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Present Status of Ballot Laws in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Arthur Ludington
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Abstract

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Type
News and Notes
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , May 1909 , pp. 252 - 261
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1909

References

1 The law of Mass. was passed in 1888, but did not go into effect until November 1, 1889. No other Australian ballot laws were passed before 1889.

2 The following statistics in regard to the ballot laws of the several States apply to these laws as they were in force at the date of the last general election, November 3, 1908.

3 By a “blanket” ballot is meant one on which are grouped, according to any one of several methods of arrangement, the names of all candidates for any office or group of offices covered by the ballot in question, who have been duly nominated by any political party or body of voters.

4 Elections for school officers, road overseers, officers of fire departments, etc. and sometimes elections of town officers, are usually exempted from the provisions of the general ballot law of the State. In some cases this exemption only applies when such elections are held at a different time from national, State, district, county or municipal elections. In a number of States there are separate ballots, of the type prescribed by the general ballot law, for local and municipal elections, and often for constitutional amendments and other questions submitted to popular vote. The State constitutions, however, almost all contain a provision that all elections by the people shall be by ballot—i.e., of one sort or another.

5 Prior to 1897 Missouri had a “blanket” ballot, but in that year the law was amended to provide for separate official ballots for each party. Most of the other features of the old Australian ballot law were, however, retained.

6 This feature, of the official envelope, is found only in the laws of these two States.

7 Ala., Calif., Del., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Ia., Kan., Ky., La., Me., Mich., Mon., N. Hamp., N. Y., N. Dak., O., Okl., R. I., S. Dak., Tex., Utah, Vt., Wash., W. Va., Wis., and Wy.

8 Calif., Ill., la., Me., Mont., N. Dak., S. Dak., Tex., Vt., Wash., Wis., and Wy.

9 Ark., Col., Fla., Md., Mass., Miss., Minn., Neb., Nev., Ore., Penn., Tenn. (for the portions of the State above-mentioned), and Va.

10 Several States always employ this latter form.

11 Col., Md., (Laws 1908, ch. 737, prescribes this arrangement for the city of Baltimore and twelve counties, but fixes no special arrangement of the names under each office for the other eleven counties), Mass., Nev., Ore., and Tenn.

12 Minn., Neb., and Penn., La., Minn., however, it is provided that “whenever two or more persons are to be elected to the same office (except the office of presidential elector), the names of all candidates of the several political parties for such office shall be so alternated on the ballots used in each election district that they shall appear thereon substantially an equal number of times at the top, at the bottom, and in each intermediate place, if any, of the list or group in which they belong.” (L. 1901, ch. 88 S. 3.)

13 In Arkansas no particular arrangement of names under each office is provided for. In Florida it is merely provided that “the names of all candidates for the same office shall be printed together, irrespective of party.” In Mississippi the arrange ment of the names is left to the discretion of the officer charged with printing the ballots, but the secretary of state, with the approval of the governor, is to prescribe a form which is to be followed, in general, as nearly as possible in all parts of the State. In Virginia the names are to be arranged under the title of each office, “in due and orderly succession.”

14 Md., Mass., Minn., Neb., Penn., and Va. In the last-named State the voter is to scratch out the names of the candidates for president and vice-president of all parties which he does not want to vote for, and this counts as a vote for all electors of that party the candidates of which for president and vice-president he leaves unscratched.

A similar provision, that a whole list of presidential electors may be voted for by a single cross X mark, is found in the laws of the following States which have the “party column” form of ballot: N. Hamp., N. Dak., R. I., and Wis.

15 Col., Md. (in the city of Baltimore and twelve counties; in the other eleven counties no party designations appear upon the ballot), Mass., Neb., Ore., and Penn.

16 Idaho, Ind., Ia., Kan., Ky., Mich., Mont., N. Dak., S. Dak., Tex., Vt., Wash., Wis., and Wy.

17 This applies also to the Minnesota provision, above-mentioned, that the name of a candidate shall be followed by the name of not more than one party.

18 N. Hamp., in 1897, La., in 1898, Calif. in 1899, Mont., in 1901, Ala., in 1903, and R. I., in 1905

19 Col., in 1894, Neb., in 1899, Md., in 1901, and Penn., in 1903. Neb., first adopted the “Massachusetts ballot” in 1891; in 1897 it substituted the “party column” form; and in 1899 it changed back again. Penn. adopted in 1891 a combination of two forms—“party column” for candidates of parties which had polled at least 3 per cent of the vote at the last election, and “Massachusetts” for all other candidates. In 1893 it changed to a straight “party column” ballot, and in 1903 to the “Massachusetts” form. It is only fair to note, however, that Col., Neb., and Penn., all retain, in conjunction with the “Massachusetts Ballot,” a special provision for voting a “straight ticket,” and that in Md., the value of this form of ballot is very much reduced by the various tricks and devices which have been added to it, in certain parts of the State where there is a large negro vote.

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