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The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, [1] is a voting method in which a voter's identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation , blackmailing, and potential vote buying .
Secret balloting was implemented by Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia in 1856, [49] followed by other Australian colonies: New South Wales (1858), Queensland (1859), and Western Australia (1877). Colonial (soon to become States) electoral laws, including the secret ballot, applied for the first election of the Australian Parliament in 1901 ...
Victoria was the fourth jurisdiction in the world to enacted a law for a secret ballot. France adopted a secret ballot law in 1795. The movement for a secret ballot in South Australia was led by pioneer and advocate South Australian Electoral Commissioner William Boothby. [7] Tasmania adopted a secret ballot law on 7 February 1856. South ...
In Vermont, we vote with 'Australian' ballots. ... and voters cast it in secret. That's an Australian innovation, which debuted in the 1850s, then made its way to Europe, New Zealand and the ...
The secret ballot is a cornerstone of the democratic process. The United States first adopted the secret ballot process from Australia in the late 19th century.
In Australia, a voter anonymously registered is known as a silent elector. [1] To be a silent elector, a voter must satisfy the Divisional Returning Officer that their safety or that of any other person living in the same household would be at risk if their name and address were printed in the electoral register.
CNN quoted historian Judith Brett, author of From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia Got Compulsory Voting as saying "Certainly, there's a photo in the 1930s of a polling booth with a cake stall outside, so I think community organizations saw it was an opportunity to fund-raise." Brett is further quoted as saying that sausages ...
Boothby's system was adopted for use in federal government elections in Australia. In the second half of the 19th century, the use of the secret ballot spread to the US and to Europe; in 1892, Grover Cleveland became the first US president elected by Boothby's system, universally referred to as 'the Australian ballot' for nearly a century.