Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 2, 1993 TAG: 9311020004
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Paul Dellinger
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The word itself comes from the French word "ballotte" which means "little ball." Strangely enough, there is a connection between balls and ballots.
In ancient Athens, judges handed down their verdicts by dropping little stone or metal balls into a box. A white ball meant that the defendant was found innocent. A black ball meant condemnation.
Now you know where the term "blackballed" came from.
Romans used something more like ballots, except they were made of wood instead of paper. "For" or "against" would be written on these bits of wood.
Ballots were used in England in the 16th century and in the Netherlands and the United States in the 17th century. Massachusetts used them first in the 1630s, and the rest of the 13 Colonies picked up the idea.
These were not always secret ballots, however, so voters were not always free of various types of pressure from other people. Again it was Massachusetts, along with Kentucky, that paved the way for the secret ballot in 1888.
The United States used its first voting machines in Lockport, N.Y., in 1892.
Voting machines had been invented in 1868 - by none other than Thomas Edison - but were first used in legislatures. Machines for regular voters came later but soon spread to more than three-fourths of the states.
The United States was the first nation to use voting machines widely. It was not until the 1960s that other nations started the practice.
In 1845 Congress set the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November as the day for national elections. Earlier, each state could choose its presidential electors whenever it wished, as long as the day fell within 34 days before whatever date in December the electors convened in the Electoral College.
States apparently thought the first Tuesday was a good idea, which is why this is the day we are going to the polls in the New River Valley.
Did you realize you were participating in quite so historical a process?
Paul Dellinger covers Pulaski County for the Roanoke Times & World-News' New River Valley bureau.
by CNB