Container for completed vote records during an election
A
ballot box
is a temporarily sealed container, usually a square box though sometimes a
tamper resistant
bag, with a narrow slot in the top sufficient to accept a
ballot paper
in an
election
but which prevents anyone from accessing the
votes
cast until the close of the voting period. A
ballot drop box
allows voters who have received a ballot by mail to submit it for counting in a self-service fashion.
Usage
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]
It will usually be located in a
polling station
although in some countries, notably
Ireland
,
Italy
and
Russia
, there may also be ballot boxes that are taken to people's homes where they would otherwise be unable to travel to the polling station. When very large ballot papers are used, there may be a feeder mechanism to assist in the deposit of the paper into the box.
Transparent ballot boxes may be used in order for people to be able to witness that the box is empty prior to the start of the election (i.e. not
stuffed with fraudulent votes
).
At the close of the election all boxes can be taken to a single location for tallying (the count) and the result declared. Alternately the boxes can be tallied at the
polling station
, with individual stations announcing their results to be tallied (known as
precinct count
).
Ballot boxes are obsolete in some jurisdictions because of the increase in paperless
electronic voting
.
The word ballot derives from voting systems based upon the use of a small ball instead of a voting paper: see
blackball
.
History
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In the
Roman Republic
, each voter initially gave his vote orally to an official who made a note of it on an official tablet, but later in the Republic, the
secret ballot
was introduced, and the voter recorded his vote with a
stylus
on a wax-covered
boxwood
tablet, then dropped the completed ballot in the
sitella
or
urna
(voting urn), sometimes also called
cista
.
[1]
The first British
secret ballot
using ballot papers and a ballot box was held in
Pontefract
on 15 August 1872, under the terms of the recently enacted
Ballot Act 1872
. In a
ministerial by-election
following his appointment as
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
,
Hugh Childers
was re-elected as MP for
Pontefract
. The original ballot box, sealed in wax with a liquorice stamp, is held at
Pontefract Museum
.
[2]
[3]
Photo gallery
[
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-
A cardboard ballot box used during the first federal vote in
Washington, D.C.
-
A wooden ballot box used in the northeastern United States
c.
1870
-
A galvanized metal ballot box used in
Tulare County, California
, United States,
c.
1936
-
A voter putting her envelope into a clear ballot box during the
2007 French presidential election
-
Ballot being dropped into a ballot box during the
2018 Finnish presidential election
-
A glass globe ballot jar c. 1884
-
-
A translucent ballot box (Tiobox) used in
Slovenia
-
An old metal ballot box used in
Norway
-
A ballot box at the start of the controversial
2014 Crimean referendum
-
-
-
-
A recycling bin as ballot box for the
2017 German federal election
; Central Electoral Office of the City of
Bochum
-
Ballot boxes in
Ukraine
, which are transparent to prevent pre-stuffing the box with fake ballots
-
Small (mobile) ballot box in Ukraine, for voting outside of polling station by people who are unable to come to the polling station by themself
See also
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References
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External links
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