ON THIS DAY: FEBRUARY 24

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February 24, 1888:

Louisville, Kentucky, becomes the first government in the US to adopt the Australian ballot ie secret ballot on standard voting forms.

Before the adoption of the secret ballot, voters either voted by voice (viva voce) or using a non-secret ballot or “ticket.” A ticket was printed by the political parties listing the names of their party’s candidates. Whether voting by voice or by ticket, votes were not secret. Voting took place in public, and each voter’s political choices were knowable by their friends, neighbours, and political parties.

Under the secret ballot, governments list all the legal nominated candidates for office on an official ballot that they, and only they, print out. Voters vote by marking the state-provided official ballot paper in secret. The whole event takes place in silence inside a public building.

The Australia secret ballot was developed in the 1850s in the Australian colonies. The key element of the Australian secret ballot is that the state determines which candidates appear on the ballot (subject to a set of nomination or ballot access rules) and prints and provides the official ballot to voters at polling places on Election Day.

In 1856 South Australia became the first state in Australia where all men were given the vote (universal male suffrage), making it one of the most democratic places in the world at that time. In the same year the secret ballot — the casting of votes in secret — was introduced in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. Other Australian states quickly followed.

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