Page:A History of the Australian Ballot System in the United States.djvu/83

70 on paper furnished by the secretary of state. Five states regulated the size of the tickets. These attempts, however, failed to accomplish the desired result, and public opinion finally demanded the abolition of this system and the adoption of a secret official ballot.

The defects of the unofficial ballot can be summarized as follows: first, it was not secret; secondly, there were no means provided by law for the printing and the distributing of the ballots; thirdly, there was no way of protecting the public against eleventh-hour nominations which made an exposure of the candidates impossible; fourthly, the necessarily large expense deterred independent candidates; fifthly, the noise and confusion about the polls was distracting.

The Australian ballot differed from the unofficial ballot in the following particulars: first, all ballots are prepared by state officials and none but the official ballot can be used in public elections; secondly, the manner by which candidates can be nominated is regulated by statute; thirdly, ballots are distributed only by sworn election officers stationed within the polling-place on the day of election; fourthly, the form of the ballot is prescribed by law and all ballots are uniform in any precinct; fifthly, ballots must be marked by the elector in secret, and deposited so that their contents cannot be seen; sixthly, the entire process of the preparation, casting, and counting of the ballots is regulated by statute, and any violation or abuse of this law can be corrected by an appeal to the courts. This judicial control is one of the great differences of the official ballot over the former system.

Every state which has adopted the Australian ballot requires the exclusive use of the official ballot in public elections. Although Governor Hill demanded strenuously the equal right of private organizations to furnish ballots, the use of ballots furnished only by the state is seldom disputed. It is accepted also, practically without question, that the ballots shall be distributed only by sworn clerks stationed within the polling-place on the day of election, and that no ballots shall be taken from the room before the closing of the polls. Delaware has taken, however, a reactionary step by permitting an elector to obtain a ballot in advance of the election from the chairmen of the various political organizations.

The manner of nominating candidates to be placed upon the official ballot has undergone important changes. In the early Australian-ballot acts a party of sufficient size could generally nominate candidates by a primary, caucus, or convention. Then came the period of the mandatory primary, and later, the direct primary. In those states