Small papers or tokens used to cast votes in an election; the system of voting by secret written choice.
From Italian 'ballota' meaning small ball, because Venetians used small colored balls to vote in secret—white balls for yes, black balls for no. The word comes from 'balla' meaning ball.
The secret ballot only became widespread in the 1800s—before that, people had to vote publicly and face consequences, which is why the hidden ball method was such a revolutionary idea for protecting voters from intimidation.
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