Voting by printed ballot is now the method generally employed in elections in countries where constitutional government exists. The ballots may he furnished by the candidate for office, the political party engaged in promoting his election, or by the Government. The first or the second of these plans has usually been adopt ed in local and general elections in the United States. But the fact that several otlicers—whose names may conveniently appear on a single bal lot—are usually to be voted for at the same elec tion, the great cost of printing and distributing the ballots to multitudes of voters, and the or ganization of party 'workers' requisite for this work of distribution, have combined to render it impracticable. usually. for the individual candi date to supply the voters with ballots bearing his name, and to throw that burden upon the political party. Hence the 'party ballot.' which has done so much to build up the great party organizations in this country. and which has been a prolific source of corruption, fraud, and intimidation of the individual voter.
These defects of the 'party ballot,' in the last few years of the Nineteenth Century produced a • widespread public sentiment in favor of ballot reform, which in many of the United States resulted in the adoption of the third plan above referred to—namely, the printing and dis tribution of the ballots by the State. With some modifications. due to local conditions or to the efforts of party managers to derive a parti san advantage from the system. the form com monly employed is the 'official' or 'Australian • ballot,' so called from the fact that it was first I employed with success in some of the Australian commonwealths. Its distinguishing feature is the arrangement of the names of all the candi dates for a given office, whether nominated by party organizations or by independent effort, in order on the ballot, the voter indicating his choice by some mark written by hint opposite the name of his chosen candidate. The usual
and preferable form of the official ballot is the 'blanket ballot,' in which the names of all the candidates for an office are arranged in alpha betical order, irrespective of party affiliations. In a few of the United States, however, the prac tice of arranging the candidates in party col umns, each column headed by an emblem—as an eagle or a star—has been adopted. This device is justified as a concession to the necessities of the illiterate voter, who may, by placing his mark at the head of a party column, east a vote far all the candidates of that party, instead of choosing, out of an alphabetical list, the names of the individual candidates favored by him. This form of ballot is greatly favored by the political organizations for the reason—which constitutes the chief indictment of the method—that it tends to promote 'straight' party voting and to discourage the practice of independent voting. Certain novel mechanical devices for insuring secret voting and for obviating the more serious objections to the use of the printed ballot will be described under the head of VoTING•MAcniNE.
For a description of the process by which the State has assumed the regulation of elections, and for an exposition of the laws which have been enacted for securing the purity of the bal lot, see ELECTION ; ELECTORAL REFORM ; COR RUPT PRACTICES; PRIMARY ELECTIONS: VOTE; VOTER; SUFFRAGE., and the authorities there re ferred to.