SECRECY OF THE BALLOT The Process of Polling.-Around the process of polling great parliamentary fights were waged in the 19th century, and the issue was to secure (1) The freedom of the voter from outside influence and, (2) the honesty of the counting of the votes. The first was secured by (a) the proper organization of the presidency of the whole electoral procedure; (b) by the institution of the secret ballot, and (c) more recently by associating the repre sentatives of the contending parties with the supervising officer of the proceedings.
The proper organization of the presidency involved the appoint ment of a public official, sometimes of the central authority like the Pre f et (see PREFECT) in France, or a local government author ity like the town clerk in Great Britain, or in the United States. The intention of the representative assemblies was rarely corrupt ; but corruption did creep in, and is still not altogether excluded in countries like France, Hungary, Rumania, Poland and Greece where the Government of the day does not hesitate to impress the returning officers that the elections must be "made." And in the State and city politics of the United States the parties and the "bosses" are not yet entirely of the opinion that returning officers should be just. There are many points at which the power of the returning officer may be corruptly used : the permission of personation (q.v.), the "stuffing" of ballot boxes, the verification of title and the acceptance of doubtful votes. On the whole, the tendency is towards greater integrity in these matters, but party watchers and the representatives of civic associations cannot afford to relax their vigilance.
South Australia was the first State to introduce secrecy of the ballot (1856), since when it is usual to find the secret ballot referred to as the Australian ballot. Thence the system spread to Europe and America to meet the growing public and parlia mentary demand for protection of voters. The means for secur ing secrecy vary very much. Perhaps the most careful arrange ments are to be found in Germany, that is, in the elections for the Federal authority, and it may be taken that the various States closely follow its practice. The voting urns are required to be four-cornered, of certain dimensions and closed, the only aper ture being a small slit at the top. These urns are examined before the poll begins and must not be opened until the count begins. The voter indicates his choice by placing his list of candidates (Germany has a strict list system of proportional representation) into an officially stamped envelope. The latter is given to him by an official, and no other envelope is legally valid. This envelope is made of opaque paper of a statutorily determined size. The voter places his ballot into the envelope in a special stall called an isolation cell (Isoliercelle), which is so arranged as to make observation by anybody, officials or other voters, impossible. An election was once challenged in the Reichstag because even the feet of a voter were observable. The envelope containing the ballot is then given by the voter to the returning officer, who takes the name of the voter, verifies his title, and then puts the vote into the urn.
Variations of this procedure now exist all over the world, the substantial part thereof being the secrecy of choice. In Hungary, by the electoral rules of April 1922, all rural constituencies num bering 200 out of a total of 245 are subject to open voting. In Great Britain the secret ballot was finally introduced for all parliamentary and municipal elections by the Ballot Act of 1872. In the United Kingdom, as in the British dominions generally, the ballots are officially provided and issue from a counterfoiled volume, but no envelope is provided, and the voter casts his ballot directly into the urn. Until 1913 the French system was full of defects; the candidates circulated the ballots even outside the polling-sections, and the voter merely folded the paper and gave it to the presiding official to put into the ballot box. After 1913 the "envelope system" was adopted (law of July 1913, modified by law of March 31, 1914). Since Oct. 1919 also, the State prints the ballots, though at the expense of the candidates, and sends them to the voters by post under an official stamp. No voter can be offered ballots on election day except from the returning officer's staff inside the polling-station. Before 1884 the general practice in the United States was either open voting, or where this rudi mentary and clumsy process had been superseded, voting by ballot. After the presidential elections of 1884 the Australian ballot system was extensively adopted. Now without exception ballots are printed at the public expense, distributed in the polling stations, officially numbered, secretly marked and folded, and are identifiable by reference to the counterfoil retained by the official.
.In the United States a great controversy has long raged around the question, how far the party organization ought to interfere with the voter by putting emblems on the ballot. Until recently the ballot was so arranged that the voter had only to mark the ballot paper at one certain point, and this indicated his acceptance of all the candidates of any one party. America has attempted to foil such assaults upon the independence of voters by such plans as the Massachusetts plan, adopted there in 1888. All the names of candidates for all parties for each office are placed in alpha betical order under the title of the office. The only way to vote is to mark a cross opposite the name of each candidate desired. The law so far compromises with the competence of the voter that it allows the printing of the party name or emblem by the side of each name. In many States the party signs are forbidden, especially for municipal offices.
Political parties are associated with the administration of the ballot in the better-organized democracies to an interesting but not surprising extent. In Great Britain agents of the candidates are allowed to be present at the polling station. They are sworn to secrecy and may not interfere with a voter. They are present at the count of votes and raise objections to spoiled or uncertain ballot papers. The clerks are appointed by the public authority. In the United States the parties have a larger share in the electoral proceedings. Besides the rights given by British law, American laws provide for the clerical work to be done by people chosen by the parties. In Germany the presence of representatives of the candidates is permitted, on the general principle of publicity of proceedings, and in each constituency the presiding officer appoints from three to six electors from the political parties to act as supervisors and clerks during the proceedings and at the counts. In much the same way the Czechoslovakian law provides for the conduct of the elections by a departmental commission (the local authority) with the collaboration of members of all parties. In France the parties have no such connection with electoral pro cedure.