Coloured pencils, lettered slips and raised hands: how people actually cast votes
Voters in 19th-century western Canada received a blank sheet and a set of coloured pencils, marking it in the colour belonging to their chosen candidate. That Oliver ballot is one of many odd methods. Israelis still pick a lettered slip for a party, and some Swiss cantons decide matters by a show of hands.
At its simplest, voting means gathering individual choices and adding them up to reach a group decision. The question can be anything from who holds office to what food to buy or whether a defendant is guilty. Research on herd animals suggests voting-like behaviour can emerge as a signal that nudges a minority to give way for the sake of cohesion, and scholars have noted how closely casting votes resembles divination and drawing lots, rituals meant to make a group accept an outcome.
Israel keeps a paper method called ballot letters. Each polling booth holds a tray of slips, one pile per party, marked with that party's letters; a voter slips one into an envelope and drops it in the box. Switzerland still runs the Landsgemeinde in cantons such as Glarus and Appenzell Innerrhoden, where citizens gather outdoors and vote openly by raising hands. Voice votes, decided by shouting, are another open form.
Most modern liberal democracies rely instead on the secret ballot, protecting privacy so that nobody can be pressured, threatened or rewarded for a choice. Estonia was among the first countries to let citizens vote online, starting with its 2005 local elections. Postal voting is widespread. Turning out is optional in Britain, whereas Australian law makes it compulsory.
Ballot design shapes results as much as method. Some papers allow a single cross, others allow several, and ranked ballots let voters number candidates 1, 2, 3 so a vote can move to a back-up choice, as in Irish and Maltese single transferable voting. Cumulative voting lets someone pile several votes on one candidate. Afghanistan and Vanuatu use a single non-transferable vote even where districts elect several members, and scored ballots ask voters to rate each option, often from one to ten.
Source: Voting
