Page:A History of the Australian Ballot System in the United States.djvu/64

Rh a cross in the party circle. In Texas and West Virginia the elector can vote a straight ticket by marking out or defacing the tickets not voted for.

Each of these twenty-four states penalizes independent voting. Thirteen of these are fairly liberal, and permit an elector who wishes to “split” his vote to make a cross (X) in the party circle and a cross opposite the name of any candidate desired on another party ticket, in which case the candidates individually marked prevail over the opposing candidates on the party ticket. But in North Dakota, Utah, and Idaho the contrary rule prevails; so in these three states he must also erase all names under the party circle for which he does not desire to vote. In West Virginia, Texas, and Maine the elector may strike out the names of candidates under his party circle and insert other names in their places. In nine states the independent voter must mark every name, while his partisan neighbor votes for all of the nominees of his party with a single stroke. There is certainly a strong inducement to party regularity in these states. In Missouri the voter is given separate ballots of every political party. He takes these tickets to the booth, and if he wishes to vote a straight Democratic ticket he selects and folds this one and hands it to the receiving judge. The rejected tickets are also folded and returned to another judge. If the elector desires to vote for a candidate not on his ticket, he must erase the name on his ticket and insert the name of the candidate desired.

In all but six states the elector may vote for any person whose name does not appear on the ballot by writing the name in the appropriate space. In Nevada, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and South Dakota there is no provision for voting for a man whose name does not appear on the ballot; and in Delaware and Indiana writing in any name on the ballot