2-798-542 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Exterior of a polling booth, New York, 1844. Voters in the US presidential election between James Knox Polk and Henry Clay, at '...one of the polling-places, which, heretofore, had been held at taverns...as you approach the entrance, are tables, or wooden sheds, at which sit persons, dispensing Whig or Democratic tickets folded up; while others more actively ply the passenger on behalf of one or other of the candidates, and, not unfrequently, as they are folded, deceive you with a wrong one; so that it is very essential to open and examine the ticket before entering the room, which usually has an entrance and exit doors, at both of which are constables with crossed staves; who admit about a dozen at a time, or according to the size of the room'. From "Illustrated London News", 1844, Vol V.