In the
Roman Republic, each voter initially gave his vote orally to an official who made a note of it on an official tablet, but later in the Republic, the
secret ballot was introduced, and the voter recorded his vote with a
stylus on a wax-covered
boxwood tablet, then dropped the completed ballot in the
sitella or
urna (voting urn), sometimes also called
cista. Paper ballots were used in Rome to some extent as early as 139 BCE. In ancient
India in the 10th century
Cholla era, in
Tamil Nadu, palm leaves and pots were used to elect representatives to village administrations through the
Kudavolai system. The candidates' names were written on palm leaves, The first British
secret ballot using ballot papers and a ballot box was held in
Pontefract on 15 August 1872, under the terms of the recently enacted
Ballot Act 1872. In a
ministerial by-election following his appointment as
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster,
Hugh Childers was re-elected as MP for
Pontefract. The original ballot box, sealed in wax with a liquorice stamp, is held at
Pontefract Museum. The first paper ballots and ballot boxes in the United States began appearing in the early 19th century, replacing previous
voice voting practices. However, these were not popularized until the 1850s, upon the use of the
Australian Secret Ballot, a paper with each candidate's name pre-marked. Voting was mostly by Australian Secret Ballot until automatic mechanical voting machines, operated with levers, became ubiquitous in the 20th century (1910-1980). Ballot drop boxes became more popular during the
COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. ==Operation==