Australian ballot, also called secret ballot, the system of voting in which voters mark their choices in privacy on uniform ballots printed and distributed by the government or designate their choices by some other secret means. Victoria and South Australia were the first states to introduce secrecy of the ballot (1856), and for that reason the secret ballot is referred to as the Australian ballot. The system spread to Europe and the United States to meet the growing public and parliamentary demand for protection of voters. The means for securing secrecy vary considerably.

Australian ballot Voters participating in the secret ballot, or Australian ballot, system in the British general elections of April 17, 1880. Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Read More on This Topic election: Secret voting Once suffrage rights had been extended to masses of voters who, in theory, were assumed to be equal, open voting was no longer tolerable,...

Voting by Australian ballot usually takes place in a prescribed manner. The voting boxes are required to be of certain dimensions and closed, the only aperture being a small slit at the top. These containers are examined before the poll begins and cannot be opened until the count begins. The voter marks a ballot, often while standing in a special booth, and (after the voter’s right to vote has been verified) the vote is placed inside the container.

In Great Britain the secret ballot was finally introduced for all parliamentary and municipal elections by the Ballot Act of 1872. In the United States, the Australian ballot system was extensively adopted after the presidential election of 1884.