chevron-down Created with Sketch Beta.

Voice of Experience

Voice of Experience: September 2024

The Evolution of Voting in the USA

Douglas Denton Church

Summary 

  • From our country's earliest days, voting has been an essential element of maintaining a democratic form of government.
  • Encouraging our fellow citizens to vote is an important part of maintaining the rule of law and providing a means of expressing the people's will to their leaders.
  • The rise of voting machines began in the late 1800s with the invention of a machine called the “Automatic Booth” by a man named Jacob Myers.
The Evolution of Voting in the USA
iStock.com/Drazen Zigic

Jump to:

The Evolution of Voting in the USA

In 2023, the average age of a US citizen was 38.9 years. For perspective, that means that more than half of the population of US citizens was born after 1984! The mass production of cell phones, as cumbersome as they were, began in 1983, and personal computers started to become available to the broader public in the late 1970’s. Apple, Tandy (Radio Shack), and the Commodore were the pioneers. With those benchmarks in mind, it is easy to understand that the great majority of voters over the last four decades have only experienced the modern voting apparatus…mechanical machines, computerized equipment, and the like. In addition, the concept of an Election Day has been lost due to the multiple options for early voting, mail-in voting, and absentee voting in all the various forms that those concepts are employed in the various states. The interest in voting has taken on a significance that seems to have increased over the last several election cycles based upon the notion that all kinds of chicanery can occur, which results in election fraud. True or not, many states have passed legislation that claims to be focused on preventing voter fraud, and, at the same time, many organizations, including the ABA, have undertaken major voter education projects to help overcome the numerous misconceptions that surround our voting processes.

From the earliest days of our country’s history, voting has followed an interesting path. While the offices being pursued in any given election may be local, state, or federal in nature, all voting has always been managed by local and/or state election procedures. In the early years, pursuant to a federal law adopted in 1792, states were allowed to hold elections whenever they wanted so long as it occurred within a 34-day period before the first Wednesday in December. The obvious flaw in that approach was the potential that public acknowledgment of the outcome of early elections could influence subsequent elections. In 1845, Congress passed a federal law providing that the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November would be Election Day. The logic compelling this date on the calendar is easier to understand when one considers the fact that at that time, the majority of US citizens lived on farms and harvest time was no time to be worrying about elections!! Getting to the polling place by horse and/or buggy before the snow fell was also a consideration. Why not the weekend? Saturday was still a work day, and on Sunday, everyone went to church. Wednesday was typically market day for the farmers so early November and Tuesday were logical choices.

The modern concept of voting in private is a departure from how elections were conducted in the earliest days of the Republic. For over 50 years, voting was done in person and out loud! As late as 1891, that was still the process in Kentucky! A voter would arrive at the courthouse or other designated polling location and would then be sworn in but a judge or other voting official. The oath simply was a declaration that they were who they said they were and that they hadn’t voted already at some other location. After being sworn in, the voter would declare his name (recall that universal suffrage was not in place so that women could vote until the 20th century) and then announce his choices for the offices being elected. Election Day was an event in many locations around the country. Since there weren’t yet the restrictions that we observe today about campaigning at or near the polling place, there was typically a party atmosphere with candidates and their supporters’ providing “incentives” to the voters as they approached the poll. Frequently, the “incentive” was a shot of whiskey or other alcoholic beverage, and so Election Day was not infrequently a day of drunken revelry. While it may not be fair to assume that voters showed up just to get their free booze, the fact is that voter turnout during this era was as high as it has ever been, with over 80 percent of eligible voters showing up at the polls. Today, many states require that the local bars and other establishments that sell alcoholic beverages close on election day until the polls close.

The first paper ballots started to appear in the 1800’s and “paper” meant just that. Any scrap of paper would do so as long as the voter scribbled the name or names of his choices on it and deposited the “ballot” in a ballot box. As time went on, the sophistication of this process was led not by election boards but by newspapers, which would print “tickets” in the paper with the names of the candidates separated by party affiliation so that a voter could simply cut or tear the “ticket” out of the paper and mark it according to his choices, including a “straight ticket.”

While today, there is some controversy about “mail-in” ballots, the history of mailed ballots actually goes back to the Civil War when citizen soldiers were permitted to mail a ballot back to their hometown. In one form or another and for typically perfectly sound reasons, mail-in ballots have continued to exist ever since. Persons who were infirm, unavoidably out of town, in the military, etc., were always seen as in need of the option to mail their votes to the polling location.

The rise of voting machines began in the late 1800s with the invention of a machine called the “Automatic Booth” by a man named Jacob Myers. According to a historian of voting machines, Douglas Jones, a professor at the University of Iowa, the Myers machine contained more moving parts than any other machine of the day, including cars! These ponderous machines were thought to inspire confidence in the voting process, but, in fact, that may have been misplaced since breakdowns were common and an unseen damaged gear tooth in the machine could result in votes being awarded to the wrong candidate. The voting machine continued to evolve into more and more dependable devices until the early 1960s when IBM began making computers that would read a “punch card” and thus, the punch card voting machine, which, in the course of time, led to the “hanging chad” controversy in the 2000 presidential election. The hanging chad debacle led to the adoption of the “Help America Vote Act of 2002,” which was intended to force higher standards for voting equipment. The vision of touch screen voting seemed to be the future of voting until during the 2016 presidential election, it was determined that as many as 21 states had been targeted by Russian hackers and, guess what? PAPER BALLOTS have returned to favor in many states.

While controversy seems to be evident in any voting scheme, numerous efforts have been made both by the political parties and non-partisan organizations such as the League of Women Voters, to ensure universal access for citizens to cast their votes. Thus, expanding the time frame for voting, both in the number of days that polling can take place and the hours on election day that the polls are open, and providing alternative means of casting a ballot have found favor even with the controversy in many states. The absence of uniformity in the process of voting is simply a reflection of the fact that each state sets its own process and that is a consequence of legislative action precipitated by the persuasiveness of the voters in those locations. While many citizens assume that voting is somehow governed by federal law and rules, that is not the case, and that fact has led many to believe that a greater degree of uniformity is necessary to make the process credible. 

From the earliest days of our country, voting has been an essential element of maintaining a democratic form of government. Encouraging our fellow citizens to vote is an important part of the function of maintaining the rule of law and to provide a means of expressing the will of the people to their leaders. So, vote early, but not often!

    Author