Blackballing

[1][2] The system is commonly used where an organization's rules provide that one or two objections, rather than a percentage of the vote (for example, more than 50%), are sufficient to defeat a proposition.

Since the seventeenth century, these rules have commonly applied to elections to membership of many gentlemen's clubs and similar institutions such as Masonic lodges and fraternities.

In America, members of fraternal clubs often voted at their meetings without paper ballots as early as the 17th century.

When all voting is complete, the box is opened and the balls displayed: all present can immediately see the result, without any means of knowing which members are objecting.

In the Soviet Union, dissertation panels would typically cast their vote on a thesis defense using this system.