# History of elections/voting/secret ballot

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-elections-voting-secret-ballot/229867>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 18, 2004, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-elections-voting-secret-ballot/229867 "2004-02-18T20:39:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2004, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-elections-voting-secret-ballot/229867/1 "2004-02-18T20:39:31Z")

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Does anyone know the first historical reference to

1. elections

2. secret ballot

This could be for any group of people including countries.

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**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2004, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-elections-voting-secret-ballot/229867/2 "2004-02-18T21:37:28Z")

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The voting system we take for granted these days is known as the Australian Ballot. The elements that make it distinctive are that the votes are cast in secret on an official-issue ballot. Previous systems exposed the voters to prying observers and/or accepted pre-printed ballots, usually passed out by the local party ward heeler. FYI, New York City first adopted the Australian Ballot only a little more than a century ago.

Supposedly the system was first used in southern Australia, hence the name.

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**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2004, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-elections-voting-secret-ballot/229867/3 "2004-02-18T22:07:30Z")

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I see that part of my post may be unclear, so let me try again.

Before the Australian Ballot system, you could cast a ballot that had not been printed by the (presumably nonpartisan) election board. It was routine – and entirely legal – to take a preprinted ticket from the local party boss that contained only the names from his party’s slate and shove it in the ballot box.