This past Election Day, we took a look at a curious object in the Sandwich Historical Society collection, a small wooden box that appears to have been used in elections.
Measuring only about six inches across, the box has a handle, an open top, and two intriguing inscriptions. Painted on one side are the words “STATE OFFICERS,” while a paper label reads “Amendment to the Constitution.”
According to the catalog records the box was found in a Sandwich home. We don't know when or where it was used, but the inscriptions suggest that it held ballots cast in elections for state officials and/or votes on proposed changes to the Massachusetts Constitution.
Although we haven't been able to date this box, it reminds us how much voting practices have changed over American history. During much of the nineteenth century, political parties supplied printed ballots, and voting was not necessarily secret. In 1888, Massachusetts adopted an Australian-type ballot system, introducing government-printed ballots and greater privacy at the polls.
Who could vote changed enormously over time, too. At the nation's founding, voting qualifications varied by state and generally excluded women, people of color, and many other Americans. Over the following 250 years, constitutional amendments, legislation, and political movements reshaped the electorate.
This little box reminds us that the history of American democracy isn't only documented in laws and constitutions. It's also found in the ordinary objects that people used to participate in the political life of their communities.
America at 250 | The ways Americans vote, and who has the right to do so, have changed dramatically since 1776.
