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Ballot

A ballot is a device (originally a small ball—see blackball) used to record decisions made by voters. Each voter uses one ballot, and ballots are not shared. In the simplest elections, a ballot may be a simple scrap of paper on which each voter writes in the name of a candidate, but governmental elections use pre-printed to protect the secrecy of the votes. The voter casts his/her ballot in a box at a polling station. In British English, this is usually called a "ballot paper". The word "ballot" is used for an election process within an organisation (such as a trade union "holding a ballot" of its members).

In ancient Greece, citizens used pieces of broken pottery to scratch in the name of the candidate in the procedures of ostracism. This was done because while papyrus was expensive and had to be imported from Egypt, broken pottery was abundant and virtually free.^{[citation needed]}

The first use of paper ballots to conduct an election appears to have been in Rome in 139 BC.

In Ancient India, around 920 AD, in Tamil Nadu, Palm leaves were used for village assembly elections. The palm leaves with candidate names, will be put inside a mud pot, for counting. This was called Kudavolai system.