3-053-473 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Vote by ballot: sketches at the Taunton Election, 1873. '1. Voter giving his name and number on register. 2. Stamping ballot-paper with private mark. 3. Voter marking ballot-paper. 4. All that is visible of voter while marking paper. 5. Voter depositing paper in ballot box. 6. Policeman taking boxes from polling-booths to Guildhall. 7. Method of folding ballot-paper. 8. Voter's mark. Any other whatsoever disqualifies vote...The recent elections of Parliamentary representatives for Taunton and Bath were...eagerly contested...The voter, having given his name and address, to be compared with the list on the local register, is presented with a paper on which the names of the several candidates are printed together. He...retires with it into a stall where he cannot be seen. Here he puts a mark against the name of the candidate for whom he means to vote, he then folds up the paper, and drops his vote into the ballot-box, through a slit in the lid. The different votes...are afterwards examined and tested by the official mark, to prove their genuineness, and the numerical results in favour of each of the rival candidates are counted up. By this method, if any elector chooses to keep it a secret how he has voted, he has an opportunity of doing so'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.