Ballot box

“ The ballot-box is the throne of America; the ballot-box is the ark of the covenant. Unless we see to it that every man who has a right to vote, votes, and unless we see to it that every honest vote is counted, the days of this Republic are numbered.
When you suspect that a Congressman is not elected; when you suspect that a judge upon the bench holds his place by fraud, then the people will hold the law in contempt and will laugh at the decisions of courts, and then come revolution and chaos. ”

“ It marked, on the part of millions of men, a portentous decay of belief in representative government and its chosen organ—the ballot box. Great and powerful groups had suddenly discovered—and it may be the most portentous political discovery of the twentieth century—that the power involved in their control over the necessaries of life, as compared with the power of the voting franchise, was as a forty-two centimetre cannon to the bow and arrow. ”

“ We are floating in a sea of unlimited and unlettered enfranchisement, vainly tugging at the helm of our ship of state, while master-minds stoop to cater to the prejudices of hundreds of thousands of voters who cannot read the names upon the ticket they deposit in the ballot-box—the ballot-box which is the guardian of the constitutional liberties of a republic. ”

“ Leave these men no longer compelled to wade to the ballot-box through blood, but extend over them the protecting arm of this government, and make their pathway to the ballot-box as straight and as smooth and as safe as that of any other class of citizens. ”

“ The ballot box is the surest arbiter of disputes among freemen. ”

“ A woman can vote in only one constituency where she is registered by virtue of her own or her husband’s local government qualification, but she can vote also at a University, if she is on its register.
The poll closes at eight or nine o’clock. Ballot papers cannot be given out after that time. But any voters who have received papers before the hour has struck may put their votes into the ballot box. The presiding officer, in the presence of the agents of the candidates, then stops up the slot of the ballot box and seals it, so as to prevent the insertion of any more voting papers. ”

“ While an election is in progress the ballot box shall be kept locked and the key shall lie constantly in the possession of the chairman of the Board of Judges, who will not unlock the box or allow it to be unlocked until the board is ready to count the ballots. ”

“ For that reason we ask you that they shall be allowed to stand at the ballot-box, because we believe that there every person expresses his individuality. The majesty or the meanness of a person comes out at the ballot-box more than anywhere else. The ballot is the compendium of all there is in civilization, and of all that civilization has done for us. ”

“ The operation of the plan slightly modified, as now proposed in Massachusetts, is briefly this: In the polling room as now, is the ballot-box; this none but those in the act of voting and the officers are allowed to approach. As the voters enter the enclosed area a stile numbers them, and an officer hands each a ballot, containing the names of all nominees. The voter takes this into a booth, and makes a cross in ink opposite the name of each person that he wishes to vote for. Having thus prepared his ballot alone, he deposits it in the usual way. ”

“ Instead of the tellers collecting the ballots, many societies provide a stationary ballot box in which the ballots are deposited by the voters or by a teller to whom they are handed by the voters. The latter method is the better. Where this plan is adopted the polls are said to be open all the time during which members may deposit their ballots. If the society is in session during the voting, it may close the polls by a two-thirds vote after a reasonable time has been given members to prepare and to deposit their ballots. ”

“ Thus, a citizen is immediately checked for his proper registration and poll tax payments when he comes to vote. He then receives a ballot which he alone marks secretly in a voting booth. Voting must be performed carefully because a defaced, improperly marked ballot may be challenged and thrown out. He folds his ballot to maintain secrecy and hands it to an election judge who places it immediately in the ballot box. It is illegal for a voter to be approached concerning a possible candidate any nearer than 100 feet from the polling place. ”

“ A ballot box is furnished to each section of seats at the meeting venue, and members of the Election Council shall cast their votes into the boxes designed for their sections of seats respectively.
⁠When vote-casting begins, the chief scrutineer and other scrutineers shall cast their votes first, and then the members of the Presidium and the other members of the Election Council shall cast their votes in order.
⁠No member of the Election Council shall cast their votes by proxy. ”

“ The voters are kept waiting half an hour, because at first no one can open the patent ballot box, but at last it gives way to some persuasive 223 touch and the day’s work is fairly begun. By noon about fifty men have passed the guard, taken their folded ballots, entered the little booths, and spent from two to ten minutes each in marking or trying to mark for their favorite candidates. ”

“ In a government such as ours, where the people make and enforce their own laws and where every citizen has a voice in governmental affairs, the ballot box must ever be the peaceful arbiter of conflicting opinions respecting public measures and policies. ”

“ There was no need to give this last call, for scarcely Judith uttered the word "prepare" than the girls, all primed for the cue, made another rush for the ballot box.
By this time the other side had "gained consciousness," as Minette expressed it, and were massing to form a blockade. To reach the ballot box, deposit the votes every one of which was correctly signed, then to seize the box, count the votes and announce the winner would constitute a legal election. And some work! ”

“ Ballot-box stuffing is the practice of putting in the box ballots which have no right to be there. With the Australian ballot the practice is very infrequent. Ballot-switching is the placing of marks on the ballots, surreptitiously, while the ballots are being counted. ”

“ All elections by the people are by secret ballot. Generally, election officials are sworn in office the day of the election; one of the judges opens the ballot box publicly, turns it upside down to prove its emptiness, locks it and keeps it locked until the voting polls are closed. At the beginning of the election day, the election judges receive the registration books and the list of those citizens whose past three years poll tax has been paid. The election clerk receives a poll book, a blank book to be used for the official listing of the voters who come to the polls. ”

“ We deny not your intellectual capacity, for exercising wisely and justly, the privileges and rights of the ballot box; but we do very much question that those scenes around the ballot box is a proper place for ladies to appear. ”

“ A man votes viva voce by announcing to the election officers the name of the candidate of his choice, and having it recorded upon the polling-list. A man votes by ballot by handing to the officers a slip of paper containing the name of the candidate voted for. The officers deposit the ballots in a box called the ballot-box. A voting machine has a knob or lever for each candidate, and is so arranged that the voter can record one vote. ”

“ As soon as the voting is finished, and in the immediate presence of the watchers, the poll clerk shall count the ballots found in the ballot box, without unfolding them or exposing their contents, except so far as to ascertain that each ballot is single, and shall compare the number of ballots in the box with the number of electors who voted. ”

“ In not one of the states can a woman express her opinion or wish at the ballot box. Her person, her property, her claim to her children, —everything she holds most dear in this life, is controlled by the ballot box. The most ignorant foreigners are invited to it; our mothers and wives are forbidden.
Women and girls receive, for the same work, only half the compensation of men and boys. ”

“ Any person having legal custody of the ballot box containing the official ballots used in the referendum who opens or destroys said box or removes or destroys its contents without or against the order of the commission ”

“ At each polling-booth there was erected, under contract with the Corporation, the compartments prescribed by the Act to secure privacy to the voter while marking his ballot paper. These compartments consisted of an open movable box, with four stalls or recesses, each supplied with a small ledge to serve as a desk, and placed back to back, so that four voters might be engaged in marking their papers at one and the same time. The size of the partition prevents a voter from overlooking his neighbour either at his side or in front of him. ”

“ It is very gratifying to observe the general interest now being manifested in the reform of our election laws. Those who have been for years calling attention to the pressing necessity of throwing about the ballot box and about the elector further safeguards, in order that our elections might not only be free and pure, but might clearly appear to be so, will welcome the accession of any who did not so soon discover the need of reform. ”

“ No person may be present at the counting of the votes besides the returning officer and his counting clerks, the candidates and their agents, except by the authority of the returning officer, and everyone present is placed under an obligation to maintain, and aid in maintaining, the secrecy of the voting.
The first thing that is done is to check the number of votes in each ballot box with the return furnished by the presiding officer of the number of ballot papers issued at the polling booth, in order to see if they tally. ”

“ The slit of the ballot box must be so constructed that the voting papers dropped through it cannot be withdrawn.
All is now ready for the polling. In the booth are those only who are authorized to be present. Each candidate is represented by a polling agent to look after his interest. But the complete control of the booth lies in the presiding officer, and there are constables present to carry out his commands. He can have removed from the booth any person who misconducts himself or who disputes his lawful orders. He may in certain circumstances give a disorderly person into custody. ”

“ I'm always sure. What's so important about a box?" He looked up at Manning with a shrewd expression in his eyes. "You think, perhaps, he's carrying around a ballot box which he'll switch for the official one on election day? ”

“ The central object is a ballot box guarded by three inspectors of foreign birth. On the right is a multitude of coarse, ignorant beings, designated in our constitutions as male citizens—many of them fresh from the steerage of incoming steamers. There, too, are natives of the same type from the slums of our cities. Policemen are respectfully guiding them all to the ballot box. Those who can not stand, because of their frequent potations, are carefully supported on either side, each in turn depositing his vote, for what purpose he neither knows nor cares, except to get the promised bribe. ”

“ On reaching the voting place, the captives were unloaded from the stage like so much inanimate baggage, and turned over to friends of the candidate to whom, so to speak, for the time being they belonged. One at a time, these creatures were led to vote; and as each staggered to the ballot-box, a ticket was held up and he was made to deposit it. Once having served the purpose, he was turned loose and remained free until another election unless, as I have intimated, he and his fellows were again corralled and made to vote a second or even a third time the same day. ”

“ Nor should I complain of their response, for they went behind their batteries with the cool valor of buccaneers.
There was but one question which gave me doubt, and that was the question of the Australian ballot, then a novelty in our midst. Theretofore, a henchman of the machine went with that freeman to the ballot-box, and saw to it how he put no cheat upon his purchasers. Now our commissioners could approach a polls no nearer than two hundred feet ”

“ Sometimes the poll is badly arranged and the scrutineers are unable to see properly just how the ballots are being marked and they count up the Liberals and Conservatives in different ways. Often, too, a voter makes his mark so hurriedly and carelessly that they have to pick it out of the ballot box and look at it to see what it is. ”

“ And you will find a good many gamblers who, when it comes to the question of putting their vote in the ballot box, are going to vote for me — not because they believe that if I am elected they are going to get any favors at my hands.
“There is not one of the indecent people of the City of New York who does not know that they will get just what is coming to them. ”

“ Election day was one of continuous whiskey drinking and brawling so that decent citizens were forced to remain within doors. The returns from the different wards were announced as fast as the votes were counted. It was therefore the custom to hold open certain wards until the votes of all the others were known. Then whatever tickets were lacking to secure the proper election were counted from the packed ballot box in the sure ward. In this manner five hundred votes were once returned from Crystal Springs precinct where there dwelt not over thirty voters. ”

“ If the surplus ballots were withdrawn by a blindfolded official, the difference in length or in the texture or quality of the ballot made possible the withdrawal of an undue proportion of Republican votes. Usually separate boxes were supplied for different sets of officers, and it was often provided that a ballot in the wrong box was void. An occasional intentional shifting of boxes thus caused many illiterate negroes to throw away their votes. ”