This is What Democracy Looked Like: A Brief History of the Printed Ballot

When the framers wrestled with the details of how our new republic would function, they were less clear about federal requirements for casting votes. The Constitution stipulated that the legislature of each state had the right to determine the “manner” in which presidential electors would be selected, and entrusted the federal government with an imprecise mandate to “guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government,” providing much latitude for interpretation.

Corn and Beans

Historically, early votes were cast using basic ball-like objects like shells, colored stones, metal balls, or, more commonly in colonial America, Indian corn and beans (corn meaning yea, beans meaning nay. Imagine our forefathers diligently counting small sacks of kernels: “The beans have it!”) The first use of paper ballots in the United States was in 1634 in Massachusetts, and by 1776, voting ‘by papers’ was a more widely adapted but not universally applied method. In Kentucky, the last state to hang on to voice voting, local elections were conducted by lining up the candidates’ supporters on opposite sides of a road; the longest line won.

Even though states realized that using the paper method was an improvement over hands and beans, its adaptation was more for convenience than secrecy: it was easier to cast and count a written ballot, but for anonymity, the beans were actually your best bet. Also ballots were in no way standardized. In fact, early 18th century ballots required voters to write their candidate’s name on a scrap of paper, where they hoped it would be not only legible but spelled correctly ( g. 1). This informal method was reasonable until the sheer number of elected o ces became too much for a scribe to list, paving the way for legislation legalizing the use of printed ballots provided by party workers or the candidates themselves. It was the 1830s: Andrew Jackson was President, it was the Age of the Common Man, and act of voting was nothing like what we know now.

The idea that political parties would be in charge of printing and distributing their ballots seems hard to imagine: the foxes were in charge of the electoral henhouse. Preprinted ballots were provided at the polling place by party enforcers, along with some persuasive cash and free whisky. These ballots were often a riot of colors, slogans, emblems, and typographic dexterity ( g. 2). As the party lists became longer, the ballots began to resemble railway tickets, (hence the term ‘party ticket.’) While

a few states enacted laws prescribing the color of the paper and ink to be used in the printing of the ballot, several parties interpreted the de nition of ‘white paper’ and printed on cream colored stock or even brighter hues for a more distinctive look. ( g. 3, 4). The forms ranged from single names printed on small slips of paper to a delirious riot of typefaces, colors, and inks. ( g. 3). Examples of ballots showing the party motto “Exclude the Chinese” as well as allegorical depictions of Lady Liberty being threatened by encroaching immigrant hordes were not uncommon in the post-Civil War era. Many ballots were printed directly onto brightly colored paper stock or had elaborate designs on the back, ( g. 7) which also served the dual purpose of allowing the party enforcer to make sure he got what he paid for. Held in hand and displayed publically, these ballots were their own form of political advertising, using the citizen as the billboard.

Get Out the Vote and Pour Me Another

Imagine a national holiday where everyone you knew was out on the street, ‘whiskey owed like water,’ violence was rampant, and citizens were cruising for bribes from the highest bidder. That was election day throughout much of the 19th century.

Getting out the vote often took place in local taverns which served as polling locations. Votes could be bought with ready cash, a ladleful of rum, or even a set of plates. During the 1859 election in New York, illegal Irish voters who were ‘brutally drunk’ were ‘led up to the polls like so many cattle.” Party machines often employed kidnapping techniques called ‘cooping’ where drunk and indigent men were rounded up and kept in a backroom until election day, when they were forced to make the rounds to polling sites to repeatedly vote for the right candidate. Voter fraud and ballot stu ng were rampant: the system was foul, and the hope of voting honestly was useless in the face of widespread corruption. When interrogated about the integrity of a recent New York Board election, the infamous Boss Tweed chillingly declared that “it wasn’t the ballots that rendered the result. It was the counters.”

“Kangaroo Voting”

Given the raucous and often inebriated atmosphere of election day, unchecked electioneering and voter fraud, the need for ballot reform was obvious, and more stringent measures were enacted at least to regulate the appearance and functionality of the ballot. Some states tried envelopes, ( g. 6) which didn’t work. Numbering

the ballots and having the voter sign their ballot worked okay, but still allowed for abuses. Regulations regarding how one marked a ballot were also made more explicit, replacing a hodgepodge of systems where voters either crossed o the names they didn’t want, or circled or otherwise indicated their choice ( g. 7).

Consider election day today: squeezing in time before or after work to stand in long lines, enduring bureaucratic frustrations, and complaining about poorly designed ballots and it being a general pain. But no one is trying to bribe you, you aren’t risking your life to go to your polling place, and you don’t have to be a white, landowning male to cast your vote. It took over a hundred years for our admittedly awed system to develop into the process we partake of today: private, boring, and entirely up to you.