204
Opinion of Blackmun, J.
candidates, who in most States were not allowed to be represented by separate inspectors. Otherwise, "in order to perpetrate almost every election fraud it would only be necessary to buy up the election officers of the other party." Id., at 52. Finally, New York also prohibited any person from "electioneering on election day within any polling-place, or within one hundred feet of any polling place." Id., at 131. See generally Evans 18-21; Rusk 26.
The success achieved through these reforms was immediately noticed and widely praised. See generally Evans 21-24; Rusk 26-31, 42-43. One commentator remarked of the New York law of 1888:
"We have secured secrecy; and intimidation by employers, party bosses, police officers, saloonkeepers and others has come to an end.
"In earlier times our polling places were frequently, to quote the litany, 'scenes of battle, murder, and sudden death.' This also has come to an end, and until nightfall, when the jubilation begins, our election days are now as peaceful as our Sabbaths.
"The new legislation has also rendered impossible the old methods of frank, hardy, straightforward and shameless bribery of voters at the polls." W. Ivins, The Electoral System of the State of New York, Proceedings of the 29th Annual Meeting of the New York State Bar Association 316 (1906).8
The triumphs of 1888 set off a rapid and widespread adoption of the Australian system in the United States. By 1896,
8 Similar results were achieved with the Massachusetts law: "Quiet, order, and cleanliness reign in and about the polling-places. I have visited precincts where, under the old system, coats were torn off the backs of voters, where ballots of one kind have been snatched from voters' hands and others put in their places, with threats against using any but the substituted ballots; and under the new system all was orderly and peaceable." 2 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 738 (1892).
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