ELECTIONS, LAWS, CUSTOMS, AND THEORIES OF. 



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Leges Tabellaria, a collection or series of laws, 

 of which the Lex Gabiana (adopted 189 B. o.) 

 related to the election of magistrates ; the Lex 

 Cassia (adopted 137 B. o.), to the judicia populi 

 (or expression of popular judgment) ; and the 

 Lex Papiria (adopted 131 B. c.), to the enact- 

 ment and repeal of laws. The ballots in Koine 

 were wooden lobelia, or tabula ; in the case 

 of a vote on a proposed statute, these were 

 marked V. R. (vti rogas), to express consent 

 to the passage of the statute, and A (antiquo), to 

 express a desire to keep the ancient or former 

 law. In the case of an election, puncta (holes) 

 were made opposite the names of the candi- 

 dates. TabellcB were also used by the Roman 

 judges, who expressed their verdict or judg- 

 ment by the letter A (absolvo) if acquitting, 

 and by C (condemno) if condemning, and by 

 N. L. (non liquet) if not voting. The earliest 

 known instance of the use of a writren paper 

 ballot in Great Britain was in 1662. The Scot- 

 tish Parliament being desirous of banishing cer- 

 tain persons from the realm, each Parliamentary 

 member wrote in a disguised hand on a piece 

 of paper the names of the persons he thought 

 ought to be exiled. The papers were put into 

 a bag, which was afterward opened in the 

 exchequer chamber, and the ballots were then 

 counted and were burned immediately upon 

 the result being known. In modern times the 

 ballot has generally been of paper, appropri- 

 ately written or printed upon ; but up to within 

 fifty years the French imitated the Grei-ks and 

 used marbles or bullets as their ballots ; and 

 small organizations still use the same systems 

 of colored balls hence the term "black-balls" 

 as a signification of adverse votes. In the 

 United States, the ballots used at elections are 

 pieces of white paper, printed upon as directed 

 by the laws of the several States. 



Ballot-Boxes. Any receptacle may be used to 

 receive the ballots cast at an election or other 

 occasion of voting, yet in different ages the 

 shape and material of the ballot - box have 

 varied. In ancient times the ballot-box was 

 sometimes of metal in the form of an urn. 

 The Greeks used a brass box to receive the 

 ballots cast, and a wooden box to receive the 

 ballots not cast. The Romans used a wicker- 

 woven box or covered basket. The French, 

 until very recently (voting by means of metal- 

 lic balls), used boxes with tubes connecting 

 with a larger tube, into which latter the voter 

 put his hand until it was hidden from sight, 

 when he dropped his bullet into one small tube 

 for assent and into the other for dissent. The 

 European nations now deposit their paper 

 ballots in wooden boxes, and this was the cus- 

 tom in the United States up to about twenty 

 years ago. Now we have adopted a box that 

 consists of a glass globe with a movable top, 

 having a slit just large enough to admit a 

 folded ballot. This top is locked down during 

 the voting, and only removed when the votes 

 are to be counted. It is easy to detect any 

 attempt to cast two ballots at once. 



Suffrage. The right to vote has seldom been 

 given to all the inhabitants of a country. The 

 United States is the first country to have made 

 the right of suffrage universal to all her male 

 citizens ; but even here there are certain States 

 that impose restrictions upon this right such 

 as Rhode Island, which, in some instances, re- 

 quires the voter to have been native-born or 

 possessed of a certain amount of property. 



Representation. Under the system of voting 

 now in vogue in most of the States of the 

 Union, the voter has one vote for each candi- 

 date. There are several objections to this 

 method, the principal one being that a very 

 large proportion of the people are left without 

 any representation. To obviate this objection, 

 and to afford the minority some representa- 

 tion, many systems have been proposed, the 

 chief of which are known as: 1. Cumulative; 

 2. Preferential ; 3. Limited ; 4. Substittitive ; 

 5. Proxy ; and 6. List. Cumulative voting 

 permits an elector to give all or any of his 

 votes to a single candidate ; thus, if he is to 

 vote for three candidates, he is allowed to give 

 either one vote to each, or to give three votes 

 for one, or two votes for one candidate and one 

 vote for another. This system is in general 

 use in Illinois, and is said to give general satis- 

 faction. The preferential system first ascer- 

 tains the number of votes necessary to elect a 

 candidate. Thus, if the total of voters be 

 800,000, and the number of representatives to 

 be chosen 200, the quota of each representative 

 would be 4,000. Then the voter is to deposit 

 a ballot, on which he shall have placed, in the 

 order of his preference, the names of the can- 

 didates. Any candidate receiving 4,000 votes 

 is declared elected. On counting these votes, 

 when a candidate has obtained 4,000 votes, 

 the ballots electing him are laid aside, and the 

 remaining votes are counted for the candidates 

 next in order of preference. If there be not 

 200 persons credited each with 4,000 votes, 

 the deficiency in the number of representatives 

 is made up by taking the candidates who come 

 nearest to the required quota. This system 

 of preferential voting is used in the election 

 of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College, 

 and its practical working in these elections 

 is said to be very satisfactory and far more 

 simple than would at first be surmised. Lim- 

 ited voting is the plan of requiring the votes 

 to be cast for a smaller number of candidates 

 than the whole. Thus, where a district is 

 entitled to three representatives, each voter 

 can vote for only two representatives. This 

 method is prescribed in the Constitution of 

 New York, in the provision that provides 

 for the first election of the judges of the Court 

 of Appeals, which election is by general ticket 

 of the whole State that each ticket shall con- 

 tain the names of only five candidates. Of 

 course there will always be two tickets, each 

 nominated by a party convention ; but the 

 minority party will certainly elect two judges. 

 Substitutive voting permits candidates to cast 



