Page:A History of the Australian Ballot System in the United States.djvu/63

50 the rail. While the number varies, it is never more than two or three in excess of the number of booths or compartments. Thus New Hampshire will permit, besides the election officers and persons admitted inside the rail by the election officers to keep order, no more voters at a time than there are compartments. Idaho will allow one voter in excess of the number of booths. North Carolina will permit an excess of two voters. Since the elector is limited in the time which he can take to mark his ballot, and as he must quit the inclosed space as soon as he deposits his vote, this provision causes practically no delay or inconvenience to the electors.

Upon receiving his ballot, the elector, without leaving the inclosed space, must retire alone to one of the unoccupied election booths to mark his ballot. The procedure in marking the ballot differs as much as the form of the ballot, but is along the same general lines. In the office-group states, excluding Nebraska and Pennsylvania, which have added a method of voting a straight ticket by a single operation, each candidate must be separately considered in marking the ballot, except presidential electors, who can be voted for by groups. In Arkansas and Virginia the voter indicates his choice by striking out, erasing, or drawing a line through the names of all candidates not voted for. All the other office-group states require the elector to mark the name of every candidate voted for by making a cross (X) opposite his name. Three of the party-column states have also adopted the office-group method of marking each individual candidate. In these states the same procedure is followed in voting either a “straight” or a “split” ticket.

In the larger number of states there is a decided difference in the minimum amount of labor required in voting a “straight party” and a “split” ticket. In the twenty-three states which use the party circle or square, an elector can vote for all the party candidates by making