscribed by two registered electors of 
 such county or borough as proposer and seconder, and by 
 eight other registered electors of the same county or 
 borough as assenting to the nomination (a), and shall be (a) 
 
 -, rt ■• i • i JM3.SS-J § 4 J 
 
 delivered during the time appointed for the election to the s.Austr., §48; 
 returning officer by the candidate himself or his proposer Beig°§| iog,' 
 
 j 155; 
 
 or seconder. Ky .' § 2; 
 
 If at the expiration of one hour after the time appointed jjj^'j 5; 53 d 
 for the election, no more candidates stand nominated than 
 there are vacancies to be filled up, the returning officer 
 shall forthwith declare the candidates who may stand 
 nominated to be elected, and return their names to the 
 clerk of the crown in chancery ; but if at the expiration of 
 such hour more candidates stand nominated than there are 
 
86 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 vacancies to be filled up, the returning officer shall adjourn 
 the election and shall take a poll in manner in this Act 
 mentioned. 
 (b) A candidate may, during the time appointed for the 
 
 Queens., §'54; election, but not afterwards, withdraw (6) from his candi- 
 Gt Br ^dH l d ature DV giving a notice to that effect, signed by him, to 
 (7), infra. the returning officer ; provided, that the proposer of a 
 candidate nominated in his absence out of the United 
 Kingdom, may withdraw such candidate by a written no- 
 tice signed by him and delivered to the returning officer, 
 together with a written declaration of such absence of the 
 candidate. 
 
 (Provision for proclaiming the election anew in case 
 of the death of a candidate after nomination and before 
 election.) 
 
 2. In the case of a poll at an election the votes shall be 
 
 given by ballot. The ballot of each voter shall consist of 
 
 a paper (in this Act called a ballot paper) showing the 
 
 names and description of the candidates. Each ballot 
 
 ( C ) paper shall have (c) a number printed on the back, and 
 
 s. a Austr., §57; shall have attached a counterfoil with the same number 
 
 BeiT^l 123 1 ' P rmt ed on the face. At the time of voting, the ballot 
 
 Jl* 1 ' „,. , „ paper shall be marked on both sides with an official mark, 
 
 Kv., §§ 4, 7; r L 
 
 N"Y., §21; and delivered to the voter within the polling-station, and 
 infra';' and ' the number of such voter on the register of voters shall be 
 i ote , p. . mar ]j e( j on ti ie counterfoil, and the voter, having secretly 
 
 ( d) marked (e?) his vote on the paper, and folded it up so as 
 S^Au'str.fVss, *° conceal his vote, shall place it in a closed box in the 
 Q L 'ns §73- P res ence of the officer presiding at the polling-station (in 
 Beig., a, § 124, this Act called " the presiding officer ") after having shown 
 Ky., §9; to him the official mark at the back. 
 
 Gt. Br.; b7§ 25, Any ballot paper which has not on its back the official 
 Direct™ f or mark, or on which votes are given to more candidates than 
 aMNoTE^" 1 ' tne voter i s entitled to vote for, or on which anything, 
 p. 62. except the said number on the back, is written or marked, 
 
 (e ) by which the voter can be identified, shall be void (e) and 
 
 s Ia iui 26 § ; 64; not counted. 
 
 Queens., §76; After the close of the poll the ballot-boxes shall be 
 
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 87 
 
 sealed np, so as to prevent the introduction of additional Beig., §§ 124, 
 ballot papers, and shall be taken charge of by the return- & v .' § n ; 
 ing officer, and that officer shall, in the presence of such N g- "and Note 
 agents, if any, of the candidates as may be in attendance, 10 » P- 63 - 
 open the ballot-boxes and ascertain the result of the poll 
 by counting the votes given to each candidate, and shall 
 forthwith declare to be elected the candidate or candidates 
 to whom the majority of votes have been given, and return 
 their names to the clerk of the crown in chancery. 
 
 The decision of the returning officer as to any question 
 arising in respect of any ballot paper shall be final, sub- 
 ject to reversal on petition questioning the election or 
 return (Y). (O See note 
 
 (Provision for the casting of a vote by the returning ' 
 officer only in case of a tie between two candidates.) 
 
 Offences at Elections. 
 3. Every person who — 
 
 (1) Forges or fraudulently defaces or fraudu- 
 lently destroys any nomination paper, or delivers to 
 the returning officer any nomination paper, knowing 
 the same to be forged ; or 
 
 (2) Forges or counterfeits or fraudulently defaces 
 or fraudulently destroys any ballot paper or the offi- 
 cial mark on any ballot paper ; or 
 
 (3) Without due authority supplies any ballot 
 paper to any person ; or 
 
 (4) Fraudulently puts into any ballot-box any 
 paper other than the ballot paper which he is author- 
 ized by law to put in ; or 
 
 (5) Fraudulently takes out of the polling-station 
 any ballot paper ; or 
 
 (6) Without due authority destroys, takes, opens, 
 or otherwise interferes with any ballot-box or packet 
 of ballot papers then in use for the purposes of the 
 election, 
 
 shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and be liable, if he is a 
 returning officer or an officer or clerk in attendance at a 
 
88 AUSTEALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 polling-station, to imprisonment for any term not exceeding 
 two years, with or without hard labor, and if he is any 
 other person, to imprisonment for any term not exceeding 
 six months, with or without hard labor. 
 
 Any attempt to commit any offence specified in this 
 section shall be punishable in the manner in which the 
 offence itself is punishable. 
 
 In any indictment or other prosecution for an offence 
 in relation to the nomination papers, ballot-boxes, ballot 
 papers, and marking-instruments at an election, the prop- 
 erty in such papers, boxes, and instruments may be stated 
 to be in the returning officer at such election, as well as 
 the property in the counterfoils. 
 
 4. Every officer, clerk, and agent in attendance at a 
 polling-station shall maintain, and aid in maintaining, the 
 secrecy of the voting in such station, and shall not com- 
 municate, except for some purpose authorized by law, 
 before the poll is closed, to any person, any information 
 as to the name or number on the register of voters of any 
 elector who has or has not applied for a ballot paper or 
 voted at that station, or as to the official mark ; and no 
 such officer, clerk, or agent, and no person whosoever 
 shall interfere with, or attempt to interfere with, a voter 
 when marking his vote, or otherwise attempt to obtain 
 in the polling-station information as to the candidate for 
 whom any voter in such station is about to vote or has 
 voted, or communicate at any time to any person any 
 information obtained in a polling-station as to the can- 
 didate for whom any voter in such station is about to vote 
 or has voted, or as to the number on the back of the 
 ballot paper given to any voter at such station. Every offi- 
 cer, clerk, and agent in attendance at the counting of the 
 votes shall maintain, and aid in maintaining, the secrecy 
 of the voting, and shall not attempt to ascertain at such 
 counting the number on the back of any ballot paper, or 
 communicate any information obtained at such counting 
 as to the candidate for whom any vote is given in any 
 particular ballot paper. No person shall, directly or in- 
 
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 89 
 
 directly, induce any voter to display Lis ballot paper after 
 he shall have marked the same, so as to make known to 
 any person the name of the candidate for or against whom 
 he has so marked his vote. 
 
 Every person who acts in contravention of the provi- 
 sions of this section shall be liable, on summary conviction 
 before two justices of the peace, to imprisonment for any 
 term not exceeding six months, with or without hard 
 labor. 
 
 5-7. (Division of counties and boroughs into polling- 
 districts.) 
 
 Duties of Election Officers. 
 
 8. Subject to the provisions of this Act, every return- 
 ing officer shall provide such nomination papers, polling- 
 stations, ballot-boxes, ballot papers, stamping-instruments, 
 copies of register of voters, and other things, appoint and 
 pay such officers, and do such other acts and things as may 
 be necessary for effectually conducting an election in man- 
 ner provided by this Act. 
 
 All expenses properly incurred by any returning officer 
 in carrying into effect the provisions of this Act, in the 
 case of any parliamentary election, shall be -payable in 
 the same manner as expenses incurred in the erection of 
 polling-booths at such election are by law payable. 
 
 (The sheriff in some instances may act as returning 
 officer.) 
 
 9. (The presiding officer is empowered to keep order 
 in the polling-station.) 
 
 10. (Election officers are empowered to ask the ques- 
 tions and administer the oaths authorized by law.) 
 
 11. Every returning officer, presiding officer, and clerk 
 who is guilty of any wilful misfeasance, or any wilful act 
 or omission in contravention of this Act shall, in addition 
 
 to any other penalty or liability to which he may be j/ a g S § 3 0; 
 subject, forfeit to any person aggrieved by such mis- rw^ ''§\|q! 
 feasance, act, or omission, a penal sum not exceeding one N". Y., § si: 
 
 1 ° and Note 11, 
 
 hundred pounds (/). p- 64. 
 
90 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 (No election officer shall act as election agent for any 
 candidate.) 
 
 Miscellaneous. 
 
 12. (No person shall be required to disclose his vote.) 
 
 13. No election shall be declared invalid by reason of 
 a non-compliance with the rules contained in the first 
 schedule to this Act, or any mistake in the use of the 
 forms in the second schedule to this Act, if it appears to 
 the tribunal having cognizance of the question that the 
 election was conducted in accordance with the principles 
 laid down in the body of this Act, and that such non- 
 compliance or mistake did not affect the result of the 
 
 (g) election (#). 
 
 Queens. r ,'§85;' 14-20. (Miscellaneous provisions as to the construction 
 an^NoTE ; i2 0I> other Acts, and the application of this Act to Ireland 
 P- 64 - and Scotland.) 
 
 Part II. — Municipal Elections. 
 20-23. (Application of the Act to municipal elections.) 
 
 Part III. — Personation. 
 
 24-27. (Provisions relating to the offence of persona- 
 tion.) 
 
 Part IV. 
 
 (Miscellaneous provisions relating to repeals, etc.) 
 
 B. 
 
 First Schedule. 
 
 Part I. — Rules for Parliamentary Elections. 
 
 Nominations. 
 
 1. (Publication of notice of election.) 
 
 2. The day of election shall be fixed by the returning officer 
 as follows : that is to say, in the case of an election for a county 
 or a district borough, not later than the ninth daj T after the clay 
 on which he receives the writ, with an interval of not less than 
 
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 91 
 
 three clear da} T s between the day on which he gives the notice 
 and the day of election ; and in the case of an election for any 
 borough other than a district borough, not later than the fourth 
 da}' after the day on which he receives the writ, with an interval 
 of not less than two clear days between the day on which he 
 gives the notice and the day of election. 
 
 3. (Place of. holding the election.) 
 
 4. The time appointed for the election shall be such two hours 
 between the hours of 10 in the forenoon and 3 in the afternoon 
 
 as may be appointed (A) by the returning officer, and the re- (h) 
 turning officer shall attend during those two hours and for one frlfv §7(3) 
 hour after. 'infra. 
 
 5. Each candidate shall be nominated b}- a separate nomina- 
 tion-paper, but the same electors or any of them may subscribe 
 as many nomination-papers as there are vacancies to be filled, 
 but no more. 
 
 6. Each candidate shall be described in the nomination paper 
 in such manner as in the opinion of the returning officer is cal- 
 culated to sufficiently identify such candidate ; the description 
 shall include his names, his abode, and his rank, profession, or 
 calling, and his surname shall come first in the list of his names. 
 No objection to a nomination paper on the ground of the de- 
 scription of the candidate therein being insufficient, or not 
 being in compliance with this rule, shall be allowed or deemed 
 valid, unless such objection is made by the returning officer or 
 by some other person at or immediately after the time of the 
 delivery of the nomination paper. 
 
 7. The returning officer shall supply a form of nomination 
 paper to any registered elector requiring the same during such 
 two hours as the returning officer may fix, between the hours 
 of 10 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon on each day inter- 
 vening between the day on which notice of the election was 
 given and the day of election, and during the time appointed 
 for the election ; but nothing in this Act shall render obligatory 
 the use of a nomination paper supplied by the returning officer, 
 so, however, that the paper be in the form prescribed by this 
 Act. 
 
 8. The nomination papers shall be delivered to the return- 
 ing officer (i) at the place of election during the time appointed 0) 
 
 ° v ' l s L l Mass., § 6; 
 
 for the election ; and the candidate nominated by each nomina- S. Austr., § 48 ; 
 
92 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 Queens., § 49; tion paper, and his proposer and seconder, and one other person 
 Kyf, '§ 2; selected by the candidate, and no person other than aforesaid 
 
 Gt Br ^d' § l sna ^> exce pt for the purpose of assisting the returning officer, be 
 (3), infra. entitled to attend the proceedings during the time appointed for 
 the election. 
 
 9. If the election is contested, the returning officer shall, as 
 soon as practicable after adjourning the election, give public 
 
 (/) notice (j) of the day on which the poll will be taken, and of the 
 
 Mass., §§ 14, ., .. ... . . . 
 
 15; candidates described as in their respective nomination papers, 
 
 Queens r "4 5 5o' an( ^ °^ tne names °f the persons who subscribe the nomination 
 5y ; paper of each candidate, and of the order in which the names of 
 
 Belg., § 112; l l ' 
 
 Ky., §5; the candidates will be printed in the ballot paper, and, in the 
 
 Gt. Br. d si case °f an election for a count}*, deliver to the postmaster of the 
 (3), mjra. principal post-office of the town in which is situate the place of 
 election a paper, signed by himself, containing the names of the 
 candidates nominated, and stating the day on which the poll is 
 to be taken ; and the postmaster shall forward the information 
 contained in such paper by telegraph, free of charge, to the sev- 
 eral postal telegraph offices situate in the county for which the 
 election is to be held ; and such information shall be published 
 forthwith at each such office in the manner in which post-office 
 notices are usually published. 
 
 10. If any candidate nominated during the time appointed 
 for the election is withdrawn in pursuance of this act, the return- 
 ing officer shall give public notice of the name of such candidate, 
 and the names of the persons who subscribed the nomination 
 paper of such candidate, as well as of the candidates who stood 
 nominated or were elected. 
 
 11. The returning officer shall, on the nomination paper be- 
 ing delivered to him, forthwith publish notice of the name of the 
 person nominated as a candidate, and of the names of his pro- 
 poser and seconder, by placarding or causing to be placarded 
 the names of the candidate and his proposer and seconder in a 
 conspicuous position outside the building in which the room is 
 situate appointed for the election. 
 
 12. A person shall not be entitled to have his name inserted 
 in any ballot paper as a candidate unless he has been nominated 
 in manner provided by this Act ; and every person whose nomi- 
 nation paper has been delivered to the returning officer during 
 the time appointed for the election shall be deemed to have been 
 
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 93 
 
 nominated in manner provided by this Act, unless objection be 
 made to his nomination paper by the returning officer or some 
 other person before the expiration of the time appointed for the 
 election or within one hour afterwards. 
 
 13. The returning officer shall decide on the validity of every 
 objection made to a nomination paper (k) ; and his decision, (it) 
 
 if disallowing the objection, shall be final ; but if allowing, the Gt^Br D § l 
 same shall be subject to reversal on petition questioning the elec- (|)> in f ra > and 
 tion or returns. 
 
 The Poll. 
 
 14. The poll shall take place on such day as the returning 
 officer ma}' appoint, not being in the case of an election for a 
 county or a district borough less than two nor more than six 
 clear days, and not being in the case of an election for a borough 
 other than a district borough more than three clear days, after 
 the day fixed for the election (I). ^ 
 
 (15) At every polling-place the returning officer shall provide a*! 8 '^ 6 *^. 
 a sufficient number of polling-stations for the accommodation of Queens., §§ 48, 
 
 49- 
 
 the electors entitled to vote at such polling-place, and shall dis- Belg., §105; 
 tribute the polling-stations amongst those electors in such man- ^ y y f ; 8 . 
 ner as he thinks most convenient ; provided that in a district Gt. Br., B, § 4, 
 
 , , . r. i , i,. • , «rn?e;D,§l(3), 
 
 borough there shall be at least one polling-station at each con- infra. 
 tributory place of such borough. 
 
 16. Each polling-station shall be furnished (m) with such (w) 
 number of compartments, in which the voters can mark their s.Austr. §54- 
 votes screened from observation, as the returning: officer thinks Queens., §59; 
 
 ° Belg., § 117; 
 
 necessary, so that at least one compartment be provided for K v., § 8; 
 every one hundred and fifty electors (n) entitled to vote at such an ' f i n'oteY 
 polling-station. P- 58 - 
 
 17. A separate room or separate booth may contain a sepa- ffl - 
 rate polling-station, or several polling-stations ma}* be con- Queens., § 59; 
 structed in the same room or booth. Kr!j§8; ' 
 
 18. No person shall be admitted to vote at any polling-sta- N - ^-> § 20 - 
 tion except the one allotted to him. 
 
 19. The returning officer shall give public notice of the situ- 
 ation of polling-stations, and the description of voters entitled to 
 vote at each station, and of the mode in which electors are to 
 vote. 
 
 20. The returning officer shall provide each polling-station 
 
94 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 with materials for voters to mark the ballot papers, with instru- 
 ments for stamping thereon the official mark, and with copies of 
 the register of voters or such part thereof as contains the names 
 of the voters allotted to vote at such station. He shall keep the 
 official mark secret ; and an interval of not less than seven years 
 shall intervene between the use of the same official mark at elec- 
 tions for the same count} 7 or borough. 
 
 21. The returning officer shall appoint a presiding officer to 
 
 preside at each station ; and the officer so appointed shall keep 
 
 order at his station, shall regulate the number of electors to be 
 
 (o) admitted at a time, and shall exclude all other persons (o), ex- 
 
 S.Austr. §59; ce Pt the clerks, the agents of the candidates, and the constables 
 
 Belg.^"^ 59 '' ° n duty ' 
 
 Kv., § 17; 22. Everv ballot paper shall contain a list of the candidates 
 
 N. Y. § 20" 
 
 and Note l, described as in their respective nomination papers, and ar- 
 
 P* 52- ranged (p) alphabetically in the order of their surnames, and (if 
 
 (p) 
 
 Mass., §10; there are two or more candidates with the same surname) of 
 
 Queens'" '^58°' their other names ; it shall be in the form set forth in the second 
 Beiff., §§ 114, schedule to this Act, or as near thereto as circumstances admit, 
 
 115* 
 
 Ky-', § 4 ; and shall be capable of being folded up. 
 
 Gt. Br. D § 1 ^' (Provisions relating to the ballot-box.) 
 
 (6) infra; 24. Immediately before a ballot paper is delivered to an 
 
 and Note 4, *; 1 l 
 
 p. 55. elector, it shall be marked on both sides with the official 
 
 (?) mark (q), either stamped or perforated, and the number, name, 
 
 § 2, ante, and ' and description of the elector as stated in the copy of the regis- 
 
 note (c). ^ er sna ]i k e ca n e (j ou t, and the number of such elector shall be 
 
 marked on the counterfoil (q), and a mark shall be placed in the 
 
 register against the number of the elector, to denote that he 
 
 has received a ballot paper, but without showing the particular 
 
 ballot paper which he has received. 
 
 25. The elector on receiving the ballot paper shall forthwith 
 proceed into one of the compartments in the polling-station, and 
 (r) there mark (r) his paper, and fold it up so as to conceal his 
 
 § 2, ante, note' vote, and shall then put his ballot-paper, so folded up, into the 
 '•Form d f C Di- ballot-box; he shall" vote without undue delay, and shall quit 
 rections for the polling-station as soon as he has put his ballot-paper into 
 
 Voters," infra. ,. , ., , , 
 
 the ballot-box. 
 (i) 26. The presiding officer, on the application of any voter (s) 
 
 Mass., §25; w h is incapacitated by blindness or other ptrysical cause from 
 VII; voting in the manner prescribed by this Act, or (if the poll be 
 
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 95 
 
 taken on Saturday) of any voter who declares that he is of the Queens., §73; 
 
 Jewish persuasion, and objects on religious grounds to vote in Ky^S 10; ' 
 
 manner prescribed by this Act, or of any voter who makes such N \ Y -> § 25 ; 
 1 *' J and Note 8, 
 
 a declaration as hereinafter mentioned that he is unable to read, p. 61. 
 shall, in the presence of the agents of the candidates, cause the 
 vote of such voter to be marked on a ballot paper in manner 
 directed by such voter, and the ballot paper to be placed in the 
 ballot-box, and the name and number on the register of voters 
 of every voter whose vote is marked in pursuance of this rule, 
 and the reason why it is so marked, shall be entered on a list, 
 in this Act called "the list of votes marked by the presiding 
 officer." 
 
 The said declaration, in this Act referred to as " the declara- 
 tion of inabilit}^ to read," shall be made by the voter at the time 
 of polling, before the presiding officer, who shall attest it in the 
 form hereinafter mentioned, and no fee, stamp, or other pay- 
 ment shall be charged in respect of such declaration, and the 
 said declaration shall be given to the presiding officer at the 
 time of voting. 
 
 27. If a person, representing himself to be a particular elector 
 named on the register, applies for a ballot paper after another 
 person has voted as such elector, the applicant shall, upon duly 
 answering the questions, and taking the oath permitted by law 
 to be asked of and to be administered to voters at the time of 
 polling, be entitled to mark a ballot paper in the same manner 
 as any other voter, but the ballot paper (in this Act called a 
 tendered ballot paper) shall be of a color differing from the 
 other ballot papers, and, instead of being put into the ballot- 
 box, shall be given to the presiding officer, and endorsed by him 
 with the name of the voter and his number in the register of 
 voters, and set aside in a separate packet, and shall not be 
 counted by the returning officer. And the name of the voter 
 and his number on the register shall be entered on a list, in this 
 Act called " the tendered votes list." 
 
 28. A voter who has inadvertently dealt with his ballot paper 
 
 in such manner that it cannot be conveniently used as a ballot . 
 
 (0 
 paper (t) ma} T , on delivering to the presiding officer the ballot Mass., § 24; 
 
 paper so inadvertently dealt with, and proving the fact of the vm™**'' 5 ' 
 
 inadvertence to the satisfaction of the presiding officer, obtain Belg.,§i25; 
 
 Kv., § 9; 
 
 another ballot paper in the place of the ballot paper so delivered Nl Y.,§ 24. 
 
96 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 up (ill this Act called a spoilt ballot paper), and the spoilt 
 ballot paper shall be immediately cancelled. 
 
 29. The presiding officer of each station, as soon as practi- 
 cable after the close of the poll, shall, in the presence of the 
 agents of the candidates, make up into separate packets sealed 
 with his own seal and the seals of such agents of the candidates 
 as desire to affix their seals, — 
 
 (1.) Each ballot-box in use at his station, unopened, but with 
 the key attached ; and 
 
 (2.) The unused and spoilt ballot papers placed together ; and 
 
 (3.) The tendered ballot papers ; and 
 
 (4.) The marked copies of the register of voters, and the 
 counterfoils of the ballot papers ; and 
 
 (5.) The tendered votes list, and the list of votes marked by 
 the presiding officer, and a statement of the number of the 
 voters whose votes are so marked by the presiding officer under 
 the heads "physical incapacit}-," "Jews," and "unable to 
 read," and the declarations of inability to read ; and shall de- 
 liver such packets to the returning officer. 
 
 30. The packets shall be accompanied by a statement made 
 by such presiding officer, showing the number of ballot papers 
 entrusted to him, and accounting for them under the heads of 
 ballot-papers in the ballot-box, unused, spoilt, and tendered bal- 
 lot papers, which statement is in this Act referred to as the 
 ballot paper account. 
 
 Counting Votes. 
 
 31-34. (Provisions for conducting the counting of the votes.) 
 
 34. Before the returning officer proceeds to count the votes, 
 he shall, in the presence of the agents of the candidates, open 
 each ballot-box, and taking out the papers therein, shall count 
 and record the number thereof, and then mix together the whole 
 of the ballot papers contained in the ballot-boxes. The return- 
 ing officer, while counting and recording the number of ballot 
 papers and counting the votes, shall keep the ballot-papers with 
 their faces upwards, and take all proper precautions for pre- 
 venting any person from seeing the numbers printed on the 
 backs of such ballot papers. 
 
 35. (Provision as to the time during which the counting shall 
 take place.) 
 
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 97 
 
 36. . . . The returning officer shall report to the Clerk of the 
 Crown in Chancery the number of ballot papers rejected and 
 not counted by him under the several heads of — 
 
 1. Want of official mark ; 
 
 2. Voting for more candidates than entitled to ; 
 
 3. Writing or mark by which voter may be identified ; 
 
 4. Unmarked, or void for uncertainty ; 
 
 and shall, on request, allow any agents of the candidates, before 
 such report is sent, to copy it. 
 
 37-39. (Provisions for sealing all packets, etc., and forward- 
 ing them to the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery.) 
 
 40. (Inspection of rejected ballot-papers to be allowed only 
 upon order of the proper tribunal.) 
 
 41. No person shall, except by order of the House of Com- 
 mons or any tribunal having cognizance of petitions complaining 
 of undue returns or undue elections, open the sealed packet of 
 counterfoils after the same has been once sealed up, or be al- 
 lowed to inspect any counted ballot papers in the custody of the 
 Clerk of the Crown in Chancery ; such order may be made sub- 
 ject to such conditions as to persons, time, place, and mode of 
 opening as the House or tribunal making the order mav think 
 expedient ; provided that on making and carrying into effect any 
 such order, care shall be taken that the mode in which an}' par- 
 ticular elector has voted shall not be discovered until he has 
 been proved to have voted, and his vote has been declared by a 
 competent court to be invalid. 
 
 42-43. (Further provision as to the inspection of ballot- 
 papers, etc.) 
 
 General Provisions (44-63). 
 
 46. Where the returning officer is required or authorized by 
 this Act to give any public notice, he shall carry such require- 
 ment into effect by advertisements, placards, handbills, or such 
 other means as he thinks best calculated to afford information to 
 the electors. 
 
 50. The presiding officer may do, by the clerks appointed to 
 assist him (u) aity act which he is required or authorized to do fa) 
 by this Act at a polling-station, except ordering the arrest, ex- §. Austr. §58, 
 elusion, or ejection from the polling-station of any person. ^> 
 
 54. Every returning officer, and every officer, clerk, or agent Belg., §123;' 
 
 7 
 
98 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 Ky., § 7; authorized to attend at a polling-station, or at the counting of 
 
 and Note 6 the votes, shall, before the opening of the poll, make a statutory 
 P- 59 - declaration of secrec}', in the presence, if he is the returning 
 
 officer, of a justice of the peace, and if he is any other officer or 
 agent, of a justice of the peace or of the returning officer. . . . 
 56. In reckoning time for the purposes of this Act, Sunday, 
 Christmas Day, Good Fridaj^, and any day set apart for a pub- 
 (v) lie fast or public thanksgiving, shall be excluded (v) ; and where 
 
 Ky^Tii' anything is required by this Act to be done on any day which 
 
 and Note 14, f a Hs on the above-mentioned days, such thing may be done on 
 the next day, unless it is one of the days excluded as above- 
 mentioned. 
 
 Part II. (Application of the foregoing Rules to Municipal 
 
 Elections) . 
 
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 
 
 99 
 
 c. 
 
 Second Schedule. 
 
 1. Form of Nomination Paper in Parliamentary Election. 
 
 We, the undersigned, A. B. of in the of , 
 
 and C. D. of in the of , being electors for 
 
 the of , do hereby nominate the following person as 
 
 a proper person to serve as member for the said in 
 
 Parliament : 
 
 Surname. 
 
 Other Names. 
 
 Abode. 
 
 Rank, 
 
 Profession, or 
 Occupation. 
 
 Brown 
 
 John 
 
 52, George St., 
 Bristol 
 
 Merchant 
 
 Jones 
 
 William 
 David 
 
 High Elms, 
 Wilts 
 
 Esquire 
 
 Merton 
 
 Hon. George Tra- 
 vis, commonly 
 called Viscount 
 
 Swanworth, 
 Berks 
 
 Viscount 
 
 Smith 
 
 Henry Sydney 
 
 72, High St., 
 Bath 
 
 Attorney 
 
 (Signed) A. B. 
 C. D. 
 
 We, the undersigned, being registered electors of , do 
 
 hereb}- assent to the nomination of the above-mentioned John 
 Brown as a proper person to serve as a member for the said 
 in Parliament. 
 
 (Signed) E. F. of 
 G. H. of 
 I. J. of 
 K. L. of 
 M. N. of 
 O. P. of 
 Q. R. of 
 S. T. of 
 
100 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 2. Form of B 'allot- Paper. 
 Form of Front of Ballot Paper. 
 
 Counterfoil 
 No. 
 
 Note : The coun- 
 terfoil is to have a 
 number to corre- 
 spond with that on 
 the back of the Bal- 
 lot-Paper. 
 
 1 
 
 BROWN. 
 
 (John Brown, of 52, George 
 
 St., Bristol, Merchant). 
 
 
 2 
 
 JONES. 
 
 (William David Jones, of 
 
 High Elms, Wilts, Esq.) 
 
 
 3 
 
 MERTON. 
 (Hon. George Travis, com- 
 monly called Viscount, of 
 Swan worth, Berks). 
 
 
 4 
 
 SMITH. 
 (Henry Sydney Smith, of 
 72, High St., Bath, At- 
 torney). 
 
 
 Form of Back of Ballot Paper. 
 
 No. 
 
 18 
 
 Election for 
 
 count}' [or borough, or ward]. 
 
 Form of Directions for the Guidance of the Voter in voting, 
 which shall be printed in conspicuous Characters, and 
 placarded outside every Polling- Station and in every 
 Compartment of every Polling- Station. 
 
 The voter may vote for candidate . 
 
 The voter will go into one of the compartments, and, with the 
 ho) pencil provided in the compartment, place a cross {to) on the 
 
 §2* !m*ef note' right hand side, opposite the name of each candidate for whom 
 (AandB,§25. he votes, thus X. 
 
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 101 
 
 The voter will then fold up the ballot paper so as to show the 
 official mark on the back, and leaving the compartment, will, 
 without showing the front of the paper to any person, show the 
 official mark on the back to the presiding officer, and then, in 
 the presence of the presiding officer, put the paper into the 
 ballot-box, and forthwith quit the polling-station. 
 
 If the voter inadvertently spoils a ballot-paper, he can return 
 it to the officer, who will, if satisfied of the inadvertence, give 
 him another paper. 
 
 If the voter votes for more than candidate , or places 
 any mark on the paper b} r which he may be afterwards identi- 
 fied, his ballot paper will be void and will not be counted. 
 
 If the voter takes a ballot paper out of the polling-station, or 
 deposits in the box any other paper than the one given him by 
 the officer, he will be guilty of a misdemeanor, and be subject to 
 imprisonment for any term not exceeding six months, with or 
 without hard labor. 
 
 Note. These directions shall be illustrated by examples of 
 the ballot paper. 
 
 D. 
 
 The regulations governing the conduct of municipal 
 elections were partially altered by the Municipal Elections 
 Act, 1875 (38-9 Vict. c. 40), the sections embodying mate- 
 rial changes being herewith giveu. 
 
 Municipal Elections Act, 1875. 
 
 1. ... (3) Every nomination paper subscribed as afore- 
 said shall be delivered by the candidate himself, or his 
 proposer or seconder, to the town clerk (z), seven clays at /p) 
 least before the day of election (?/), and before 5 o'clock note%. W ' e ' 
 in the afternoon of the last day on which any such nomi- (y) 
 nation paper may by law be delivered ; the town clerk shall ante, note (h. 
 forthwith send notice of such nomination to each person 
 nominated. The mayor shall attend at the town hall on 
 the day next after the last day for the delivery of nomina- 
 
102 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 tions to the town clerk between the hours of 2 and 4 in 
 the afternoon, and shall decide on the validity of every 
 (s) objection made to a nomination paper («), such objection 
 
 ante, note (k). to be made in writing. . . . The decision of the mayor, 
 which shall be given in writing, shall, if disallowing any 
 objection to a nomination paper, be final, but if allowing 
 the same shall be subject to reversal on petition question- 
 
 ( a ) ing the election or return. . . . The town clerk shall (a) 
 ante, note '(./). a ^ least four days before the day of election cause the sur- 
 names and other names of all persons duly nominated, 
 with their respective places of abode and descriptions, and 
 the names of the persons subscribing their respective 
 nomination papers, as proposers and seconders, to be 
 printed and placed on the door of the town hall, and in 
 some conspicuous parts of the borough or ward for which 
 such election is to be held. 
 
 ... 7. When more candidates are nominated at any 
 municipal election than there are vacancies to be filled at 
 
 (b) such election, any of such candidates may withdraw (5) 
 ante, note (b). from his candidature by notice signed by him and delivered 
 
 to the town clerk not later than two o'clock in the after- 
 noon of the day next after the last day for the delivery of 
 nomination papers to the town clerk. . . . 
 
 ... 6. At the poll at anj- election of auditors and asses- 
 sors one ballot paper only shall be used by any person 
 ( C ) voting. In such ballot paper (c) the names of the candi- 
 
 aMte B i\ote 2 ?») dates for the respective offices shall be separate and dis- 
 tinguished, so as to show the office for which they are 
 respectively candidates ; and the ballot paper shall be in 
 the form No. 3, set forth in the first schedule to this Act, 
 or to the like effect. . . . 
 
 The provisions of this Act have been embodied in the 
 Municipal Corporations Act, 1882 (45-6 Vict. c. 50), and 
 are now in force by virtue of the latter Act. The provi- 
 sions corresponding to those quoted above are contained 
 for the most part in Schedule III., Part II., of the Act 
 of 1882. 
 
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 
 
 103 
 
 3. Form of Ballot Paper for Municipal Elections. 
 
 Form of Front of Ballot Paper. 
 For Auditors. 
 
 Counterfoil 
 
 No. 
 
 Note : The counter- 
 foil is to have a number 
 to correspond until that 
 on the back of the Ballot- 
 Paper. 
 
 1 
 
 CADE. 
 
 (John Cade, of 22, Well- 
 close Place, Accountant.) 
 
 
 2 
 
 JOHNSON. 
 
 (diaries Johnson, of 7, Al- 
 bion St., Gentleman.) 
 
 
 3 
 
 THOMPSON. 
 
 (William Thompson, of 14, 
 
 Queen St., Silversmith.) 
 
 
 For Revising Assessors. 
 
 1 
 
 BACON. 
 
 (Charles Bacon, of 29, New 
 St., Solicitor.) 
 
 f 
 
 2 
 
 BYRON. 
 
 (James Byron, of 45, George 
 St., Commission Agent.) 
 
 i 
 
 3 
 
 WILSON. 
 
 (George Wilson, of 22, Han- 
 over Square, Gentleman.) 
 
 
 E. 
 
 By the Parliamentary Elections (Returning Officers) 
 Act, 1875 (38-9 Vict. c. 84), the expenses of parliamen- 
 tary elections are placed upon the candidates in equal 
 shares, or upon the nominators of a candidate, if he was 
 nominated without his consent. To this extent the provi- 
 sions of the Ballot Act are altered so that if the returning 
 officer exercises his right (§ 3 of the above Act) to require 
 
104 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 (d) security (d) from the candidates, and a candidate fails to 
 
 Queens., §§ 49, Q ^ ev ^t, security (the proper sum being estimated accord- 
 Ky., § 2; and j n ™ to a fi xe( j schedule) within one hour from the time 
 
 Note 15, p. 65. & y 
 
 when nominations are closed, his nomination is a nullity. 
 The above Act was amended by the Parliamentary Elec- 
 tions (Returning Officers) Act, 1885, but only in respect 
 to the amount of security to be required. 
 
V. BELGIUM. 
 
 A. Electoral Codes, 1872, as amended by Consolidated 
 Election Laws, 1878. 
 
 B. Law of 21 May, 1884. 
 
 A. 
 
 Electoral Code, 1872, as amended by Consoli- 
 dated Election Laws, 1878. 
 
 [Title I. Qualifications of Voters.] 
 [Title II. Registration.] 
 [Title III. Election Districts.] 
 
 Title IV. Conduct of Elections (Arts. 96-166). 
 
 Chap. I. General Regulations for the preservation of 
 Order, etc. 
 
 Art. 97. The presiding election officer of the district 
 or of the polling-station shall have sole authority to en- 
 force order in the premises where the election is held ; he 
 may delegate this authority to one of the officers at the 
 polling-place for the purpose of maintaining order in the 
 
 waiting-room while the voters are being 1 called in. 
 
 t \ 
 Only candidates and voters of the district shall be ad- M as s., § 21 ; 
 
 mitted to the premises where the election takes place. Q' U eens.''$59;' 
 
 But during the voting and the counting of votes they ^' B §' 1 7 : ^ 21 ' 
 
 shall not remain (a) in that part of the premises where N - J-> § 20 ; 
 
 v ' L r and Note 1, 
 
 these proceedings take place. p- 52. 
 
106 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 Chap. II. (applying only to national and provincial 
 elections). 
 
 Section I. Candidates. 
 
 Art. 105. Candidates must be proposed at least six clear 
 (b) days before the da} r of election (6). 
 
 s. Austr., §46; Art. 106. The nomination paper must be signed (1) in 
 Queens., §§ 48, an e i ect i on f or ^e legislature, by at least fifty electors (<?) 
 UD r 5i'(f/' * a ^ e arr o n( iissements, which, when an entire legislature 
 Ky^§2; is to be elected, are entitled to more than four members, 
 
 and by thirty electors in other arrondissements ; (2) in a 
 Mass., §4; provincial election, by at least twenty-five electors (c) in 
 Queens!,V49;' tne cantons which are entitled to four or more councillors, 
 Ky., §*2- 1; anc ^ D y ten electors in other cantons. 
 
 Bg]J''A 5 -L Nomination papers shall be delivered by three of the 
 
 infra; and signers thereof to the presiding officer of the chief pollingr- 
 
 Note 2 n 53 to 
 
 place (d), who shall give a receipt therefor. They shall 
 Mass., § 6; indicate the surname, first name, residence, and occupa- 
 Qaeens.^§ 49;' tion of the candidates and of the electors who present 
 D.'i lihy' ^ 8 ' tnem > an d shall be dated and signed. The candidates 
 N y 'Y^8 4 shall be entered on the ballot in alphabetical order, and 
 when members of the senate and of the chamber of repre- 
 sentatives are to be elected at the same time, their names 
 shall be arranged in separate groups. 
 
 Art. 107. A person proposed as a candidate shall ac- 
 (e) cept(e) in writing, signed by himself, and delivered to the 
 
 n'oteVp. 54. ' presiding officer of the chief polling-place. When candi- 
 dates present themselves together and form an entire 
 group [equal in number to the number of members to be 
 elected], the acceptance shall so state. Candidates for 
 the legislature may indicate the party appellation which 
 they wish printed at the head of their group. 
 
 An acceptance may be made at the same time with the 
 nomination. 
 
 Art. 108. Candidates shall, at the time of accepting, 
 designate, as agents to be present at the polls, as many 
 electors as there are polling-places, and an equal number 
 of substitutes. A candidate himself may be designated as 
 agent or as substitute. 
 
BELGIUM. 107 
 
 Art. 109. The requirements of Arts. 107 and 108 shall 
 be fulfilled five clear days before the day of election. 
 
 Arts. 110-111. (Provision, in further detail, for the 
 appointment of agents for the polling-places.) 
 
 Art. 112. At the expiration of the period within which 
 nominations may be made, the election officers of the chief 
 polling-place shall make up the list of candidates for whom 
 votes ma}- validly be given on the day of election. This 
 list shall be immediately posted (/) in all the towns of the (/) 
 arrondissement or the canton. The posted list shall con- i5* ss *' ' 
 tain in large letters, in black ink, the names of the candi- Q' lie en S s. r ,''4 50,' 
 dates in the form of the ballot as hereafter described, and j^ Br B § 9 
 shall in addition indicate the first name, occupation, and D, § 1(3); 
 residence of each candidate, and shall also contain the N. y., §'io. 
 instructions annexed as No. I. 
 
 The presiding officer of the chief polling-place, at the 
 request of the candidates or of the electors who presented 
 them, shall communicate (g) to them the official list of (<?) 
 candidates not later than the fourth day before the day of ee ^' su J" a 
 election. 
 
 Section II. Ballots. 
 
 Art. 113. At the expiration of the time allowed for 
 presenting candidates, the election officers of the chief 
 polling-place shall prepare the ballots and cause them to 
 be printed on official paper. 
 
 Art. 114. Candidates to the legislature who present 
 themselves together and form an entire group shall be 
 placed in a single column, arranged in alphabetical order 
 for each Chamber, the candidates for the Senate coming 
 first (7i). The party appellation, as indicated according to (h) 
 Art. 107, shall be printed at the head of the column. When s. Au'str.. §' sr> ; 
 there are more members than one to be elected, candidates Gt. C Br!B;§22; 
 presented independently shall be placed in alphabetical k' 'Vf!' 
 order in a special column. Each column shall be printed ^; d Y ^ § T ^ 
 in ink of a different color ; the whole ballot being prepared p- 55. 
 according to the annexed model No. II. 
 
 Art. 115. Candidates for the provincial councils who 
 
108 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 present themselves together and form an entire group 
 
 shall be placed in a single column in alphabetical or- 
 
 (i) der (z). The first column shall contain the group in which 
 
 bee ( ) supra. occurs ^g name fi rs t [ n alphabetical order, and so on for 
 
 the other groups, whether entire or partial. 
 
 The election officers of the chief polling-place shall 
 cause the ballots to be printed or written in black ink. 
 Those who present themselves together and form an entire 
 group may request that a distinctive device be placed at 
 the head of their group ; the whole being prepared accord- 
 ing to the annexed model No. III. 
 
 Art. 116. The use of all other ballots is forbidden. 
 
 Section III. Of Polling Arrangements and the Process of 
 
 Voting. 
 
 Art. 117. The polling place and the separate compart- 
 ments in which the electors must record or determine upon 
 (;") their votes shall be constructed (j) according to the 
 
 Mass., §21; AT TT _ ,. . ,° 
 
 s. Austr., §54; annexed model .No. IV. But the dimensions and arrange- 
 
 Gt e Br. S ,B,§i6; ment thereof may be modified according to the require- 
 
 n?y., § ! 20 ; ments of the premises or the needs of the occasion. 
 
 and Note 5, £ rt 118. There shall be at least one compartment or 
 
 , h) separate shelf for every 100 electors (k). 
 
 Mass., § 21; j_ rt 119 Instructions, as contained in the annexed 
 
 Queens., § o9; 7 
 
 Gt.Br.,B,§ 16; model No. I., shall be placarded on the outside of each 
 N" Y. § 20. polling-place, in the waiting-room, and within each sepa- 
 rate compartment. 
 
 Art. 120. The electors shall be called in alphabetical 
 order from a list containing the name, first name, age, 
 occupation, and residence of every elector in the district 
 or polling-place. Any charges of error in this list shall 
 be decided upon by the election officers, having regard 
 only to the official lists arranged by towns and posted 
 according to Art. 102. 
 
 Art. 121. (Provides that no one shall vote whose name 
 is not on the list or who cannot present a certificate of 
 qualification from the proper authorities.) 
 
 Art. 122. As one elector leaves the voting-place, the 
 
BELGIUM. 109 
 
 clerk shall call another so that the electors shall succeed 
 each other in the compartments without cessation. 
 
 Art. 123. The elector when called shall approach and 
 receive from the hands of the presiding officer (7) a ballot (I) 
 folded at right angles into four parts, and stamped (w) on s.Tustr., §'58, 
 the back with a stamp indicating the number of the polling- Q^ e ' ens § 71 . 
 place, and the date of the election. He shall proceed Gt.Br.,B,§50; 
 directly to one of the compartments, shall there mark hisN.Y., §21: 
 
 in ii ■ -1 • /v> anc ' Note 6, 
 
 vote, snail return and show to the presiding officer the p. 59. 
 ballot folded properly into four parts, the stamp on the ^ ss . 10 . 
 outside, shall drop it into the ballot-urn, and shall leave s.Austr.,§ 57; 
 
 Queens., § 71; 
 
 the voting-room. Gt. Br., a, § 2; 
 
 T> c Cjj . 
 
 When it is made to appear that a voter is blind or Ky.,"§§4, 7; 
 infirm (w), the presiding officer shall permit him to have Belg.j's i5i| 
 a guide or assistant accompany him into the compartment. ^ T E'' 7 a p d 59 
 The names of both shall be preserved in the official report ( n ) 
 of the proceedings. SftSiifs'ss, 
 
 Art. 124. If the elector wishes to give his vote to all Q U 'y ns c 73 . 
 the candidates of a single group, he shall mark (o) with a Gt.Br.,B,§26; 
 pencil a cross in the square reserved for the purpose at the N. f., § 25; 
 head of the group of candidates. If he wishes to give his p . oi. 
 vote to certain candidates upon the same or different lists, 
 he shall mark (o) with a pencil a cross in the square reserved (<>) 
 
 . Mass , § 23 ; 
 
 fortius purpose opposite the name of each of the candi- s. Au'str., §58, 
 dates for whom he votes. When there is but one member Queens., § 73: 
 to elect, the vote shall be expressed as in the former case B^s^H^cf 2 ' 
 above, no square being printed opposite the candidate's "Form of Di- 
 
 ' J- or jti rections for 
 
 name. voters;'^ 
 
 Every cross, although imperfectly made, shall be a valid n".y., §22; 
 expression of the vote (p), unless an intention is manifest infra; and ' 
 to render the ballot recognizable. ^ OTE 9 ' p " 62 ' 
 
 Art. 125. If the elector inadvertently mars (<?) the S e e ( r ) t i n / r a, 
 ballot which has been delivered to him, he may request p- 110- 
 another from the presiding officer, upon giving up to him ^ ss ^ 24 . 
 the first, which shall be immediately cancelled. ^• I ^ u f tr -> § 58 > 
 
 Art. 126. The clerk shall check on the list the name of Gt.Br.,B,§28; 
 each elector who answers at the time of the first or the N. T., §24. 
 second call. When an elector receives a ballot from the 
 
110 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 hands of the presiding officer, one of the inspectors shall 
 enter his name on a special list of voters. 
 
 Art. 127. There shall be a second call for those elec- 
 tors who were not present when first called. When the 
 second call is over, the presiding officer or his deputy shall 
 ask the assemblage if there are any electors present who 
 have not voted. Those who present themselves immedi- 
 ately shall be allowed to vote. When this has been done, 
 the poll shall be declared closed. 
 
 Art. 128. The elector may not remain in the compart- 
 ment longer than is necessary to prepare his ballot. 
 
 Art. 129. When the poll is closed, the election officers 
 shall place in separate sealed envelopes the ballots re- 
 turned according to Art. 125, and the unused ballots. 
 The number of returned ballots shall be recorded in the 
 official report, and the envelope containing them shall be 
 annexed thereto. The unused ballots shall be returned 
 by the election officers of the chief polling-place to the 
 superintendent of registration of the province. 
 
 Art. 130. No one shall be compelled to disclose the 
 manner in which he voted, whether at a preliminary 
 examination, a trial, or a parliamentary inquiry. 
 
 Section IV. Counting the Votes. 
 
 ( r ) Art. 147. The following ballots shall be void (r) : 
 
 s Ia lustr §'64; 1. All ballots other than those whose use is permitted 
 
 8rBr S ;§ § 2; 6; bythisact: 
 
 n"y' \u3 28- 2* All ballots expressing no choice, or giving more than 
 
 Beig.', § 124, one vote to the same person, or containing more votes than 
 
 Note 10, p. 63. there are members to be elected to either of the legislative 
 
 chambers or to the provincial councils : 
 
 3. All ballots which by a sign, erasure, or other mark of 
 
 any sort, not authorized by law, are rendered recognizable, 
 
 and all ballots altered in form or dimensions, or containing 
 
 within them a paper or other thing. 
 
 Art. 151. The State shall furnish the election paper, 
 (s ) which shall be stamped before being delivered (s) to the 
 
 See (m), ante. p res i c ii' n g officer of the chief polling-place. 
 
BELGIUM. Ill 
 
 The government shall fix the dimensions of ballots ac- 
 cording to the number of members to be elected. Ballots 
 for the same district at the same election shall be of the 
 same dimensions. 1 
 
 Art. 152. It shall be the duty of the capital town of 
 each arrondissement to take charge of, renew, and repair 
 the partitions, shelves, and other material furnished to 
 them by the State. The partitions, railings, shelves, 
 stamping-instruments, and stamps shall be furnished by 
 the provinces to the other towns which are capitals of 
 cantons ; and it shall be the duty of these towns to take 
 charge of, renew, and repair these materials. 
 
 Art. 153. All other expenses incident to elections (ex- 
 cept the electoral registers in several towns, which are 
 charged upon the province) shall be borne by the town in 
 which the election takes place. 
 
 Chap. III. (Application of the foregoing principles to 
 Elections in Towns.) 
 
 Art. 155. (As amended by the law of 26 Aug. 1878) (t). (t) 
 Nominations of candidates shall be signed (u) in towns of e t<£f p .39. ' 
 
 More than 10,000 inhabitants, by at least 20 electors; ( M ) . . , 
 
 From 5,000 to 10,000 inhabitants, by at least 10 electors; 
 From 3,000 to 5,000 inhabitants, by at least 5 electors; 
 
 and in towns of less than 3,000 inhabitants, by 3 electors, 
 among whom may be the candidates themselves. 
 
 Title V: Penalties (Arts. 167-191). 
 
 Art. 168. The counterfeiting of official ballots shall be 
 punished as a falsification of a public writing. 
 
 Art. 169. Any person who shall append the signature 
 of another or of a fictitious person to a nomination-paper, 
 
 i By the laws of 18 Jan. and 17 Sept., 1878 (Supplement, etc., pp. 19, 
 25), the size of the ballots is fixed as follows, the first figure representing 
 the width : In districts having less than 6 members, 21 X 21 cm. ; having 
 from 6 to 12 members, 24 X 24 cm.; having more than 12 members, 21 X 
 34 cm. ; and in towns (general elections) 21 X 34 cm. 
 
112 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 to an acceptance of a nomination, or to an appointment 
 of agents shall be deemed guilty of falsifying a private 
 writing. 
 
 Art. 183. Every presiding officer, inspector, or clerk of 
 a polling-place, and every agent of a candidate, who shall 
 disclose the contents of one or more ballots shall be fined 
 not less than 500 f., and not more than 3000 f., and in ad- 
 dition may be deprived, for a period not exceeding ten 
 years, of the right to act as election officer or agent, or to 
 vote or to be voted for. 
 
 [Title VI : Qualifications for holding office.] 
 [Title VIT : Constitution of the legislative 
 
 CHAMBERS, PROVINCIAL AND TOWN 
 COUNCILS.] 
 
 [Title VIII : Repeals and miscellaneous provi- 
 sions.] 
 
 B. 
 
 Law of 21 May, 1884, repealing art. 124, ante. 
 
 Art. 1. If the elector wishes to give his vote to all the 
 
 (v) candidates of a single group, he shall (v) blacken with 
 
 the instrument (" estamjnlle ") placed at his disposition 
 
 the white point in the centre of the square placed at the 
 
 head of the list of candidates. 
 
 If the elector wishes to give his vote to certain candi- 
 dates upon the same or different lists, he shall (v) blacken 
 as before the white point in the centre of the square placed 
 opposite the name of each candidate for whom he votes. 
 . . . Every impression made in the square with the instru- 
 ment and covering the white point, even though incom- 
 plete, confused, or otherwise defective, shall be a valid 
 expression of the vote, unless an intention is manifest to 
 render the ballot recognizable. 
 
 See (o), ante. 
 
BELGIUM. 
 
 113 
 
 MODEL No. II. 
 
 Legislative Ballot (actual size about 10 in. square). 
 
 Anvers. 
 
 [Blue.] 
 
 Election du. 
 
 [Black.] 
 
 [Carmine.] 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 For Senator (Liberal). 
 
 For Senator [all others]. 
 
 For Senator (Catholic). 
 
 1 
 
 DESMET 
 
 
 1 
 
 AMMAN 
 
 
 1 
 
 MABILLE 
 
 
 2 
 
 EVERAERT 
 
 
 2 
 
 DELVAL 
 
 
 2 
 
 PEPIN 
 
 
 3 
 
 NELSON 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 VANSTUPPEN 
 
 
 For Representative 
 (Liberal). 
 
 For Representative 
 [all others]. 
 
 For Representative 
 (Catholic). 
 
 1 
 
 DUBOIS 
 
 
 1 
 
 UYTERELST 
 
 
 1 
 
 ABELOOT 
 
 
 2 
 
 GEIRTS 
 
 
 2 
 
 VAN LOY 
 
 
 2 
 
 DEBOECK 
 
 
 3 
 
 MATERLING 
 
 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 HOMMEN 
 
 
 4 
 
 NICK 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 HOTTOIS 
 
 
 5 
 
 VANDENTOCK 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 LINSACK 
 
 
 6 
 
 VARMON 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 VAN DIEZT 
 
 
114 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 MODEL No. III. 
 
 Provincial Ballot. 
 
 Election du Province de. 
 
 * o 
 
 ., 18... 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 ABADIE 
 
 
 1 
 
 BERTRAND 
 
 
 1 
 
 COLIN 
 
 
 2 
 
 DELCAMPS 
 
 
 2 
 
 CORNET 
 
 
 2 
 
 DALTON 
 
 
 3 
 
 JACQUES 
 
 
 3 
 
 DUCANGE 
 
 
 3 
 
 HERMAND 
 
 
 4 
 
 NIEMAND 
 
 
 4 
 
 MAENHOUT 
 
 
 4 
 
 NICOLAS 
 
 
 5 
 
 PEETERS 
 
 
 5 
 
 ROBIN 
 
 
 5 
 
 STEVENS 
 
 
 6 
 
 XHOFFER 
 
 
 6 
 
 VERTBOIS 
 
 
 6 
 
 TILQUIN 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
BELGIUM. 
 
 115 
 
 MODEL No. IV. 
 
 Polling Arrangements. 
 
 Entrance. 
 
 Waiting Boom. 
 
 Movable Partitions. 
 
 D □ □ □ □ 
 
 Da 
 
 D» 
 
 □ 
 
 Voting 
 
 □ 
 
 Room. 
 
 A = Ballot-box. 
 
 B = Presiding officer. 
 
 C = Inspectors. 
 
 D = Clerk. 
 
 E = Agents. 
 
 F = Compartments. 
 
VI. — KENTUCKY. 
 
 AN ACT TO KEGULATE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS IN THE 
 CITY OF LOUISVILLE (Approved Feb. 24, 1888). 
 
 Section 1. (The provisions of the act are applicable to 
 elections of municipal officers, with certain exceptions, in 
 Louisville.) 
 
 Sec. 2. In order to have their names printed on the 
 
 (a) . , 
 
 Mass., §4; ballots hereinafter described, candidates must be nomi- 
 Queens.,V 4 9;' nated as follows : A candidate for one ward must be pro- 
 Beig.^'§§ io6, ' posed by the written petition of ten or more registered 
 n & y § 5- voters (a) of the ward, accompanied by the city treasurer's 
 and Note 2, receipt for five dollars (6) ; a candidate for the city at large 
 (6) must be proposed by the written petition of fifty or more 
 
 Queens., §§ 49, re gistered voters of the city, accompanied by a like receipt 
 Gt. Br., E. f or twenty dollars (b) ; the petition in either case to be 
 Mass., §6; presented to the mayor (<?) not less than ten days (cf), 
 Qufen S s.?§ § 49 8 ;' Sundays included (e), before the election. 
 
 d'u (3?- § 8 ; ^ EC# **• Jt s ^ a11 tlie ^ ut y of tlie mayor °f tlae city to 
 
 Beig., § 106; cause to be printed and bound and ready for distribution, 
 
 N. Y., § 4. 
 
 (j) not less than three days before any municipal election, one 
 
 S^Austr. 6 §46; D0 °k of stubs and ballots for each voting precinct in said 
 Queens., §§ 48, q^j^ an( j w ithin such three days to distribute these books 
 GtBr.,B.,§§4, amongc the clerks of such precincts. The book for each 
 Be'ig.,'§ 105; ' precinct shall contain as many leaves (/) as there are 
 ( v ' * registered voters therein, with a reasonable number added 
 s. Austr., to supply ballots that may be spoiled. The form herein- 
 Gt.Br.,B,§56; after given for the election returns shall be printed on the 
 p n 65. ' inside of one of the covers of the book. The cost of print- 
 
 |/) . ing and binding these books, and the necessary expenses 
 
 s. Austr., §'56; of all publications, stationery, ballot-boxes and compart- 
 n. y., § i6. ' ments prescribed by this act shall be borne by the city. 
 
KENTUCKY. 117 
 
 Should the mayor be absent from the city, or prevented by 
 sickness from acting, the duties imposed by this section 
 upon him shall be performed by the city attorney. 
 
 Sec. 4. Each stub in such books shall have printed on 
 it a consecutive number, commencing with number one, 
 and shall be worded as follows : — 
 
 Consecutive number — (After these words the consecu- 
 tive number shall be printed, beginning with one, and 
 increasing in regular numerical order). 
 
 Name of voter — (After these words the clerk shall set 
 down the voter's name). 
 
 Registered residence — (After these words the clerk is 
 to set down the voter's residence as found in the registra- 
 tion book of the precinct). 
 
 The ballot shall be printed on the same leaf with, and 
 shall be separated from the stub by a perforated line ; and 
 it shall be divided by heavy black lines into two columns, 
 and these again by horizontal black lines into divisions for 
 the different offices to be voted for, or questions to be 
 determined. Each division shall be substantially in the 
 following form (<?) : — ($...«. 
 
 & KifJ Mass., § 10; 
 
 r John Brown, Qumm^S!' 
 
 For Mayor } William Smith, ^§ B i'(?); §22; 
 
 C James Williams, £ejs-» §§ ii4, 
 
 115; 
 
 N. Y., §14; 
 
 arranging the names in the alphabetical order of their ^"55^°™ ' 
 surnames, and if several candidates have the same sur- 
 name, in the order of their given names ; and in like 
 manner for the other city offices to be filled, in this order: 
 Mayor, Receiver of City Taxes, Treasurer, Auditor. Then, 
 if any question be submitted, — 
 
 Yes. 
 
 No. 
 
 For tax (or other measure) ] 
 
 Should there be hereafter other officers to be voted for by 
 the whole city, proper divisions are to be added for them. 
 In the 'second column similar divisions shall be printed: 
 For Alderman, for Councilman, for School Trustee, with 
 
118 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 the names of the candidates put after them in the manner 
 above indicated : Provided, that the ballot shall have only- 
 one column when only representatives of wards or when 
 only officers for the whole city are to be elected. 
 
 The mayor shall cause the contents and form of the bal- 
 lot, in the exact shape and size in which it is to be used 
 (h) for the city at large and for each ward, to be published Qi) 
 
 ^ass., §§ , .^ one Qr more of the daily newspapers that do the city 
 Qutens. 1 ", '§§ 50' printing on the day preceding the election, or in handbill 
 ^J d r> c n form, in his discretion ; in which latter case he shall cause 
 
 Gt. Br., B, § 9; ' ' 
 
 D - §1(3); said handbill to be properly circulated and distributed, to 
 N. Y.', § io.' the end that the voters may become familiar therewith. 
 Sec. 6. (Division of the wards into precincts.) 
 Sec. 7. When a voter has given his name, and the same 
 «.) is found on the registration list, and he is found otherwise 
 
 s^a'' tr 22 §' 58 <l uan fi e d, the clerk of the election shall put the voter's 
 IV -; name on a stub in the book, together with the voter's reg- 
 
 Queens., §71; , 
 
 Gt.Br.,B,§50; istered residence, and the stub-book shall, lor this purpose, 
 n? §"'.', § 21;' take the place of a poll-book. The clerk (i) shall tear the 
 and Note 6, Fallot ff t j ie stu ^ an( j wr i te n i s own name on the back 
 
 (ji) thereof (7), and hand it thus indorsed to the voter. He 
 
 Ante 5 4; 
 
 Mass'., § lb; shall also hand the voter an envelope or paper bag, and 
 Qute U n S t . r '§ § 7iV shall then check the voter's name off on the registration 
 
 Gt.Br.,A, §2, i , 
 B, § 24; DOOK. 
 
 Beig., §§ 123, g EC 3 (_^ ballot-box is to be provided by the Mayor.) 
 N. Y. §21; The Mayor shall also cause to be set up, at each voting 
 
 *ti id Note T 
 
 p. 59. place, wooden compartments (&), one for every 175 regis- 
 
 mLs §21- tered voters or fraction thereof (7), about six feet in height, 
 s. Austr.,§54; anc [ a bout three feet square ; one side to open and shut as 
 Gt.Br..B,§i6; a door, with a narrow shelf affixed to the opposite side. 
 n!y'.',§20;' The clerk of each precinct shall put into each of these 
 p n< 58 N ° TE 5 ' compartments lead pencils hung by strings. 
 (l) Sec. 9. Each voter, when furnished with a ballot and 
 
 Queens., §59; envelope or paper bag, must step alone into one of the 
 Beig.^'§ ill; ' compartments and close the door behind him, and while 
 N - Y -> § 20, within the same he shall put (m) on his ballot, after each 
 Mass., §23; name of the candidate whom he prefers, a pencil mark in 
 vi.; US ' the shape of an oblique cross, in substance thus X, and in 
 
KENTUCKY. 119 
 
 like manner after the answer "yes" or "no" to any ques- Queens., §73; 
 tion, submitted to the people. While still in the compart- B, t- § 25', c, ' 
 ment he shall fold the ballot and put it in the envelope or rations for Dl " 
 paper bag furnished to him. Should he inadvertently Voters; " 
 spoil a ballot (w) he may return it and receive in place **, §i; 
 thereof one other ballot ; the spoiled ballot thus returned and Note 9, 
 shall be preserved by the clerk, and the fact shall be noted jj\ ' 
 by hini by writing the word "spoiled" on the stub. (A Mass., §24; 
 
 J 1 • *• • 1 S - Austr., § 58, 
 
 voter may cast his vote tor a person not nominated, as pro- vin.; 
 vided in section 2, above, by writing the name of such Beig.*'§ 125 ; ' 
 person after that of the office to which he would have him ' •'S 2 ' 1 - 
 elected, and making the mark hereinabove provided for 
 after such name) (0). (o) 
 
 Sec. 10. When a voter is, and avows himself to be, n?y!' § is'; 
 blind (p), and is found to be such by the concurrence of p" q 6 Note 16 ' 
 both iud^es and the sheriff of the precinct, the clerk shall (p) 
 
 Mass 5 °5 • 
 
 accompany him to one of the compartments and mark the s. Austr." §' 58, 
 ballot at his dictation, and the word " blind " shall be put Q U e' e ; ns ., § 73 . 
 on the stub under such voter's name. S 1 ; 61 ""'^'!, 26 ' 
 
 rSelg., § 126; 
 
 Sec. 11. A ballot which appears by its paper or type N - Y * § 25 ; 
 
 11 1 r 1 "11 i 1 • 1 • and NoTE 8 » 
 
 not to have been taken from the stub-book, or which is p. 61. 
 
 not indorsed with the clerk's signature, or which contains 
 any marks or writing upon it other than provided for by 
 law, or which is put into an envelope or paper bag having 
 any mark or writing upon it, or two or more ballots put 
 into the same receptacle, shall be void (</). When a (7) 
 voter marks more candidates for one office than he has s. Austr., §'64; 
 a right to vote for, the ballot shall be void as to that Gt^Brl'A, § 2; 
 office only. Beig., §§ 124, ' 
 
 Sec. 12. A voter shall not occupy a compartment for £• y., §§ 13, 
 
 CJ r 28; and Note 
 
 more than three minutes (r), and shall, as soon as he leaves 10, p. 63. 
 it, hand his ballot, folded and within the envelope or paper ^ g . 23 . 
 bag, to the judges, who shall immediately, in the voter's N - Y -> § 12 - 
 presence, drop it in the ballot-box, affording him full op- 
 portunity to see it dropped in for himself; whereupon the 
 voter shall at once withdraw from the room to the distance 
 hereinafter prescribed. The sheriff of the precinct shall 
 enforce the provision limiting the voter's stay in the com- 
 
120 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 partment, and requiring his immediate withdrawal after 
 voting. 
 
 Sec. 13. (Provision for preserving the ballot of one 
 who claims to vote upon a name already voted upon.) 
 
 Sec. 14. (Closing the polls and counting the ballots.) 
 The ballots on which questions are raised by one of the 
 judges, or which are rejected, the ballots counted as valid, 
 those marked " voted on before," and the spoiled ballots, 
 shall all be put in separate sealed packages, and the num- 
 ber and description of ballots indorsed upon each package. 
 The officers of each precinct shall return these packages, 
 together with the stub-book, to the Mayor on the night 
 following the election. . . . 
 
 Sec. 15. (Form of return for election officers.) 
 Sec. 16. (Provisions relating to the choice of election 
 officers, and their duties.) 
 (s) Sec. 17. The following persons and no other (s) shall 
 
 s.Aukr., §59; be permitted to remain in the room in which the election 
 Gt. e Br S , b!§ 5 21; is neld > witn tne judges, sheriff, and clerk : One agent of 
 n^y' 6 20- eacn can didate who has been named in writing by the can- 
 and Note i, didate as the only, or as one of two agents for such pre- 
 cinct: Provided such writing has been deposited, before 
 the opening of the polls, with the clerk of the election, 
 who shall set down the name of such agent, and that of 
 the candidate he represents, in the stub-book before the 
 voting begins. These agents have the right to challenge 
 persons offering to vote, but are not allowed to persuade, 
 influence, or intimidate any one in the choice of his can- 
 didate, or to attempt doing so, nor shall they go forward 
 and backward between the polls and those awaiting their 
 turn. 
 
 Sec. 18. The voting-places at all elections under this 
 act shall be so arranged as to leave a clear space of fifty 
 feet between the room or inclosure in which the voting is 
 done and those waiting their turn to vote, or other persons 
 present at such election ; and the sheriff of election and 
 the police stationed at said precinct shall keep all persons, 
 except the officers of the election, those voting at the time, 
 
KENTUCKY. 121 
 
 and the candidates or agents of candidates hereinabove 
 mentioned, at that distance from the room or inclosure. 
 
 Sec. 19. Any policeman who fails to keep all persons 
 at the lawful distance from the room or inclosure as here- 
 inabove provided . . . shall thereby vacate his office as 
 policeman, and it shall be the duty of the Mayor to dismiss 
 him at once from the force. 
 
 Sec. 20. . . . Subsect. 6. Any officer of election who 
 gives any information as to any one's vote, which he has 
 obtained in the course of or by color of his office, except 
 when compelled to do so in the course of a judicial investi- 
 gation, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, on con- 
 viction, pay a fine of not less than fifty nor more than one 
 hundred dollars for each offence. 
 
 . . . Subsect. 8. Any judge or sheriff of an election who 
 corruptly and falsely declares a voter to be blind, under 
 section ten of this act, shall be liable to the penalties 
 imposed upon officers of election by subsection 6 of this 
 section for the acts therein denounced. 
 
 . . . Subsect. 10. Any judge, sheriff, or clerk of an elec- 
 tion, who . •. . shall unlawfully accompany or follow any 
 voter into a compartment, shall be deemed guilty of a mis- 
 demeanor, and subject to like fine and imprisonment, and 
 shall be declared incapable of serving as an officer of elec- 
 tion, or as agent or representative of a candidate at the 
 polls, for three years from the date of the sentence. 
 
 . . . Subsect. 11-25. (Further penalties imposed for 
 bribery, etc.) 
 
 . . . Subsect. 26. Irregularities or defects (t) in the (t) 
 mode of convening, holding, or conducting an election Q' uee u n s s . r § 85 . ; 
 under this act shall constitute no defence to a prosecution and Note \2 ; 
 for a violation of its provisions. P* 64 - 
 
 Secs. 21-28. (Miscellaneous provisions , corrupt prac- 
 tices, tribunals for contesting an election, etc.) 
 
VII. NEW YOEK. 
 
 (a) 
 
 For the differ- 
 ences between 
 this act and 
 the bill now 
 pending, see 
 Appendix I. 
 
 AN ACT TO MORE FULLY SECURE THE INDEPENDENCE OF 
 ELECTORS AND THE SECRECY OF THE BALLOT. (1888.) (a) 
 
 The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate 
 and Assembly, do enact as follows : 
 
 Section 1. All ballots cast in elections for public offi- 
 cers within this State shall be printed and distributed at 
 public expense, as hereinafter provided. The printing of 
 ballots and cards of instruction for the electors in each 
 county, and the delivery of the same to the election offi- 
 cers, as provided in Section 18 of this act, shall be a 
 county charge, the payment of which shall be provided 
 for in the same manner as the payment of other county 
 expenses. 
 
 Sect. 2. Any convention, as hereinafter defined, held 
 for the purpose of making nominations to public office, 
 and also electors to the number hereinafter specified, may 
 nominate candidates for public offices to be filled by elec- 
 tion within the State. A convention, within the meaning 
 of this act, is an organized assemblage of delegates repre- 
 senting a political party which at the last election before 
 the holding of such convention polled at least three per 
 cent of the entire vote cast in the State, county, or other 
 division or district for which the nomination is made. 
 
 Sect. 3. All nominations made by any such convention 
 shall be certified as follows : The certificate of nomination, 
 which shall be in writing, shall contain the name of each 
 person nominated, his residence, and the office for which 
 he is nominated, and shall designate the party or principle 
 which such convention represents. It shall be signed by 
 the presiding officer and secretary of such convention, 
 
NEW YORK. 123 
 
 who shall add to their signatures their respective places of 
 residence, and acknowledge the same before an officer 
 duly authorized to take acknowledgments. A certificate 
 of such acknowledgment shall be appended to said in- 
 strument. 
 
 Sect. 4. Certificates of nomination shall be filed with 
 the Secretary of State (a') for the nomination of candidates ( a r ) 
 for offices to be filled by the electors of the entire State, s Ia lustr 6 5 48- 
 or of any district or division of a greater extent than one 9? e< L ns '' P § s 4 o ; 
 county. For all other nominations to public offices, cer- D, §1 (3); 
 tificates of nomination shall be filed with the clerks (a') Ky.,'§2. 
 of the respective counties wherein the offices are to be 
 filled by the electors. The certificate of nomination for 
 Assemblyman in the counties of Fulton and Hamilton 
 shall be filed in the office of the County Clerk of Hamilton 
 County, and a copy thereof certified by said County Clerk 
 of Hamilton County shall be filed in the office of the 
 County Clerk of Fulton County. 
 
 Sect. 5. A candidate for public office may be nomi- 
 nated otherwise than by a convention in the manner fol- 
 lowing : A certificate of nomination containing the name 
 of the candidate to be nominated, with the other informa- 
 tion required to be given in the certificates provided for in 
 Section 3 of this act, shall be signed by electors residing 
 within the district or political division for which candi- 
 dates are to be presented, equal in number (&) to at least (b) 
 one per cent of the entire vote cast at the last preceding s.Austr., § 48 
 election in the State, county, or other division or district q^bt!' 'a §i 
 for which the nomination is to be made, provided, how- £?'£•> §§ ! ° 6 > 
 
 * loo; 
 
 ever, that the number of signatures so required shall not Ky., §2; and 
 
 Note 2 p. 53 
 
 exceed one thousand when the nomination is for an office 
 to be filled by the electors of the entire State, and shall 
 not exceed one hundred when the election is for an office 
 to be filled by the electors of a county, district, or other 
 division less than the State in extent, and provided also 
 that the said signatures need not all be appended to one 
 paper. Such a certificate, when made as above prescribed, 
 may be filed as provided for in Section 4 of this act, with 
 
124 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 the same effect as a certificate of nomination made by a 
 party convention. 
 
 Sect. 6. No certificate of nomination shall contain the 
 name of more than one candidate for each office to be 
 filled. No person shall join in nominating more than one 
 nominee for each office to be filled ; and no person shall 
 accept a nomination to more than one office. 
 
 Sect. 7. The Secretary of State shall cause to be pre- 
 served in his office all certificates of nomination filed 
 therein under the provisions of this act, and each county 
 clerk shall cause to be preserved in his office all certificates 
 of nomination filed therein under the provisions of this 
 act. 
 
 Sect. 8. Certificates of nomination, filed with the 
 Secretary of State, shall be filed not more than sixty 
 
 (c) days and not less than twenty days (c) before the day 
 S.Austr., §46; fixed by the law for the election of the persons in nomi- 
 Queens., §§ 48 > nation. Certificates of nomination herein directed to be 
 ?MN?',it 4, filed with the clerk of the county shall be filed not 
 
 14, D, § 1 (3); , J 
 
 Beig., §105; more than sixty and not less than fifteen days (c) before 
 election. 
 
 Sect. 9. Not less than eighteen days before an election 
 to fill any public office, the Secretary of State shall certify ' 
 to the County Clerk of each county within which any of 
 the electors may by law vote for candidates for such office, 
 the names and the description of each person nominated 
 for such office, as specified in the certificates of nomina- 
 tion filed with the Secretary of State. 
 
 Sect. 10. At least seven days before an election to fill 
 any public office, the County Clerk of each county shall 
 
 (d) cause to be published (d~) in at least two newspapers 
 15; ' within the county, the nominations to office certified to 
 Queens!",''§§ 50,' mm by the Secretary of State, and also those filed with 
 Gt! Br. b § 9 ^ ne County Clerk. He shall make not less than two such 
 B ' i^ "* s 3 ii2 P u t>lications in each of such newspapers before election. 
 Ky., § 5. One of such publications in each newspaper shall be upon 
 
 the last day upon which such newspaper is issued before 
 election. Such publication shall be made in two news- 
 
NEW YORK. 125 
 
 papers, representing the political parties that at the last 
 preceding election cast the largest and next largest num- 
 ber of votes ; the list of nominations published by the 
 county clerks of the respective counties shall be arranged, 
 as far as practicable, in the order and form in which they 
 will be printed upon the ballot. 
 
 Sect. 11. The Secretary of State shall not certify the 
 name of a candidate whose certificate of nomination shall 
 have been filed in his office, who shall have notified him in 
 a writing signed and executed with the formalities pre- 
 scribed for the execution of an instrument to entitle it to 
 record, that he will not accept (e) the nomination con- (e) 
 tained in the certificate of nomination. The County Clerk Queens , §'54; 
 shall not include in the publication to be made according D^i^f ' ^ *' 
 to Section 10 hereof the name of any candidate whose 
 certificate of nomination shall have been filed in his office 
 who shall have notified him in like manner that he will 
 not accept the nomination. The names of such candi- 
 dates shall not be included in the names of the candidates 
 to be printed in the ballots as hereinafter provided. 
 
 Sect. 12. Whenever a proposed constitutional amend- 
 ment or other question is to be submitted to the people 
 of the State for popular vote, the Secretary of State shall 
 duly, and not less than thirty days before election, certify 
 the same to the clerk of each county of the State, and the 
 clerk of each county shall include the same in the publi- 
 cation provided for in Section ten of this act. 
 
 Sect. 13. Except as in this act otherwise provided, it 
 shall be the duty of the County Clerk of each county to 
 provide printed ballots for every election for public officers 
 in which electors or any of the electors within the county 
 participate, and to cause to be printed in the appropriate 
 ballot the name of every candidate whose name has been 
 certified to, or filed with the County Clerk in the manner 
 provided for in this act. Ballots, other than those printed 
 by the respective county clerks according to the provisions 
 of this act, shall not be cast or counted (f) in any election. £/) 
 
 v,/ J J See infra, § 28, 
 
 Nothing in this act contained shall prevent any voter from note. 
 
126 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 ( g ) writing upon his ballot (#) the name of any person for 
 
 Ky!, S § I j 1 and whom he desires to vote for any office, and such vote shall 
 Note 16, p. 66. fo e counted the same as if printed upon the ballot. 
 
 Sect. 14. Except as otherwise provided in this act, 
 every ballot printed as herein prescribed shall be printed 
 in accordance with the existing provisions of law. All 
 ballots shall contain the name of every candidate whose 
 nomination for any office specified in the ballot has been 
 certified to and filed according to the provisions of this 
 act, and no other name. The names of candidates nomi- 
 (h) nated by each party shall be grouped together (A) upon 
 
 TVJo eg £ 1 Q • 
 
 s. Aii'str., §55; the proper ballot, and each group shall be headed by the 
 Gt*. e Br^B, § 2&, name of the political party by which the candidates com- 
 Bei| 1 |§ii4 prising said group were placed in nomination as described 
 \} b > . , , in the certificates of nomination. There shall be a margin 
 
 Ky., § 4, and . , 
 
 Note 4, p. 55. on each side, at least half an inch wide, and a reasonable 
 space between the names to be printed thereon, so that 
 the voter may clearly indicate, in the way to be hereafter 
 pointed out, the candidate or candidates for whom he 
 wishes to cast his ballot. 
 
 Sect. 15. Whenever the Secretary of State has duly 
 certified to any County Clerk any question to bS sub- 
 mitted to a vote of the people, the County Clerk shall 
 prepare and distribute ballots of such form as will enable 
 the electors to vote upon the question in the manner 
 hereinafter provided. 
 
 Sect. 16. The County Clerk of each county shall pro- 
 vide for each election district in the county one hundred 
 ballots of each kind to be voted in the district, for every 
 (i) fifty or fraction of fifty electors (i) registered at the last 
 
 s^Tu'stVl 56 ; preceding election in the district. If there is no registry 
 Ky?r§ 8 3. § 58 ' in the district > the County Clerk shall provide ballots 
 to the number of one hundred for every fifty or fraction 
 of fifty electors who voted at the last election in the 
 district. 
 
 Sect. 17. Whenever it shall appear by affidavit that 
 an error or omission has occurred in the publication of 
 the names or description of the candidates nominated 
 
NEW YORK. 127 
 
 for office, or in the printing of the ballots, the Supreme 
 Court of the State may upon application by any elector, 
 by order, require the County Clerk to correct such error, 
 or to show cause why such error should not be corrected. 
 
 Sect. 18. Before the opening of the polls at any elec- 
 tion of public officers within any county, the County 
 Clerk of the county shall cause to be delivered to the 
 board of inspectors of election of each election district 
 which is within the county, and in which the election is 
 to be held, at the polling-place of the district, the proper 
 number of ballots of each kind to be used in the district. 
 
 Sect. 19. At the same time, and in the same manner, 
 as inspectors of election are appointed or elected, two 
 ballot clerks for each election district in the State shall 
 be appointed or elected, whose duty it shall be to have 
 charge of the ballots, and to furnish them to the voters 
 in the manner hereinafter provided ; such ballot clerks 
 shall possess the same qualifications as inspectors of elec- 
 tion. No elector shall vote for more than one person for 
 said office of ballot clerk at the same time, and no political 
 party shall nominate more than one person for that office. 
 The two persons in each election district, when inspectors 
 of election are elected, who shall receive the highest and 
 next highest number of votes for the office, shall serve as 
 such at all elections except town-meetings to be held 
 therein during the ensuing year ; whenever inspectors of 
 election are not elected but appointed, such ballot clerks 
 shall be appointed, and their appointment certified at the 
 same time and in the same manner as is now provided 
 for in the case of inspectors ; but in making such appoint- 
 ments one of the ballot clerks in each election district 
 shall be taken from the political party that polled the 
 largest number of votes at the last preceding election, 
 and the other from the party that polled the next largest 
 number. 
 
 Sect. 20. Except in the City and County of New York, 
 all officers upon whom is imposed by law the duty of 
 designating polling-places shall provide in each polling- 
 
128 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 (j) place designated by them (,/) a sufficient number of 
 
 s.Tilstr. § 54 ; places, booths, or compartments, which shall be furnished 
 Gt! e Br!,B 5 ' with such supplies and conveniences as shall enable the 
 Beiff §ii7- voter conveniently to prepare his ballot for voting and 
 Ky-,§8; in which electors may mark their ballots, screened from 
 
 and Note 5, p. -i i m 
 
 58. observation, and a guard-rail so constructed that only per- 
 sons within such rail can approach within five feet of the 
 ballot-boxes or the places or compartments herein provided 
 for. The number of such places or compartments shall not 
 
 (&) be less than one for every seventy-five electors ( Jc) who vot- 
 
 Mass. 8 21* 
 
 Queens., §'59; ed at the last preceding election in the district. No person 
 §i' 6 . r '' ' other than electors engaged in receiving, preparing, or 
 K e ! s *'A 118 ' depositing their ballots shall be permitted to be within 
 (/) said rail (7) except by authority of the inspectors of elec- 
 
 lTustrfs/59; tions - In the Cit y and County of New York the Chief 
 9 ue g" s -' B § 59 ' of the Bureau of Elections shall provide such places or 
 § 21 ; compartments and guard-rails. The expense of providing 
 
 Ky°§i7 ; ' such places or compartments and guard-rails shall be a 
 
 'I I id N"OTE 1 T) 
 
 52. ' public charge, and shall be provided for in each town and 
 
 city in the same manner as the other election expenses. 
 On or before the 1st day of January, 1889, and every year 
 thereafter, the officers of the several cities and towus now 
 charged by law with the division or alteration of election 
 districts, shall as far as necessary, alter or divide the ex- 
 isting election districts in such a manner that each election 
 district shall contain not more than three hundred voters ; 
 and such division or alteration shall take effect immedi- 
 ately. Except as in this section otherwise provided, 
 such division or alteration shall be subject to the existing 
 provisions of law. 
 Mass., § 22; Sect. 21. On any day of election of public officers in any 
 
 iv.; UStr *' 58 ' election district, each qualified elector shall be entitled to re- 
 Gt e Br S 'B 71; ce i ye f rom the ballot clerks one ballot for each of the offices 
 § 5 ,°; . for which the elector desires to vote. It shall be the duty 
 
 Belg., § 123 ; . J 
 
 Ky., § 7; of such ballot clerks (m) to deliver such ballots to the elector. 
 
 59. x ' P Before delivering any ballot to an elector the two ballot 
 Mass 8 io- c l er ^ s shall write their names or initials (n) upon the back 
 S. Austr., § 57; of the ballot, immediately under the printed indorsement. 
 
NEW YORK. 129 
 
 Sect. 22. On receipt of his ballots the elector shall Queens., § 71 ; 
 forthwith, and without leaving the polling-place, retire § 2, b,'§2<1; 
 alone to one of the places, booths, or compartments pro- f 5 e j?" ^ 123 ' 
 vided to prepare his ballots. He shall prepare his ballots ^']§|* E 7' p 
 by marking a cross (0) before or after the name of the 59- 
 person or persons for whom he intends to vote — thus, X ; (0) 
 or in case of a ballot containing a constitutional amend- s. Austr., §'58, 
 ment or a question to be submitted to the vote of the Queens., § 73 ; 
 people, by crossing out therefrom parts of the ballot in ^ 2 \ ^ §"25, 
 such a manner that the remaining part shall express his pj r e' c ^™ f ° f r 
 vote upon the question submitted. After preparing his I * 6 * 8 '!' 
 ballots, the elector shall fold each of them so that the face b, f i; ' 
 of the ballot will be concealed, and so that the printed andNoTE 9, p. 
 indorsement and the signatures and initials of the ballot- ' 
 clerks thereon may be seen. He shall then vote forthwith 
 and before leaving the polling-place. 
 
 Provided, however, that any elector who desires to vote 
 for an entire group may mark a cross as above described 
 before or after the political organization of such group (0), 
 and shall then be deemed to have voted for all the persons 
 named in such group. 
 
 Sect. 23. Not more than one person shall be permitted 
 to occupy any one booth at one time ; and no person shall 
 remain in or occupy a booth longer than may be necessary 
 to prepare his ballot, and in no event longer than five 
 minutes (p). (p) 
 
 Mass 6 23 • 
 
 Sect. 24. Any voter who shall by accident or mistake k^, § 12. 
 spoil his ballot (0) so that he cannot conveniently vote the (?) 
 
 r K * y J Mass., §24; 
 
 same, may, on returning said spoiled ballot to the ballot s. Austr., § 58, 
 clerks and satisfying them that such spoiling was not Gt. Br., B, 
 intentional, receive another in place thereof. Every elec-| e ] g '. ? § 12 5 ; 
 tor who does not vote any ballot delivered to him, shall, K ^-' § 9 - 
 before leaving the polling-place, return such ballot to the 
 ballot clerks having charge of the ballots. 
 
 Sect. 25. Any elector who declares under oath to the 
 ballot clerks that he cannot read or write, or that by , . 
 reason of physical disability he is unable to mark his Mass., § 25; 
 ballots (r), may declare his choice of candidates to either vii.; 
 
 9 
 
130 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 Queens., § 73 ; 
 Gt. Br., B, § 26 : 
 Belg., § 123; 
 Ky., § 10; 
 and Note 8, 
 p. 61. 
 
 Ante, § 13 ; 
 Mass., §26; 
 S.Austr., §64 
 Queens., § 76; 
 Gt. Br., A, §2 
 Belg., §§ 124, 
 147; 
 
 Ky., §11; 
 and Note 10, 
 p. 63. 
 
 of the ballot clerks, who, in the presence of the elector, 
 shall prepare the ballots for voting in the manner herein- 
 before provided ; or such elector, after making such oath, 
 may require one of such ballot clerks to read to him the 
 contents of the ballot, so that the elector can ascertain 
 the relative position of the names of the candidates on 
 each ballot, whereupon the elector shall retire to one of 
 the places, booths, or compartments provided, to prepare 
 his ballots in the manner hereinbefore provided. 
 
 Sect. 26. No inspector of election shall deposit any 
 ballot upon which the names or initials of the ballot clerks 
 as hereinbefore provided for does not appear. 
 
 Sect. 27. The County Clerk of each county shall cause 
 to be printed in large type on cards in English and in such 
 other languages as he deems necessary, instructions for 
 the guidance of electors in preparing their ballots. He 
 shall furnish twelve such cards, each printed in all the 
 languages determined upon by him, to the board of inspec- 
 tors of elections in each election district, at the same time 
 and in the same manner as the printed ballots. The board 
 of inspectors of elections shall post not less than one of 
 such cards in each place or compartment provided for the 
 preparation of ballots, and not less than three of such 
 cards elsewhere in and about the polling-place upon the 
 day of election. Said cards shall be printed in large, clear 
 type, and shall contain full instructions to the voters as 
 to what should be done, (1) to obtain ballots for voting ; 
 
 (2) to prepare the ballots for deposit in the ballot-boxes ; 
 
 (3) to obtain a new ballot in the place of one acciden- 
 tally spoiled ; also a copy of Sections 30 and 32 of this act. 
 
 Sect. 28. In the canvass of the votes, any ballot which 
 is not endorsed by the names or initials of the ballot 
 clerks, as provided in this act, shall be void and shall not 
 be counted (s), and any ballot or parts of a ballot from 
 which it is impossible to determine the elector's choice 
 shall be void and shall not be counted (s). Such ballots 
 shall be treated and preserved in the same manner as 
 defective ballots. 
 
NEW YORK. 131 
 
 Sect. 29. No person shall (1) falsely make, or fraudu- 
 lently deface, or fraudulently destroy any certificate of s 
 nomination, or any part thereof; or (2) file any certificate 
 of nomination knowing the same or any part thereof to be 
 falsely made ; or (3) suppress any certificate of nomina- 
 tion which has been duly filed, or any part thereof; or (4) 
 forge or falsely make the official endorsement on any 
 ballot. Every person Violating any of the provisions of 
 this section shall be deemed guilty of a felony. 
 
 Sect. 30. No person shall, during the election, remove 
 or destroy any of the supplies or other conveniences placed 
 in the booths as aforesaid for the purpose of enabling the 
 voter to prepare his ballot. No person shall, during an 
 election, remove, tear down, or deface, the cards printed 
 for the instruction of voters. Every person wilfully vio- 
 lating any of the provisions of this section shall be deemed 
 guilty of a misdemeanor. 
 
 Sect. 31. Every public officer upon whom any duty 
 is imposed by this act, who shall wilfully neglect or omit 
 to perform such duty (£), shall be deemed guilty of a mis- (t) 
 demeanor; and upon conviction thereof shall be punished s.Tustr., §85. 
 by imprisonment in the county jail or penitentiary for a GtBrf'k. §11- 
 term of not less than six months and not more than three an ^ Note 11, 
 
 p. 04. 
 
 years, or by a fine of not less than two hundred and fifty 
 dollars, and not more than three thousand dollars, or by 
 both such fine and imprisonment. 
 
 Sect. 32. No officer of election shall disclose to any 
 person the name of any candidate for whom any elector 
 has voted. No officer of election shall do any election- 
 eering on election day. No person whatever shall do any 
 electioneering on election day within any polling-place, 
 or within one hundred feet of any polling-place. No per- 
 son shall remove any ballot from any polling-place before 
 the closing of polls. No person shall apply for or receive 
 any ballot in any polling-place other than that in which 
 he is entitled to vote. No person shall show his ballot 
 after it is marked to any person in such a way as to reveal 
 the contents thereof or the name of the candidate or can- 
 
132 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 didates for whom he has marked his vote, nor shall any 
 person (except an inspector of election) receive, from any 
 voter, a ballot prepared by him for voting, or examine 
 such ballot, or solicit the voter to show the same. No 
 person shall ask another at a polling-place for whom he 
 intends to vote. No voter shall receive a ballot from any 
 other person than one of the ballot clerks, nor shall any 
 person other than a ballot clerk deliver a ballot to such 
 voter. No voter shall deliver any ballot to the inspectors 
 to be voted except such as he has received from a ballot 
 clerk. No voter shall place any mark upon his ballot by 
 which it may be afterward identified as the one voted by 
 him. Whoever shall violate any provision of this section 
 shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. 
 
 Sect. 33. All the provisions of this act relating to 
 County Clerks shall apply in the City and County of New 
 York to the Chief of the Bureau of Elections, and not 
 to the County Clerk. Such provisions shall apply in the 
 City of Brooklyn to the Board of Elections, and not to 
 the County Clerk of Kings County. 
 
 Sect. 34. This act shall not apply to elections for town 
 and village officers in towns and villages where there is 
 no provision by law for the registration of electors, nor 
 to elections for public officers determined otherwise than 
 by ballot. 
 
 Sect. 35. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with 
 the provisions of this act are hereby repealed. 
 
 Sect. 36. This act shall take effect January one, eigh- 
 teen hundred and eighty-nine. 1 
 
 1 It was vetoed by the Governor. 
 
VIII. 
 
 THE AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM AS EMBODIED 
 IN THE STATUTES OF TASMANIA, NEW ZEA- 
 LAND, NEW SOUTH WALES, VICTORIA, WEST 
 AUSTRALIA, THE DOMINION OF CANADA, THE 
 PROVINCES OF ONTARIO AND OF QUEBEC, 
 WISCONSIN, THE GRAND DUCHY OF LUXEM- 
 BOURG, ITALY, NORWAY, ETC. 
 
 A. Tasmania. 
 Parliamentary Elections Act, 1858 (21 Vict. No. 32). 
 
 The following are the special features of the Tasmanian 
 
 legislation : — 
 
 By § 62, any two electors may nominate a candidate. 
 
 By § 61, the ballots are required to be signed or stamped 
 on the back by the Clerk of the Peace, who distributes 
 them to the various Returning Officers ; and upon their 
 receipt by the latter they are again stamped or countersigned 
 before being distributed to voters. 
 
 By § 69, the voter is required to express his vote by 
 striking out the names of all candidates other than those 
 for whom he intends to vote. 
 
 By § 71, provision is made for rendering assistance, in 
 marking the ballot, to those only who are blind. 
 
 In other respects no notable variation is found in the 
 system in use in Tasmania. In the Rural Municipalities 
 Act, 1865 (29 Vict. No. 8), the parliamentary provisions 
 are adopted without material difference. 
 
134 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 B. New Zealand. 
 
 Regulation of Elections Act, 1881 (45 Vict. No. 12). 
 
 This Act, applying only to elections for Representatives 
 to the General Assembly, supersedes, for such elections, 
 the Regulation of Elections Act, 1870 (33-34 Vict. No. 
 18), which, for the election of members of the Provincial 
 Councils and of Provincial Superintendents, apparently is 
 still in force. The later Act makes several changes, evi- 
 dently intended as improvements called for by experience. 
 The provisions to be noticed are as follows : — 
 
 By § 12, a candidate must be proposed by one elector, 
 and seconded by another. 
 
 By § 30, the method of identifying the official ballot is 
 to be as follows : the Returning Officer writes upon the 
 back of the ballot his initials, and upon the lower left-hand 
 corner of the ballot, on the back, the registered number 
 of the voter, and " after securing the said corner hj gum 
 or otherwise," stamps upon it the official mark. 
 
 The original method employed in the earlier Act con- 
 sisted in stamping the official mark on the back of the 
 ballot, and placing near the lower edge, on the back, the 
 registered number of the voter or some other identifying 
 mark. Secrecy was provided for by forbidding the exam- 
 ination of the backs of ballots while counting ; but appar- 
 ently this regulation had failed to attain its object. 
 
 By § 33, " if any voter desires it, the Returning Officer, 
 and, if necessary, an interpreter," are to retire to one of 
 the compartments with the voter, and mark the ballot ac- 
 cording to his instructions. 
 
 Under the earlier Act, the corresponding provision lim- 
 ited the right to give such assistance to the specific cases 
 of blindness and inability to read. 
 
 By § 32, the vote is to be expressed by striking out the 
 names of candidates not voted for. 
 
VICTORIA. — NEW SOUTH WALES. 135 
 
 C. Victoria. 
 
 Electoral Act, 1865 (No. 279). 
 
 The important variations of the Victorian system are 
 as follows : — 
 
 Nomination-papers are to be signed by ten electors. As 
 in Queensland, a deposit — £50 or £100, according to the 
 office — is required at the time of nomination, to be re- 
 turned if the candidate withdraws or receives one-fifth of 
 the number of votes received by the successful candidate. 
 The period between the days of nomination and election is 
 to be from 3 to 14 days. 
 
 The vote is expressed by striking out from the list of 
 names all except those for whom the vote is cast. The 
 method of identifying the official ballot is to place upon 
 the ballot, before the voting begins, the signature or the 
 initials of the Returning Officer ; the registered number of 
 the voter is also placed on the back of the ballot, and the 
 officers are forbidden, in counting, to examine the back of 
 the ballot. 
 
 D. New South Wales. 
 
 Elections Act, 1880 (44 Vict. No. 13) ; Municipalities Act, 
 1867 (31 Vict. No. 12). 
 
 The editor has not been able to obtain a copy of these 
 statutes for examination, and cannot state their provisions 
 in detail. They follow, however, the general plan of the 
 kindred Australian statutes. Nominations (in municipal 
 elections) must be handed in 7 days at least before the 
 day of election; the ballots must be signed by the poll- 
 clerk ; and the vote is expressed by striking out the names 
 of candidates not voted for. 
 
136 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 E. West Australia. 
 
 Ballot Act, 1877 (41 Vict. No. 15). 
 
 This Act applies only to elections for the Legislature. 
 The provisions to be noted are as follows : — 
 
 By § 4, a nomination-paper is required to contain the 
 names of 6 electors, and to be accompanied by a deposit 
 of .£25, returnable as provided in the Queensland Act, 
 ante. 
 
 By § 5, II., the ballot is to have a counterfoil attached, 
 and a number is written or printed on the back of the 
 ballot, the same number being written or printed on the 
 face of the counterfoil. 
 
 By § 9, the vote is required to be expressed " by making 
 a cross or other mark " within the square opposite the 
 name. In the " Directions to Voters," however, the di- 
 rection declares absolutely that the voter " will place a 
 cross," etc. 
 
 By § 9, the Returning Officer's initials are to be placed 
 on the back of the ballot before delivery to the voter, and 
 the voter's name is to be written on the counterfoil. 
 
 By § 14, the Returning Officer is to reject, at the count- 
 ing, any ballot " on which is written any matter or thing 
 which is not justified by this Act to be written thereon," 
 or in which votes are cast for more candidates than are to 
 be voted for. In the "Directions for Voters," it is also 
 stated (though no section of the Act appears to authorize 
 it) that " any mark by which the voter may be afterwards 
 identified" will invalidate the ballot. 
 
 There is no provision authorizing assistance to be ren- 
 dered to any class of voters. 
 
DOMINION OF CANADA. 137 
 
 F. Dominion of Canada. 
 
 Dominion Elections Act, 1874 (37 Vict. c. 9), as amended 
 by 41 Vict. c. 6 (1878). 
 
 The important provisions to be noticed in this Act, which 
 is one of the best conceived among the various statutes 
 dealing with the subject, are as follows : — 
 
 By § 18, any 25 electors may nominate a candidate. 
 
 By § 19, the nomination-paper must contain the con- 
 sent in writing of the person nominated, unless he is 
 absent from the Province in which the election is to be 
 held. 
 
 By § 19, the sum of 50 dollars must be paid to the 
 Returning Officer at the time of handing in the nomination- 
 paper. 
 
 By § 43, and by § 3 of the amending Act, the ballot- 
 paper is to have a detachable counterfoil, as shown by 
 Form (1), infra, with the counterfoil attached. At the 
 time of delivering the ballot to the intending voter, the 
 Returning Officer places his initials upon the back of 
 the ballot, and the registered number of the voter upon 
 the counterfoil. When the ballot has been marked by the 
 voter, and is presented for deposit in the ballot-box, the 
 Returning Officer, by noting his initials upon the back of 
 the ballot, and the number upon the counterfoil, is enabled 
 to identify the ballot as an official one, and also to know 
 that the ballot is presented by the same voter to whom it 
 was originally given out. Before the ballot is deposited, 
 the officer detaches and destroys the counterfoil. 
 
 It is to be noted that, by § 2 of the amending Act, the 
 use of an envelope, in which, by § 43 of the original Act, 
 the ballot was required to be placed, is abandoned. 
 
 By § 6 of the amending Act, the voter is to "mark his 
 ballot, marking a cross with a pencil on any part of the 
 ballot-paper within the division containing the name of 
 the candidate for whom he intends to vote." In the 
 original Act (§ 45), the method was to mark " a cross on 
 
138 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 the right-hand side opposite the name of" the desired 
 candidate. But to obviate the possibility of the irregular 
 methods of marking which voters were found now and 
 then to employ, the margin on the left of the names and 
 the upright dividing line on the right were discarded, and 
 the ballot was printed in the shape shown in Form (1), 
 infra, probably the best form now in use. This led to the 
 change in the wording of § 45 of the original Act. 
 
 By § 48, official assistance may be rendered to voters 
 " unable to read, or incapacitated by blindness or other 
 physical cause " from voting in the prescribed manner. 
 
 By § 55, the void ballots are to include, besides those 
 containing votes for more candidates than are to be elected, 
 all ballots " not similar to those supplied by the Deputy 
 Returning Officer," and all those upon which there is 
 any writing or mark " by which the voter could be 
 identified." 
 
 By § 80, it is provided, as in the English statute, that 
 no informality shall vitiate the election, if the principles of 
 the Act have been followed, and if the result of the elec- 
 tion has not been affected. 
 
DOMINION OP CANADA. 
 
 139 
 
 Form 1. Ballot-Paper. 
 
 Election fob the Electoral District of 
 
 , 18 
 
 DOE. 
 I. John Doe, Township of Nepean, 
 County of Carleton, Yeoman. 
 
 ROE. 
 II. Richard Roe, of the town of Prescott, 
 County of Grenville, Merchant. 
 
 STILES. 
 III. Geoffrey Stiles, of 10 Sparks St., 
 Ottawa, Physician. 
 
 STILES. 
 IV. John Stiles, of 3 Elgin St., 
 Ottawa, Barrister-at-Law. 
 
 (Counterfoil.) 
 
140 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 G. Quebec. 
 
 Quebec Elections Act, 1875 (38 Vict. c. 7), as amended by 
 39 Vict. c. 13 (1875) and 46 Vict. c. 2 (1883). 
 
 The points essential to be noticed are : — 
 
 By § 105, a candidate may be nominated by 25 electors. 
 
 By § 106, the candidate's consent in writing is necessary 
 unless he is absent. 
 
 By § 166, the identification of the ballot is secured by 
 requirements as to initials, counterfoils, etc., similar to the 
 requirements of the Dominion Act (1878) already described. 
 The Quebec Act (1875) was, in fact, the earlier of the two, 
 and apparently inspired the Dominion amendment of 1878. 
 Its details, however, are different and better in this respect: 
 the counterfoil, or " annex," as it is called, is printed upon 
 the back of the ballot (see Form (2), infra), so that in the 
 operation of verifying and detaching the annex, the back 
 of the ballot is presented to the officer, and its face is not 
 liable to be exposed to view. 
 
 By § 170, the voter is to " mark his ballot-paper, mark- 
 ing a cross or other mark on the right-hand side, opposite 
 the name of" the desired candidate. But by § 17 of the 
 amending Act of 1875, the words " or other mark " were 
 omitted, and a pencil was required to be used. 
 
 By § 190, the validity of ballots is to be determined by 
 rules similar to those of the Dominion Act. 
 
 By § 222, a provision similar to that of the English Act 
 declares that mere informalities shall not invalidate the 
 election. 
 
QUEBEC. 
 
 141 
 
 Form 2. Ballot-Paper. 
 
 DUREAU. 
 
 (Jean Dureau, town of Sorel, County of 
 Richelieu, Merchant.) 
 
 MEUNIER. 
 
 (Joseph Meunier, city of Montreal, 10 
 Fontaine St., Montreal.) 
 
 H 
 
 RICHARD. 
 
 (Antoine Richard, of the parish of St. 
 Henri, County of Levis, Farmer.) 
 
 RICHARD. 
 
 (Joseph Richard, of the town and 
 county of Levis, Advocate.) 
 
142 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 Reverse of Form 2. 
 
 3 
 
 >3 « 
 
 3 "a. 
 
 ^3 
 O 
 J3 
 
 S o 
 
ONTARIO. 143 
 
 H. Ontario. 
 
 Elections (Act Ontario Revised Statutes, 1887, c. 9). 
 
 The Ballot Act of Great Britain is followed in substance, 
 but the following provisions may be noted : — 
 
 By § 48, a nomination may be made by a single elector, 
 and if at the time and place of nomination a poll is de- 
 manded by any elector, it is to be granted. 
 
 By § 63 (3), " the numbers and names of every candi- 
 date shall, if practicable, be distinctly printed in ink of 
 different colors," the candidates selecting the colors on the 
 day of nomination, or the Returning Officer assigning them 
 in case of disagreement. 
 
 By § 90 (7), the English method of identifying the bal- 
 lot is in substance adopted; a number is previously stamped 
 on the back of the ballot and on the face of the counterfoil; 
 the voter's registered number is placed on the counterfoil 
 at the time of delivering the ballot, and the officer's name 
 or initials are stamped or signed (signed only, by the 
 original Act of 1874, c. 5) on the back of the ballot and 
 on the counterfoil. 
 
 By § 91, the vote is to be expressed " by placing a cross 
 thus X on the right-hand side, opposite the name of the 
 candidate for whom he desires to vote, or at any other -place 
 ivithin the division which contains the name of such candi- 
 date." The words in italics were for the first time inserted 
 in the revision of 1887. They are intended, however, not 
 to change the method of marking (for the "Directions to 
 Voters" still require the mark to be "at the right-hand 
 side " only), but to save the votes of those whose mark 
 is not formally made. 
 
 The provisions of the Municipal Act (Rev. Stat. 1887, c. 
 184), applying the same system to municipal elections, are 
 substantially the same as those of the Elections Act, except 
 that in the ballot the use of counterfoils and of colors is 
 discarded. A form of the ballot used in municipal elec- 
 tions is given below as Form (3). 
 
 By § 205, no mere informality is to vitiate the election 
 (as in the English Act). 
 
144 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 Form 3. Ballot-Paper. 
 
 >4 
 
 
 O 
 
 BROWN. 
 (John Brown, of the village of 
 Weston, Merchant.) 
 
 ROBINSON. 
 
 (George Robinson, of the village of 
 Weston, Physician.) 
 
 ARMOUR. 
 (Jacob Armour, of the village of 
 Weston, Pumpmaker.) 
 
 BOYD. 
 (Zachary Boyd, of the village of 
 Weston, Tinsmith.) 
 
 BULL. 
 
 (John Bull, of the village of Weston, 
 Butcher.) 
 
 JONES. 
 (Morgan Jones, of the village of 
 Weston, Grocer.) 
 
 McAllister. 
 
 (Alltster McAllister, of the vil- 
 lage of Weston, Tailor.) 
 
 O'CONNELL. 
 (Patrick O'Connell, of the village 
 of Weston, Milkman.) 
 

 WISCONSIN. 145 
 
 I. Wisconsin. 
 Laws of 1887, eh. 350. 
 
 By § 1, each voting precinct is to be provided with two 
 adjoining rooms, a " ticket room " and an " inspectors' and 
 voting; room." In the ticket room are to be tables or com- 
 partments, on or in which the tickets " prepared for the 
 use of voters by any political party " are to be kept, " each 
 class or kind being placed and kept in a separate compart- 
 ment or upon a separate table," and a notice being placed 
 over each class stating " the name or title by which the 
 tickets are respectively classified or generally known." 
 " Any chairman of a ward committee, or other person 
 authorized by the ward committee of each political party," 
 may deliver the proper tickets to the inspectors of election, 
 who are to arrange them on the tables. " Every voter 
 when in the ticket room shall be at liberty to select from 
 the ballots kept there such as he may wish, taking one of 
 each kind if he pleases." 
 
 For each table a custodian of tickets is to be appointed 
 by the ward committee issuing the ticket. The custodians 
 are to take an oath of office, and while inside the ticket 
 room are not to " directly or indirectly solicit, request, or 
 attempt to influence any voter " in respect to his vote. 
 The custodians are to be paid the same fees as the clerks 
 of election. A challenger is also appointed by each ward 
 committee* and remains " in such convenient place to be 
 designated by the inspectors," but outside the voting room, 
 to challenge suspected votes. No undue advantage is to 
 be given to any one of the challengers or custodians over 
 his fellows. 
 
 The voter is admitted into the ticket room, where he 
 selects his ticket or tickets. Only one voter at a time is 
 to be admitted, and none others than the custodians and a 
 single voter shall be permitted to remain in the room. At 
 the door between the two rooms is to be one police officer, 
 and at the outer door of the ticket room is to be another. 
 
 10 
 
146 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 The voter passes into the voting room, casts his ballot, and 
 passes out through another door. r,\ 
 
 No crowd is to be allowed within one hundred feet of 
 either room during the election. No one shall solicit votes 
 or offer tickets within the same limits. The mutilation, de- 
 struction, and theft of tickets is forbidden, as well as all 
 attempts to solicit or influence voters while within either 
 room. A penalty is also imposed upon those who request 
 or receive anything of value from a candidate for services 
 rendered or to be rendered in or about any election. 
 
 By § 2 the act is applied to all judicial and city elec- 
 tions (except special elections). 1 
 
 J. Luxembourg. 
 
 (*) Annuaire Consolidated Election Act of March 5, 1884.* 
 
 de l£g. Strang.. 
 
 p . 592j°i884 This act unites into one the previous statutes relating to 
 (vol. xiv.), p. elections, embodying and superseding the act of May 28, 
 1879, relating to legislative elections, and for the first time 
 applying the same system to municipal elections. In most 
 respects the Belgian law is followed and adopted, with 
 certain simplifications suitable for the smaller constituen- 
 cies of Luxembourg. 
 
 In legislative elections, nomination-papers are to be 
 signed by five times as many electors as there are mem- 
 bers to be elected, but in no case by less than ten. In 
 
 1 The above act, while pointing in the direction of reform, has not 
 established the two essential principles of improvement: (1) complete 
 and compulsory secrecy in voting ; (2) a single ballot containing all 
 the names printed and distributed by the state. Its provisions will 
 doubtless abolish disorder and tumult at the polls, and intimidation 
 by brute force; but it is as easy as before to ascertain which way a 
 vote is cast, and thus very little is gained toward relieving the electors 
 from other and equally effective means of control ; moreover, a bribe- 
 taker can still prove his vote. Finally, the evils of the present nomi- 
 nation system do not seem to be reached ; and several custodians of 
 tickets at each precinct are added to the ranks of those who draw 
 official pay for election services, and whose places add to the patronage 
 under the control of local politicians. 
 
ITALY. 147 
 
 municipal elections, the signatures of fifteen electors are 
 necessary in the city of Luxembourg ; of five electors in 
 towns of more than three thousand inhabitants; and in 
 other towns, of three electors, among whom may be the 
 candidates themselves. The voter is directed to mark a 
 cross, and the ballot is to be folded square. Every ballot 
 folded differently, or containing any mark that could iden- 
 tify it, or containing a name other than those upon the 
 official list, or more names than there are members to be 
 elected, is void. 
 
 K. Italy. 
 
 Acts of Jan. 22 and May 7, 1882, published in one by royal 
 
 decree of Sept. 24, 1882.* (*) Ann. dei^g. 
 
 etrang., 1882 
 
 The material provisions are as follows : — (vol. xii.), p. 
 
 Title III. 
 
 Art. 54. The election room shall be divided into two 
 parts by a railing a metre or more in height, with an 
 opening for passage from one part to the other. The 
 voters shall remain during the voting in the outer portion ; 
 in the other shall sit the election officers. The table of 
 the officers shall be so placed that at the close of the 
 voting the electors may surround it. The tables at which 
 the ballots are to be filled out shall be isolated, and so 
 placed as to insure secrecy in voting. 
 
 Art. 59. The capital town of the district shall supply 
 to the presiding election officers of the polling-places a 
 municipal seal and a number of ballots of white (a) paper <„) rjntii this 
 not less in number than the number of voters on the list bXt5»pS° ial 
 of the polling-place. The use of any other ballots is for- had been b,ue - 
 bidden. . . . 
 
 Art. 63. As soon as the organization of the election 
 officers has been recorded in the minutes of the proceed- 
 ings, the name of one of the inspectors shall be drawn by 
 lot, who shall sign on the back as many ballots as there are 
 electors in the polling-district. As each ballot is signed, 
 the presiding officer shall impress thereon the municipal 
 
148 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 seal referred to in art. 57, and shall place it in an urn of 
 transparent glass. If the said inspector absents himself 
 from the room, he shall sign no more ballots, and shall be 
 replaced by another inspector similarly drawn by lot. The 
 minutes shall record the names of the inspectors who sign 
 the ballots and the number signed by each one. 
 
 Art. 64. The presiding officer shall cause each elector 
 to be called in the order of his name on the list, and, after 
 identifying him, shall draw a ballot from the urn and de- 
 liver it to him unfolded.- 
 
 Art. 65. The elector who is called shall seat himself at 
 one of the tables used for the purpose, and on the ballot 
 which has been delivered to him shall write the names of 
 the deputies for whom he wishes to vote. If the elector 
 was a qualified voter before the passage of the present law 
 (b) By this act, but i s unable to read and write (6), or if, through physical 
 which em- incapacity, known by or proved to the election officers, he 
 
 braces all mat- r •/ » j l ' 
 
 ters relating to cannot write his ballot, he shall be allowed to have it writ- 
 
 the elective 
 
 franchise, one ten by another elector selected by himself, 
 qualification's Art. 66. When the ballot is written, the voter shall 
 reacfand write, deliver it folded to the presiding officer, who shall drop it 
 into a second urn of transparent glass, placed on the table 
 and visible to all. . . . 
 
 Art. 69. Ballots shall not be counted which are with- 
 out the signature and seal required by art. 63, or which 
 contain anything that identifies or is intended to identify 
 the voter. 
 
 L. Norway. 
 (*) Ann. de Act of July 1, 1884,* amending the Electoral Act of 1828. 
 
 l£g. etrang., 
 
 ^ 8 62i V0l ' Xiv) ' Art. 2. . . . The electors shall be called in the order in 
 which their names occur on the register. When the en- 
 tire list has been called those who have not answered shall 
 be called again ; whoever is not then present will lose his 
 
 vote. 
 
 Art. 3. . . . The presiding officer or some other elec- 
 tion officer, shall deliver to each elector, when called, an 
 
AUSTRIA. — OTHER COUNTRIES. 149 
 
 envelope marked with the official seal, and shall direct him 
 to a secluded place in the polling-station, where, without 
 being seen by any one, he shall place his ballot in the en- 
 velope, a sufficient time being allowed for the purpose, and 
 shall then drop it into an urn placed on the election table. 
 Art. 4. The envelopes used shall be of the same size, 
 form, and color, and not transparent. The election officers 
 shall see, at the time the envelopes are dropped into the 
 urn, that they bear no mark on the outside. The ballots 
 placed in the envelopes shall be of white paper, without 
 signature or mark appended. If an envelope or ballot 
 does not fulfil the requirements of this act, the ballot shall 
 be thrown out as void. If several ballots are found in one 
 envelope, they shall all be void. 
 
 M. 
 
 Austria. 
 
 By the law of April 2, 1873, at Austrian elections an 
 official ballot paper is furnished the elector by the officers 
 of election at the time of voting, and the voter retires to a 
 secluded place and writes upon his ballot the name of the 
 preferred candidate. 1 The editor is not aware that this 
 provision is modelled upon the Australian method, and has 
 no further information in detail as to the polling arrange- 
 ments or other regulations. 
 
 N. 
 Other Countries. 
 
 In several states certain features of electoral procedure 
 are parallel to provisions of the Australian system, and 
 merit a brief notice. 
 
 In Hungary 2 nominations are open, and must be handed 
 
 1 Charbonnier, " Organisation electorate de tous les pays civilises," 
 p. 153. 
 
 2 Charbonnier, p. 180. 
 
150 AUSTRALIAN BALLOT SYSTEM. 
 
 in to the officer of election at least half an hour before the 
 opening of the polls. The vote, however, is not secret. 
 
 In France intending candidates are required to register 
 themselves as such by taking the candidate's oath (preter 
 serment) before the proper officer a certain number of 
 days previous to the election. The purpose of this, how- 
 ever, in no respect resembles the principle of the Austra- 
 lian system. The ballot in France is not an official one, 
 containing the names of all candidates, but, as in this 
 country, separate ballots are prepared by each party or 
 candidate, and the oath-taking is a mere necessary form. 
 Sir Charles Dilke relates 1 that it was a common joke in 
 Paris to say, when departing in some direction, " I am 
 on my way to my cafe, and am going to take the oath as a 
 candidate." 
 
 In Greece, the objects of the Australian system are 
 attained by provisions materially different in form, but so 
 similar in effect that they deserve description. 2 
 
 Nominations must be in writing signed by twelve elec- 
 tors (a much larger number, generally one twentieth of 
 the electorate, but varying with the number of members 
 to be elected, were formerly required), and delivered to 
 the officer of elections at least twenty-five days previous 
 to the election. A deposit of two hundred drachmas 
 (about $40) is also required from each candidate. The 
 voting is by means of balls. In the polling-place are 
 arranged in a row ballot-boxes equal in number to the 
 number of candidates, and on each is the name of a 
 candidate, in plain letters. The right-hand half of the 
 box is white with the word " Yes " upon the front : the 
 left-hand half is black, with the word "No" upon it. 
 Within are two bags, one placed to the right and the 
 other to the left, with a partition between the two. A 
 funnel, about ten inches long and five inches in diameter, 
 projects at a slight upward angle from the front of the 
 
 1 Pari. Papers, 1868-9, vol. viii., p. 402. 
 
 2 See Charbonnier, p. 366; Pari. Papers, ubi supra, Test, of Arthur 
 Arnold, p. 416. 
 
OTHER COUNTRIES. 151 
 
 box. After the voter has given his name and proved his 
 right to vote he approaches the line of boxes. An 
 election officer attends him from box to box, at each one 
 giving him a small metal ball. The voter holds this up 
 between the thumb and forefinger, to show that he has 
 only a single ball, and thrusting his arm in the funnel 
 drops his ball to the right or left according as he votes 
 for or against the candidate, the movement of his hand 
 of course being completely invisible. This he does at 
 each box. At the close of the election the votes cast 
 against each candidate are subtracted from the votes cast 
 for him, and his total number is thus ascertained. 
 
 A little reflection will show that this system is by no 
 means an inefficient one, and is capable of attaining very 
 good results. But it is of course not adapted to a numer- 
 ous electorate nor to communities whose traditions have 
 not accustomed them to similar methods. 1 
 
 1 The Grecian system would seem to be a development of the old 
 method of reckoning by tallies. In Hungary, until not many years 
 ago, the electors voted with long, slender sticks, colored to represent 
 the different candidates. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 i. 
 
 The main points in which the New York bill of 1889, as 
 reported by the committee, differs from the act of 1888, are as 
 follows : — 
 
 In section 2, the privilege of making nominations is extended 
 to " primary meetings ; " and the political party which may 
 nominate by convention or caucus need have obtained only 
 one per cent of the entire vote cast. 
 
 In section 5, the maximum number of signatures necessary 
 for a nomination to a state office is reduced to five hundred, 
 and for a nomination in a lesser district to fifty. Each signer 
 is also required to append his residence, occupation, and place 
 of business, and to make oath to his signature and statements. 
 
 In section 8, the earliest day for filing nominations is 
 changed from sixty to forty and thirty days, respectively, 
 before election. 
 
 In section 13, provision for filling vacancies is made, as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Section 13. Should any person so nominated die before 
 election day, or decline the nomination as in this act provided, 
 or should any certificate of nomination be insufficient or inope- 
 rative, the vacancy or vacancies thus occasioned may be filled in 
 the manner required for original nominations. If the original 
 nomination was made by a party convention which had dele- 
 gated to a committee the power to fill vacancies, such commit- 
 tee may upon the occurring of such vacancies proceed to fill 
 the same. The Chairman and Secretary of such committee 
 shall thereupon make and file with the proper officer a certifi- 
 cate setting forth the cause of the vacancy, the name of the 
 person nominated, the office for which he was nominated, the 
 
154 APPENDIX. 
 
 name of the person for whom the new nominee is to be substi 
 tutedj the fact that the committee was authorized to fill vacan- 
 cies, and such further information as is required to be given in 
 an original certificate of nomination. The certificate so made 
 shall be executed, acknowledged, and sworn to in the manner 
 prescribed for the original certificate of nomination, and shall 
 upon being filed at least eight days before election have the 
 same force and effect as an original certificate of nomination. 
 When such certificate shall be filed with the Secretary of State 
 he shall in certifying the nominations to the various county 
 clerks insert the name of the person who has thus been nomi- 
 nated to fill a vacancy in place of that of the original nomi- 
 nee. And in the event that he has already sent forward 
 his certificate he shall forthwith certify to the clerks of the 
 proper counties the name and description of the person so 
 nominated to fill a vacancy, the office he is nominated for, the 
 party or political principle he represents, and the name of the 
 person for whom such nominee is substituted." 
 
 In section 15, the following provision is inserted : "Nothing 
 in this act contained shall prevent any voter from writing or 
 pasting upon his ballot the name of any person for whom he 
 desires to vote for any office, and such vote shall be counted the 
 same as if printed upon the ballot and marked by the voter, 
 and any voter may take with him into the polling-place any 
 printed or written memorandum or paper to assist him in 
 marking or preparing his ballot, except as hereinafter other- 
 wise provided." 
 
 In section 18, the number of ballots to be printed is changed 
 to two hundred for every fifty electors. 
 
 In section 22, compartments are to be provided to the num- 
 ber of not less than one for every fifty electors. The clause 
 " except by authority of the inspectors of elections " is struck 
 out. 
 
 In section 24, " thus," in line 6, is changed to " for exam- 
 ple." The following provision is inserted for the benefit of 
 illiterates : " In marking such a ballot any elector shall be at 
 liberty to use or copy any unofficial sample ballot which he may 
 choose to mark or to have had marked in advance of entering 
 the polling-place or booth, to assist him in marking the official 
 ballot, but no elector shall be at liberty to use or bring into the 
 polling-place any unofficial sample ballot printed upon paper 
 
APPENDIX. 155 
 
 of the color and quality now required to be used for the print- 
 ing of ballots under the general election laws of this State." 
 At the end of the section is added : " whose names shall not 
 have been erased." 
 
 In section 25, the maximum time is changed to ten minutes, 
 " provided the other booths or compartments are occupied." 
 
 Section 26 reads as follows (apparently for the purpose of 
 avoiding Governor Hill's objection that the power to determine 
 whether a ballot had been intentionally spoiled should not be 
 left to the ballot clerk) : — 
 
 " Section 26. Any voter, who shall by accident or mistake 
 spoil his ballot may, on returning said spoiled ballot, receive 
 another in place thereof." 
 
 Section 27 obviates another of Governor Hill's objections by 
 omitting the clause compelling illiterates to declare their votes 
 to one of the officers, and by allowing persons physically dis- 
 abled to take a friend into the compartment to mark for them. 
 Illiterates are supposed to take advantage of section 24, 
 ante, p. 154. 
 
 In section 30, the words "names or initials" are altered to 
 "signature or autograph initials." 
 
 In section 34, the word " voter " is throughout very properly 
 changed to "elector." 
 
0. 
 
 
 
 V