Page:A History of the Australian Ballot System in the United States.djvu/19

 and West Virginia in 1868; by Kentucky and Illinois in 1872; by Missouri and Florida in 1877; by Massachusetts and Texas in 1879; by New York in 1880; and by Delaware and Alabama in 1881. The provisions of the New York law are typical. It provided that "each and all ballots used at any such election shall be upon plain white printing paper, and without any impression, device, mark, or other peculiarity whatsoever upon or about them to distinguish one ballot from another in appearance, except the names of the several candidates, and they shall be printed with plain black ink."

This law also failed to accomplish its purpose, because the several parties used different shades of white. In Ohio, for example, the Republicans used a very white paper, while the Democrats adopted a cream color. So it was still possible to tell what ticket an elector voted. California and Oregon tried to secure a uniform weight and color of paper by requiring the ballots to be printed on paper furnished by the secretary of state.

There was great variety in the number of tickets used in the different states. Twelve states required the names of all candidates voted for at an election to be written or printed on a single ticket. Massachusetts allowed the elector to vote for the several candidates on a single ballot or on separate tickets. The elector in New York in 1882, or Florida in 1889, had to vote for the candidates of his choice on eight tickets, while a voter in Nebraska in 1887 was compelled to use nine. The states which required separate ballots for different offices had as many combinations as the particular legislature thought desirable, and it is almost impossible to discover any common principle guiding their actions. Six states required officers voted for by all the electors of the