Ballot

[1] It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters in Italy around the 16th century.

[4] In ancient Greece, citizens used pieces of broken pottery to scratch in the name of the target of the ostracism.

The first use of paper ballots to conduct an election appears to have been in Rome in 139 BC, following the introduction of the lex Gabinia tabellaria.

In ancient India, around 920 AD, in Tamil Nadu, palm leaves were used for village assembly elections.

Poor designs lead to confusion and potentially chaos if large numbers of voters spoil or mismark a ballot.

[11] The ballot was designed to have a larger print, making it easier for the elderly voters of Palm Beach to read, but instead, it led to the names of candidates being alternately offset, with lines on both sides of each punch hole, creating confusion.

[14] Election officials manually count the ballots after the polls close and may recount them in the event of a dispute.

In a jurisdiction using an optical scan voting system, voters choose by filling an oval, by completing an arrow, or (as in South Korea) by stamping a box, on the printed ballot next to their chosen option, similar to many standardized tests.

As the voter makes a selection, the DRE creates an electronic ballot stored in the memory components of the system.

Most DRE voting machines in the U.S. now include an auditable paper ballot, a widely accepted best practice for election administration.

As of the 2024 US general election, only 1.4 percent of voters use DRE machines without a paper record, including the entire state of Louisiana.