In the nineteenth century, American voting was much more public than it is today and was largely controlled by party leaders. Ballots were printed by the political parties, and listed only the names of each party’s own candidates. A voter did not have to mark the ballot, and he couldn’t “split the ticket,” voting for some of his party’s candidates but not others. He simply handed his party’s ballot to a voting official in a public place crowded with onlookers, often a saloon. To make certain an illiterate voter couldn’t be duped into voting for the wrong party, and to guarantee that he
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