Page:A History of the Australian Ballot System in the United States.djvu/46

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The arrangement of the polling-place was also altered by the Australian ballot. Under the new law the officers charged with designating the polling-places are required to furnish a sufficient number of voting-booths or compartments. In the Massachusetts act of 1888 the number was placed at not less than one compartment for every seventy-five voters with a minimum of three in each town or precinct. These compartments must be so constructed that an elector when marking his ballot will be screened from observation. The portion of the room in which the compartment and the ballot box are situated is separated from the remaining portion by a guard-rail so placed that only those inside the guard-rail can approach within a specified distance, usually six feet. But the arrangement must be such that neither the ballot box nor the compartments are hidden from the view of those outside the rail. In Massachusetts the person voting must also be in the sight of those outside the rail, but this rule has not been followed. A much larger number of states, in fact, require the booth to have a curtain or door which conceals almost all of the elector's body when the door is closed. Indiana tries to obtain additional security by providing for each precinct a chute or passage with a railing, rope, or wire on each side commencing fifty feet away from, and leading to, the polling-place. One challenger and one poll-book holder are allowed to stand at the sides of the chute near the challenge window, but no other person can remain within fifty feet of it except for the purpose of offering his vote.