In France, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland and Cisleithan Austria the ballot is now used; in Hungary it was formerly employed in all elec tions, but in 1874 was restricted to municipal councils.
Ballot Secrecy.— The interest of govern ments and privileged classes in aristocratic countries to defeat the secrecy of the ballot is replaced in democratic ones, of which the United States is chief, by the interest of party managers, who wish either to prevent inde pendent voting through fear of loss of em ployment or favor or to make sure of purchased votes being given as promised; they have there fore devised various methods of evading the nominal secrecy of the vote, such as ordering the voter to write his name or some understood sign on the ballot before depositing it, holding it in sight of the party watcher while casting it, having a "friend" accompany him to the polls on pretense of his illiteracy and inability to go through the legal forms without help, etc. These enforce as constant a struggle from the guardians of political honesty to circumvent them: the first has been stopped by throwing out as illegal all ballots with distinguishing marks on them; the second by compelling them to be cast in sealed official envelopes, and by forbidding any but the official registrars to come within a certain distance of the polls for any purpose but to vote, and later by providing booths in which each voter prepares his ballot in privacy; the third is practically confined to certain States and cities with a large percentage of real illiteracy under which the feigned article can cover itself and cannot well be directly reached by law, but only by the vigilance of each party in exposing the fraudulent practices of the other. The ballot itself also has brought in many frauds for which the viva vote system gave no opportunity, which are reducible to three kinds : (1) Counterfeiting, either by print ing the name of one party over the candidates of another, or by substituting one or more names on the opposite party's ticket; (2) "stuff ing* the ballot-box by folding two or more ballots, all but one being sometimes of tissue paper, to look like one; (3) "repeating,* one man voting at different polling-places more than once or at the same one under different names. The first must be defeated by party vigilance; the second is used only where one party has the control of ballot inspection, though the law usually provides that both the chief parties shall have a share in this; the third and second are punishable by laW.
Another evil, as diminishing individual re sponsibility for votes and building up unprin cipled and corrupt party dominance though not direct fraud like the others, is the "party bal lot?' This is due to the great multiplication of candidates to be voted for at one time, and the consequent cost of printing and distributing the ballots to voters, which has led to the aban donment of the candidates themselves doing this work, and the forming of party organiza tions for it, which, in return for their efforts, insist on subservience and are apt to have slight scruples about gaining their ends. All these • evils together — the misuse of ballot methods to pervert their intent, the only partial secrecy and the supremacy of party in the voting have latterly built up a great body of opinion that some better methods should be devised, the general movement being known as "ballot re form.* Australian The Australian or official ballot was first used and developed in South Australia, and after its introduction in the United States in 1888 soon replaced the party ballot in many States. Its essential feature is that an candidates in the field for any office shall be placed on one ballot and the voter compelled to indicate his preference by a mark opposite the name of one. The ballot is official, compiled, printed and placed in the poll ing places under the direction of public officials and at public expense. Under •he "Australian plan" the voter is compelled to think personally of each candidate, which invites independence of judgment, breaks down the tyranny of the party vote and instils some intelligence into the "brute vote,* even though the name of the party of each candidate be added. The first Australian Ballot Law in the United States was enacted by Kentucky in 1888, but the law ap plied only to the election of certain officials of Louisville. In the same year Massachusetts passed a law which became effective the next year providing for the use of this ballot in State elections. Since that time every State in the Union, save Georgia and Louisiana, has adopted some form of the Australian ballot.