Submitted by admin on Thu, 06/12/2008 - 09:31.
Date Published:
01/01/2009Author(s):
Melanie Goodrich, Caltech
Ballot reform is an important part of the American political process. During
the 1800’s, ballots changed drastically. At the beginning of the century, voters
wrote the names of the candidates for whom they wished to vote on a piece of paper
and put that piece of paper into the ballot box. Legislation followed that allowed
voters to cast professionally printed ballots, which opened the door to political
parties providing their supporters with pre-printed ballots to cast. Towards the close
of the century, the Australian ballot, also known as the secret ballot, was introduced
