In both rounds of an election conducted using runoff voting, the voter simply marks an " X " beside his / her favorite candidate.

It cannot simply mimic the preferences of a single voter.

In 1712, Mendon was the birthplace of Lydia Chapin, who became America's first legal woman voter, known later as Lydia Chapin Taft, or simply Lydia Taft.

Possibly the simplest ballot uses the equal and even cumulative voting method, where a voter simply marks preferred candidates, as in bloc voting, and votes are then automatically divided evenly among those preferred candidates.

Despite many instances of electoral fraud internationally, in the U. S. a major study by the Justice Department between 2002 and 2007 showed of the 300 million votes cast in that period, federal prosecutors convicted only 86 people for voter fraud – and of those few cases, most involved persons who were simply unaware of their ineligibility.

Along with abstention, which is simply the act of not voting, it is often considered to be a clear sign of the lack of popular legitimacy and roots of representative democracy, as depressed voter turnout endangers the credibility of the whole voting system.

In EVMs, the voter has to simply press the blue button against the candidate and symbol of his choice and the vote is recorded.

One randomized field trial found yard signs simply reminding people to vote were able to significantly increase overall voter turnout.

To avoid disenfranchising a significant portion of the electorate, the Chief Electoral Officer decided to simply carry forward many old voter registrations and hope that duplications and outdated enrolments would be purged later.

However, since most non-preferential elections require the voter to mark only one single candidate, or one single party list, it becomes impossible to speculate how many votes for the first candidate or party on the ballot are genuine supporters and how many simply " donkey-voted ".

Critics had also pointed out that such an interpretation reads the term " voter " differently in both requirements ; the first requirement is still simply fulfilled if a majority of actual voters nationwide votes yes.

Sheriff Anderson Y. Baker then took control over the Democratic machine and maintained it for twelve years, through voter manipulation, election fraud, and large-scale graft.

Using voter intimidation, white Democrats took control of the state legislature by the end of the century ; they passed state electoral laws and a new constitution that essentially disfranchised most blacks, a situation that lasted until the federal legislation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Accomplishing voter registration and redistricting to implement the sense of the law took more time.

There was a dramatic drop in voter turnout as these measures took effect, a drop in participation that continued across the South.

The film follows the political battles of former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney who took an active role investigating the scrubbing of the Florida voter rolls and then found herself in her own election debacle after publicly questioning the Bush Administration about the terrorist attacks of 9-11.

Merrill also took part in the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 to promote Black voter registration.

The Orange Revolution () was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter intimidation and direct electoral fraud.

In 1964, he took part in the Freedom Summer and visited the Deep South, with other folk musicians, to perform at voter registration drives and civil rights rallies.

As Democrats took over state legislatures, they worked to change voter registration rules to strip most blacks and many poor whites of their ability to vote.

The CIA's assistance to Frei took the form of polling, voter registration and get out the vote drives, in addition to covert propaganda.

She took office and made many changes, including creation of a Voter Fraud Unit, which successfully prosecuted numerous cases of voter fraud.

On an approval ballot, the voter can vote for any number of candidates

: This can include confusing or misleading voters about how to vote, violation of the secret ballot, ballot stuffing, tampering with voting machines, destruction of legitimately cast ballots, voter suppression, voter registration fraud, failure to validate voter residency, fraudulent tabulation of results, and use of physical force or verbal intimation at polling places.

Elections for the Australian Senate use what is referred to as above-the-line voting where candidates for each party are grouped on the ballot, allowing the voter to vote for the group or for a candidate.

On a Range ballot, the voter scores all the candidates

Range voting uses a ratings ballot ; that is, each voter rates each candidate with a number within a specified range, such as 0 to 99 or 1 to 5.

The two-round system ( also known as the second ballot, runoff voting or ballotage ) is a voting system used to elect a single winner where the voter casts a single vote for their chosen candidate.

Since the two-round system requires more information from each voter than a single ordinal ballot provides, one can't fit the criteria that are formulated expressly for voters with ordinal preferences without making a generalization as to how the voters will behave.

"... ballot papers can be examined only under strict conditions, and there are safeguards that make it extremely difficult to find out how any particular voter voted.

Later on, this developed into a process whereby each political party would create its own ballot and thus the voter would put the party's ballot into the voting box.

The candidate preferred by each voter is taken to be the one in the pair that the voter ranks higher on their ballot paper.

Imagine there is an election between four candidates: A, B, C and D. The first matrix below records the preferences expressed on a single ballot paper, in which the voter's preferences are ( B, C, A, D ); that is, the voter ranked B first, C second, A third, and D fourth.

However the gap between women and men voter turnout is diminishing and in some cases women are becoming more prevalent at the ballot box than their male counterparts.

This prompted an announcement from the Academy president, Howard Estabrook, who said that under the circumstances " any voter ... may write on the ballot his or her personal choice for the winners ", thus allowing, for the only time in the Academy's history, the consideration of a candidate not officially nominated for an award.

The election was tainted by lack of security, low voter turnout and widespread ballot stuffing, intimidation, and other electoral fraud.

* Pregnant or dimpled chads are attached to the ballot at all four corners, but bear an indentation indicating the voter may have intended to mark the ballot.

As Time described it at the time, " A voter one could drop into the ballot box a blue vote for George II and please General George Kondylis ... or one could cast a red ballot for the Republic and get roughed up.

Alternatively, a voter can take a blank ballot paper and write a party name on it.

In the simplest elections, a ballot may be a simple scrap of paper on which each voter writes in the name of a candidate, but governmental elections use pre-printed to protect the secrecy of the votes.

A voting system includes the practices and associated documentation used to identify system components and versions of such components ; to test the system during its development and maintenance ; to maintain records of system errors or defects ; to determine specific changes made after initial certification ; and to make available any materials to the voter ( such as notices, instructions, forms, or paper ballots ).

DRE systems additionally can produce a paper ballot printout that can be verified by the voter before they cast their ballot.

The 18th century prevalence of " voice voting " gave way to paper ballots, but until the 1880s paper ballots were not officially designed and printed by the government but were instead privately produced " tickets " that were distributed ( usually by political parties ) to the voter, who would take the ticket to the polling place and deposit it in the ballot box.

The voter then places the voting paper in a sealed ballot box.

She is known to have popularized the idea of using voter-verified paper ballots, whereby an electronic voting machine prints a paper ballot under transparent glass or plastic for the voter to verify before casting their vote ( often referred to as the " Mercuri method ").

There are also hybrid systems that include an electronic ballot marking device ( usually a touch screen system similar to a DRE ) or other assistive technology to print a voter verified paper audit trail, then use a separate machine for electronic tabulation.

Some systems include technologies such as cryptography ( visual or mathematical ), paper ( kept by the voter or only verified ), audio verification, and dual recording or witness systems ( other than with paper ).

Dr. Rebecca Mercuri, the creator of the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail ( VVPAT ) concept ( as described in her Ph. D. dissertation in October 2000 on the basic voter verifiable ballot system ), proposes to answer the auditability question by having the voting machine print a paper ballot or other paper facsimile that can be visually verified by the voter before being entered into a secure location.

The most basic form may be blank pieces of paper, upon which each voter writes only his or her choice.

The United Kingdom secret ballot arrangements are sometimes criticised because it is possible to link a ballot paper to the voter who cast it.

In case of ballot paper system, a bogus voter can stuff thousands of bogus ballot papers inside the ballot box.

Voting using " paper and red pencil ": the voter colours in the box preceding the name of his or her favoured candidate

Inside the polling place will be an area ( usually a voting booth ) where the voter may select the candidate or party of their choice in secret, and if a ballot paper is used this will be placed into a ballot box in front of witnesses but who cannot see the actual selection made.