ting for the Italian chamber of deputies takes place under the law
of 20th November 1859, and in public halls (not booths), to which admission
is gained by showing a certificate of inscription, issued by the mayor to
each qualified voter. A stamped blue official paper, with a memorandum of
the law printed on the back (_bolletino spiegato_), is then issued to the
elector; on this he writes the name of a candidate (there being equal
electoral colleges) or, in certain exceptional cases, gets a confidential
friend to do so, and hands the paper folded-up to the president of the
bureau, who puts it in the box (_urna_), and who afterwards presides at the
public "squittinio dei suffragi." Greece is the only European country in
which the ball-ballot is used. The voting takes place in the churches, each
candidate has a box on which his name is inscribed, one half (white) being
also marked "yes," the other half (black) "no." The voter, his citizenship
or right to vote in the eparchy being verified, receives one ball or leaden
bullet for each candidate from a wooden bowl, which a clerk carries from
box to box. The voter stretches his arm down a funnel, and drops the ball
into the "yes" or "no" division. The vote is secret, but there is
apparently no check on "yes" votes being given for all the candidates, and
the ball or bullet is imitable.

The earlier history of the ballot in Hungary is remarkable. Before 1848
secret voting was unknown there. The electoral law of that year left the
regulation of parliamentary elections to the county and town councils, very
few of which adopted the ballot. The mode of voting was perhaps the most
primitive on record. Each candidate had a large box with his name
superscribed and painted in a distinguishing colour. On entering the room
alone the voter received a rod from _4 to 6 feet in length_ (to prevent
concealment of non-official rods on the voter's person), which he placed in
the box through a slit in the lid. By the electoral law of 1874 the ballot
in parliamentary elections in Hungary was abolished, but was made
obligatory in the elections of town and county councils, the voting being
for several persons at once.

In Prussia, Stein, by his _Staedteordnung_, or municipal corporation act of
1808, introduced the ballot in the election of the municipal assembly
(_Stadtverordnetenversammlung_). Under the German constitution of 1867, and
the new constitution of the 1st of January 1871, the elections