The Tear-Off Ballot Stub and the $25 Fine for Not Voting
Two 1893 bills proposed a perforated anti-fraud ballot and compulsory voting with transient polling places, hoping to end vote buying in Washington.
Dr. J. Eugene Jordan has prepared two bills which Mr. Scott, Populist member from Kitsap county, has introduced in the house of representatives. One of these bills requires that when the ballot is delivered to the voter it shall have attached to it, as a sticker, near where are the stamp and initials, a strip of paper similar to two postage stamps with a perforated line across it, on one-half of which is mucilage by which it is stuck to the ballot, and on the other half of the strip is a printed number, which may be torn off without leaving any mark of identification on the ballot. As the voter receives his blank ballot from the judges this number is copied on the tally sheet opposite his name, and when he offers his ballot prepared and properly folded for deposit the number must be detached after comparing it with that on the tally sheet. The doctor claims that this will absolutely destroy every chance for stealing stamped ballots in the interest of vote buyers.
The second bill makes voting at all county and state elections a duty, and its violation a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $25. That the performance of this duty may fall as lightly upon the citizen as possible consistent with the state's alleged claim for such service from him, a 'transient polling place' is provided at the court house in every county for the twenty days immediately preceding elections. The board of judges of transient election are to be taken one each from the three more important political parties.
Any voter expecting to be absent from his registered polling place on election day may on any of the twenty days that the transient polls are open make affidavit to such fact and vote. Before depositing his folded ballot he inserts it in an envelope bearing the address of his registered voting precinct and his name. This sealed envelope must be delivered by a sworn messenger on the regular election day to the judges of the precinct addressed, and by them opened in public view without unfolding the ballot. After checking the voter's name on the tally sheet the ballot is deposited in the box.
“The doctor claims that this will absolutely destroy every chance for stealing stamped ballots in the interest of vote buyers.”
A perforated ballot stub and a $25 fine for skipping an election sound like a 19th-century experiment, but they speak directly to today's arguments over ballot security, vote-by-mail tracking and compulsory voting. The bill's sponsor thought he could engineer trust into the ballot itself.
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