[ad. It. ballotta ‘a rounde bullet … a voice or lot’ (Florio, 1598), dim. of balla BALL sb.1: see -OT. Cf. F. ballotte, 16th c. (now arch.). The early instances refer to Venice.]
1. A small ball used for secret voting; hence, by extension, a ticket, paper, etc., so used.
1549. Thomas, Hist. Italie (1561), 79. Boxes, into whiche, if he wyll, he may let fall his ballot, that no man can perceiue hym.
1660. Milton, Free Commw., Wks. (1851), 438. To convey each Man his bean or ballot into the Box.
1710. Lond. Gaz., No. 4646/1. Elected by a great Majority of the Ballots.
1864. Even. Standard, 2 Nov. The voting was not very general, only 25,000 ballots being polled altogether.
2. The method or system of secret voting, originally by means of small balls placed in an urn or box; an application of this mode of voting; also the whole number of votes thus recorded.
1549. Thomas, Hist. Italie, 77. A triall of theyr sentences by Ballot.
1681. Nevile, Plato Rediv., 78. The Doctrine of the Ballot which is our [the Venetians’] chief excellency.
1742. Middleton, Cicero, I. II. 153. Not by an open vote, but by a kind of ballot, or little tickets of wood distributed to the Citizens.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. lxx. 793. The sense of the majority was decided by a secret ballot.
1840. Macaulay, Clive, Ess. (1854), II. 529. Sulivan wished to try the result of a ballot.
1880. McCarthy, Own Times, IV. lix. 309. Yet for long years no reform had seemed more unlikely than the adoption of the ballot.
3. A method of drawing lots by taking out small balls, etc., from a box; hence gen. lot-drawing.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 81. To put it to the Chance, and try, I’ th’ Ballot of a Box and Dye, Whether his Money be his own.
1757. Lind, Lett. Navy, ii. 98. Where there are more officers qualified to sit at a court martial, that they may be chose by ballot.
1786. Act 26 Geo. III., cvii. § 24. The Number of Men … to be chosen by Ballot out of the List returned.
1815. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., XII. 430. Difficulties … in consequence of the ballot for the militia.
4. Comb. ballot-box, a box in which voting ballots are deposited, or from which, in drawing lots, small balls are taken out; also fig. the ballot, secret voting; ballot-man, an advocate of secret voting; ballot-paper, the voting-paper used in secret voting.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 23. Some held no Way so orthodox To try it, as the Ballot-Box.
1851. Dixon, W. Penn, xvii. (1872), 146. Representatives were to be elected … by the ballot-box.
1859. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., II. c. 91. To hunt a Chartist or a Ballot-man.
1865. Cornh. Mag., XI. 115. The ballot-papers of the electors were collected in a bucket.
