CHAPTER IV
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AUSTRALIAN BALLOT IN THE UNITED STATES–THE FORM OF THE BALLOT
I. THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF BALLOTS IN THE UNITED STATES
The use of the term “Australian ballot” in the United States is very misleading, because we have not only departed from the South Australian statute, but have enacted ununiform ballot laws in the respective states. Eliminating minor differences, three types of the ballot have developed in the United States: the office-group, the party-column, and the separate-party ballots.
The pattern statute for those states which have adopted the office-group form of the ballots was the Massachusetts act of 1888. This law provided for the blanket form of the ballot, the names of the candidates for each office being
arranged under the designation of the office in alphabetical order, according to surnames, except that the names of candidates for the offices of electors of president and vice-president shall be arranged in groups, as presented in the several certificates of nomination or nomination papers. There shall be left at the end of the list of candidates for each different office as many blank spaces as there are persons to be elected to such office, in which the voter may insert the name of any person, not printed on the ballot, for whom he desires to vote as candidate for such office.[1]
The model of the party-column type was the Indiana statute of 1889. This also adopted the blanket form of the ballot, but provided that all nominations of any party or group of petitioners should be
placed under the title and device of such party or petitioners as designated by them in their certificate or petition; or if none be designated, under some suitable title and device…. The arrangement of the ballot shall, in general, conform as nearly as possible to the plan hereinafter given, and the device named and list of candidates of the Democratic party shall be placed in the first column on the left-hand side of said ballot; of the Republican party in the second column; of the Prohibition party in the third column, and of any other party in such order as the Board of Election Commissioners shall decide.[2]
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