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We now think of voting as a written act...
We now think of voting as a written act...
Detail from George Caleb Bingham, "The County Election," which depicts the 1846 viva voce election in Saline County, Missouri (1852, Saint Louis Art Museum).
But for much of U.S. history, voting was said out loud.
Until the 19th century, voting was often done by voice.
When Abraham Lincoln first ran for office in 1832, he lost in an election where voters declared their votes aloud to all watching. This system known as "viva voce " or "by voice" voting and has a long history in the United States and around the world.
Mechanics of viva voce voting
Mechanics of viva voce voting
In a viva voce election, voters ascended into the voting place and called out the names of the candidates they wanted for the offices being contested.
Anyone in attendance could hear how each person voted. Partisans crowded around the voting place and anyone listening could hear who was ahead for every office.
Election clerks would write voters’ choices in the poll book. The poll book contained all voters’ names and electoral choices. The poll book itself, like the ones to the right, was the official record of the election. It was a public document, and anyone interested in learning who had voted for whom could consult poll books in the county or city clerk’s office. In cases of disputes over procedure during an election or the eligibility of an individual voter, the poll book was the key piece of evidence.
Origins of viva voce voting
Origins of viva voce voting
Viva voce is an ancient system of voting, imported to the United States from Europe. It was common in Scandinavia, Germany, and Great Britain in the 17th - 19th centuries. It migrated with British law into Virginia in the 17th century, and then spread westward with pioneers and their law books. At its peak in 1848, viva voce voting was the law in Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, and Oregon.
Gradually it fell from favor, though 11 percent of the presidential vote in 1860 was still given by voice.
States using viva voce voting in 1848 (First Vote).
The demise of viva voce voting in the United States
The demise of viva voce voting in the United States
By the end of the Civil War, voice voting survived only in Oregon and Kentucky. Oregon moved from voice to ticket voting in 1872, leaving Kentucky as the only American state using viva voce voting. Kentucky abandoned voice voting when it adopted a new state constitution in 1892. (Prussia continued viva voce voting until 1918.)
There were many reasons for viva voce voting's decline. The objection to viva voce was that it invited intimidation and coercion, of employees by employers, of the weak by the powerful, and of individuals by groups. Other central reasons include the increasing urbanization of the United States and the development of ways to ensure the secrecy of the ballot. Voice voting worked best in small rural settings and less well in cities with larger, changing electorates. Voice voting was rapidly replaced by the secret or "Australian" ballot in the 1880s and 1890s.
George Caleb Bingham, "The County Election," which depicts the 1846 viva voce election in Saline County, Missouri (1852, Saint Louis Art Museum).
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