BALLOT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Ballot

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/bˈælət/ Listen

noun

Ballot n.

Originally, a ball used for secret voting. Hence: Any printed or written ticket used in voting.

The act of secret voting, whether by balls, written or printed ballots or tickets, or by use of a voting machine; the system of voting secretly. "The insufficiency of the ballot."

The whole number of votes cast at an election, or in a given territory or electoral district.

The official list of candidates competing in an election. "There are no women on the ballot."

Ballot box,

(a)

a box for receiving ballots.

(b)

the act, process or system of voting secretly; same as ballot (2). "The question will be resolved by the ballot box."

verb

Ballot v. t. To vote for or in opposition to. "None of the competitors arriving to a sufficient number of balls, they fell to ballot some others."

Ballot v. i. (past & past part. balloted; pres. part. balloting) To vote or decide by ballot; as, to ballot for a candidate.

See images of 'Ballot'

Etymology of 'Ballot'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Ballot" Quotes from Famous Books

... and foes, left the bewildered serf with no new watchword beyond the old cry for freedom. As the time flew, however, he began to grasp a new idea. The ideal of liberty demanded for its attainment powerful means, and these the Fifteenth Amendment gave him. The ballot, which before he had looked upon as a visible sign of freedom, he now regarded as the chief means of gaining and perfecting the liberty with which war had partially endowed him. And why not? Had not votes made ...

— The Souls of Black Folk • W. E. B. Du Bois

... in American cities, the voters have only a simple ballot to put in the ballot-box. National and state politics play no part, and the voter is not confused by issues that have nothing to do with his city government. The government of their cities is arranged for on the basis that officials will be honest, ...

— Germany and the Germans - From an American Point of View (1913) • Price Collier

... so-called working classes vote against it because they fear to add to the power of the so-called aristocracy. The latter oppose it because they think the suffrage already has been too widely extended and ought to be curtailed instead of expanded. The old fogies cast a negative ballot because they believe woman ought to be kept in her "sphere," and the strictly orthodox because it is not authorized by the Scriptures. A large body who are "almost persuaded," but have some lingering doubts as to the "expediency," satisfy their consciences for voting "no" by saying ...

— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV • Various

... and Stanley met, there was sure to be a brisk interchange of repartee. One of these occasions, a ballot day at the Athenaeum, has been recorded by the late ...

— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 3 • Leonard Huxley

... of sixteen men came into camp and applied for enlistment. A condition of the contract under which they were secured for my troop was that one of their number be appointed sergeant. They were to name the man and the choice, made by ballot, fell upon Marvin E. Avery. At first blush, he was not a promising candidate for a non-commissioned office. Somewhat ungainly in figure, awkward in manners, and immature in mind and body, he appeared to be; while he seemed neither ambitious to excel nor quick to learn. ...

— Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman - With Custer's Michigan Cavalry Brigade in the Civil War • J. H. (James Harvey) Kidd

More quotes...