However, elections come in many different forms, in no small part
because people have conflicting ideas about how they should work – who
should be eligible to vote, how voting should take place, whether the
winner should be decided by simple majority or some proportional system,
whether elections should be geographically specific or at-large,
whether voters should choose elected officials directly or indirectly,
whether individual candidates or formal candidates should appear on the
ballot, who should be eligible to hold office and how they should be
nominated to run, and so on. Indeed, the great economist Kenneth Arrow
famously theorized that there is no way to resolve these contradictions in a way that satisfies everyone.
One of the major concerns of premodern elections is how to handle the balloting process in a context in which most members of the electorate can’t read or write. (Interestingly, the introduction of the written ballot and voter registration to the U.S in the 1890s-1910s coincided with an astonishing decline in voter turnout from 80-90% of eligible voters to the mid-50s.) Voice votes are the simplest mechanism, but because there is no possibility for secrecy, they leave themselves wide-open to voter intimidation and vote-buying. A common compromise is token balloting:
One of the major concerns of premodern elections is how to handle the balloting process in a context in which most members of the electorate can’t read or write. (Interestingly, the introduction of the written ballot and voter registration to the U.S in the 1890s-1910s coincided with an astonishing decline in voter turnout from 80-90% of eligible voters to the mid-50s.) Voice votes are the simplest mechanism, but because there is no possibility for secrecy, they leave themselves wide-open to voter intimidation and vote-buying. A common compromise is token balloting:
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