Introduction
A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election, and may be a piece of paper or a small ball used in secret voting. Each voter uses one ballot, and ballots are not shared. In the simplest elections, a ballot may be a simple scrap of paper on which each voter writes in the name of a candidate, but governmental elections use pre-printed ballots to protect the secrecy of the votes. The voter casts his or her ballot in a box at a polling station. A ballot box is a temporarily sealed container, usually square box though sometimes a tamper resistant bag, with a narrow slot in the top sufficient to accept a ballot paper in an election. The ballot box is also designed to prevent anyone from accessing the votes cast until the close of the voting period .
Haitians voting in the 2006 elections.
Clear sided ballot boxes used in the Haitian general election in 2006.
Types of Voting Systems
Depending on the type of voting system used in the election, different ballots may be used. Ranked ballots allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference, while ballots for first-past-the-post systems only allow voters to select one candidate for each position. In party-list systems, lists may be open or closed.
The secret ballot is a voting method in which a voter's choices in an election or a referendum are anonymous. The key aim is to ensure that the voter records a sincere choice by forestalling attempts to influence the voter by intimidation or bribery. This system is one means of achieving the goal of political privacy. However, the secret ballot may increase the amount of vote buying where it is still legal. A political party or its affiliates could pay lukewarm supporters to turn out and pay lukewarm opponents to stay home, therefore reducing the costs of buying an election.
The United States uses a long and short ballot . Before the Civil War, a larger number of elected offices required longer ballots, and at times the long ballot undoubtedly resulted in confusion and blind voting, though the seriousness of either problem can be disputed. Progressivists attacked the long ballot during the Progressive Era. In the United States today, the term ballot reform generally refers to efforts to reduce the number of elected offices .
Butterfly Voters View
Perspective view of the infamous Florida butterfly ballot, reconstructed in 3-D from a reproduction in a Florida newspaper, to show how hard it is to identify which hole links to which name in "real life", rather than the flat way it is usually displayed.
The Polling (Painting)
The Polling by William Hogarth (1755). Before the secret ballot was introduced, voter intimidation was commonplace.