The most basic form may be blank pieces of paper, upon which each voter writes only their choice. Without revealing their vote to anyone, the voters place the ballots into a sealed box, which is emptied later for counting.
One of the most common forms in the modern world provides for pre-printed ballot papers with the name of the candidates or questions and respective checkboxes. Provisions are made at the polling place for the voter to record their preferences in secret. The ballots are specifically designed to eliminate bias and to prevent anyone from linking voter to ballot. This system is also known as the Australian ballot, because it originated in Australia during the 1850s. In the United States, it is also known as the Massachusetts ballot since Massachusetts was the first U.S. state to use the secret ballot.
The demand for a secret ballot was one of the six points of Chartism. The Parliament of the time refused to even consider the Chartist demands but it is notable that Baron Macaulay, in his speech of 1842, while rejecting Chartism's six points as a whole, admitted that secret ballot was one of the two points he could support. The secret ballot was eventually introduced in the Ballot Act 1872, substantially reducing the cost of campaigning.
Modern developments have removed the secret ballot in theory if not in practise; see below.
Secret balloting appears to have been first implemented in the former Australian colony — now a state — of Tasmania on February 7 1856. Until the original Tasmanian Electoral Act of 1856 was 're-discovered' recently, credit for the first implementation of the secret ballot often went to the colonies of Victoria and South Australia. Victoria enacted legislation for secret ballots on March 19 1856, and South Australian Electoral Commissioner William Boothby generally gets credit for creating the system finally enacted into law in South Australia on April 2 of that same year (a fortnight later).
In the United States the practice became known as the "Australian ballot", defined as having four parts:
In the United States, most states had moved to secret ballots soon after the presidential election of 1884. However, the last U.S. State in the Union to retire the practice of the oral ballot was the Commonwealth of Kentucky which did so in 1891. Therefore, the first President of the United States elected completely under the Australian ballot was president Grover Cleveland in 1892.
Elections in the United States are now almost always held by secret ballot. The Constitution for the State of West Virginia still allows voters to cast "open ballots. The Populists, a short-lived American political party during 1870s through 1890s, listed the Australian ballot as one of their party platforms in the Ocala Demands.
This measure is thought to be justified as a security arrangement so that if there was an allegation of fraud, false ballot papers could be identified. The process of matching ballot papers to voters is permissible only if an Elections Court requires it, and this is an extremely unlikely occurrence. The legal authority for this system is set out in the Parliamentary Elections Rules in Schedule 1 of the Representation of the People Act 1983.
In the United States, sometimes the number on the ballot is printed on a perforated stub which is torn off and placed on a ring (like a shower curtain ring) before the ballot is cast into the ballot box. The stubs prove an elector has voted and ensure he can only vote once, but the ballots themselves are anonymous. At the end of voting day, the number of ballots inside the box must match the number of stubs on the ring, certifying that every ballot was cast by a registered elector, and that none of them were lost or fabricated.