Polling booth

“ The slit of the ballot box must be so constructed that the voting papers dropped through it cannot be withdrawn.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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Though voting by post is permitted to anyone living more than five miles away from the nearest polling-booth, or suffering from any illness or infirmity which prevents them from voting personally, this is not much help to people who are many more miles than five from a post-office, and probably quite unaware, even, that any election is taking place. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Happily, there is no gainsaying the seriousness and responsibility with which, on the whole, the franchise is now exercised. Taking them all in all, the voters go to the polling booths animated by a fine public spirit—respect for the Constitution, devotion to the State—which it is not too much to say is [32] aroused and kept purely aflame by their different political convictions, anti without a thought of individual gain. ”

“ I share no fears of the degradation of women by the ballot. I [Pg 65] believe rather that it will elevate men. I believe the tone of our politics will be higher, that our caucuses will be more jealously guarded and our conventions more orderly and decorous. I believe the polls will be freed from the vulgarity and coarseness which now too often surround them, and that the polling booths, instead of being in the least attractive parts of a ward or town, will be in the most attractive; instead of being in stables, will be in parlors. ”

“ No voter shall be allowed to occupy a booth or compartment already occupied by another, nor to speak or converse with anyone, except as herein provided, while in the booth. After having voted, or declined or failed to vote within 5 minutes, the voter shall immediately withdraw from the voting place and shall not enter the polling place again during the election.
23–350. Unauthorized persons not allowed within guardrail; assistance
No person other than a voter preparing his ballot shall be allowed within the guardrail, except as herein provided. ”

“ One great advantage, if not the chief good, of the ballot would be the ignorance in which candidates and committees would be kept as to the state of the poll during the progress of the election. Corruption generally runs riot on the clay of poll, promises are withheld until it is seen how the polling goes, and, in close contests, the highest prices are obtained when there is a neck-and-neck race. It would be little use making up a canvass book if the votes were secret. ”

“ And as part of the effort in Congress to enact campaign finance reform, some have suggested also taking a look at election reform. In and of itself, our nation needs to take a look at its election laws, and the President's opinions. There are important lessons to be learned from the 2000 presidential election, including access to the polls, including the question of military people and having the right to vote, including the effect of different projections of the vote before polling places were closed and whether or not that affected turnout. ”

“ IN GENERAL.—Each State shall provide a sufficient number of voting systems, poll workers, and other election resources (including physical resources) at a polling place used in any election for Federal office, including a polling place at which individuals may cast ballots prior to the date of the election, to ensure— “ (A) a fair and equitable waiting time for all voters in the State; and “ (B) that no individual will be required to wait longer than 30 minutes to cast a ballot at the polling place. ”

“ The campaigns increase in intensity week after week and expire, or explode, in a blaze of glory the night before election, at which time the committees of the leading parties set forth the reasons that make each side certain of success. On election day a hush spreads over the land and the voters wend their way to the polling places, where each voter is permitted to register a sovereign's will. ”

“ One of these is the SECRET BALLOT. At the polls each voter enters a booth by himself to mark his ballot, or to operate the voting machine, and need have no fear that a possible "watcher" may cause him to lose his job or otherwise suffer for voting as he thinks best. The secret ballot also reduces the likelihood that votes will be bought, for there is no way of telling whether the man who sells his vote will vote as he has agreed; and the man who sells his vote is not to be trusted. ”

“ It may seem strange that a party thus constituted and led should poll such a heavy vote. But in our large cities, and progressively in the country as a whole, the active managing portion of a party bears a very small proportion to the vote which it polls. In New York or Philadelphia, as in San Francisco, but a handful of men make the tickets between which, on election-day, the majority of voters must choose. ”

“ There is a glorious and detailed account of the slow progress of an election before the Reform Bill began to cut the rottenness from the heart of the Parliamentary borough; when polling extended beyond one day, and alternate applications of threats and spirits brought the free and independent electors one by one to the presence of the polling clerk, when the ladies openly assisted their candidates with polite bribery and the scene closed in universal intoxication. ”

“ Nowadays it is the regular rule that in each State the voting for the presidential electors takes place not in separate districts, but in the mass and by “general ticket,” and these presidential electors make up the college called upon to choose the President of the Union. The candidate who gets a majority even of a few hundred votes in the hundreds of thousands of voters in any State — as was once the case at New York — gets the whole vote of that State. Thus at every election it is a majority of States rather than a majority of voters which decides the victory. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And then finally, when election day came, the packing houses posted a notice that men who desired to vote might remain away until nine that morning, and the same night watchman took Jurgis and the rest of his flock into the back room of a saloon, and showed each of them where and how to mark a ballot, and then gave each two dollars, and took them to the polling place, where there was a policeman on duty especially to see that they got through all right. ”

“ There is no shouting; there is no fighting; at eight o’clock in the morning an office is thrown open; a policeman stands outside to direct the voters; almost everybody in the electoral district records his vote. He receives a paper with the names of the candidates upon it; he marks the name for which he votes, folds the paper, and gives it to a clerk, who in his presence drops the paper into a box. At the close of the day the voting papers are opened and counted. The election is over. There has been no bribery, nobody knows how any man has voted, and the whole business is complete in one day. ”

“ Unfortunately, due to these baseless attacks on the election results, many of these election workers have been threatened and intimidated. Yet these poll workers did their duty and counted the votes, shepherding and overseeing one of the most fundamental and integral pillars of our democracy—free, fair and open elections. ”

“ A hundred years ago a contested election might last in any constituency for three or four weeks of excitement and horseplay, during which the voters were every day further removed from the state of mind in which serious thought on the probable results of their votes was possible. Now no election may last more than one day, and we may soon enact that all the polling for a general election shall take place on the same day. ”

“ Any man wishing to cast an unclean vote was driven from the booth: all those attempting to introduce any element of brute force or rowdyism into the election were cracked over the head. In the lower part of the town scores of willing workers, recruited often from the humblest classes, kept order with pickaxes. In every part of the city motor cars, supplied by all the leading businessmen, lawyers, and doctors of the city, acted as patrols to see that no unfair use should be made of other vehicles in carrying voters to the polls. ”

“ But, I believe,’ continued the shoemaker, ‘that after all this election will turn out mighty well for the Republican party. In the end, the new way of voting is going to help us. Before this the boss or the politician could take his men or his gang and vote them as he wished. Now this is, to a certain extent, changed. The half-way independent man who before was led to the polls and voted, goes to the polls and votes for himself. Before this he was part of the machine, gave election matters but little thought, and was enthusiastic only because others were so. ”

“ The ballot itself is a standing protest against inquiry into motives. It enjoins and protects the secret of the hand; much more should it enjoin and protect the secret of the heart. And as for adding [Pg 15] votes, on the supposition that they might or would have been cast but for untoward circumstances, no plausible reason can be given for it which would not apply to any case of disappointment in the fullness of the vote. A rainy day of election costs one of the parties thousands of ballots. If it happen to rain on that day, why not order a new election in better weather ”

“ These reasons appear to me decisive against the change proposed, and in favour of the present plan of delivering the vote at a public polling-place: but the places of voting should be sufficiently numerous and convenient to enable the poorest elector to vote without losing his day’s wages; and, as already intimated, the expense of the poll should not be a charge upon the candidates, but upon the county or borough, or upon the State. ”

“ Each petty political unit having a municipal government of its own comprises a voting precinct. If at the first ballot no candidate in the district receives a majority of all the votes cast, a second ballot is taken, when a simple plurality is decisive. A noteworthy feature of the system is the fact that voters who on account of illness, military service, or other valid reason, are unable to appear at the polls are permitted to transmit their votes in writing to the proper election officials. ”

“ Voting is by secret ballot, and the balloting lasts one day only. As a rule, the polling takes place in the mairie, or municipal building, of the commune, under the immediate supervision of an electoral bureau consisting of a president (usually the mayor) , four assessors, and a secretary. The state does not provide ballot-papers, but one or more of the candidates may be depended upon to supply the deficiency. ”

“ No person outside a voting room or voting booth shall, in any manner, either by words or gestures, attempt to influence or interfere with any voter who is in said room or booth preparing his ballot; nor shall any person enter any booth while a voter is in there ”

“ Even without going beyond the plain words of the statute, we think it clear that the location of polling places constitutes a 'standard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting.' The abstract right to vote means little unless the right becomes a reality at the polling place on election day. The accessibility, prominence, facilities, and prior notice of the polling place's location all have an effect on a person's ability to exercise his franchise. ”