The ''Electoral Act 1856'' was an Act of the

Victorian Legislative Council The Victorian Legislative Council (VLC) is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia, the lower house being the Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The Legislative Co ...

which provided for the election of members of the first

Parliament of Victoria The Parliament of Victoria is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria that follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system. It consists of the King, represented by the Governor of Victoria, the Legislative Assembly and ...

later that year. Besides providing for the division of the colony into provinces and districts for the election of members of Parliament, for the creation of an

electoral roll An electoral roll (variously called an electoral register, voters roll, poll book or other description) is a compilation that lists persons who are entitled to vote for particular elections in a particular jurisdiction. The list is usually broke ...

and for other matters, the Act also introduced voting by

secret ballot The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote ...

in the

colony of Victoria In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

. It provided for a government–supplied ballot paper containing each candidates' names.Section 36 of Act The elector was required to cross out the name of those candidates he (and it was only he) did not wish to vote for, fold the ballot paper in a way that the vote could not be seen and place the ballot paper in a ballot box in view of the polling officers. The Act was passed by a one-vote majority in the outgoing Legislative Council on 13 March 1856, and received assent from the

Governor of Victoria The governor of Victoria is the representative of the monarch, King Charles III, in the Australian state of Victoria. The governor is one of seven viceregal representatives in the country, analogous to the governors of the other states, and the ...

on 19 March of the same year, in time for the election of the new Parliament of Victoria later that year. The innovation of the secret ballot was pioneered in Victoria by the former mayor of Melbourne, William Nicholson.Blainey, G 2016, ‘'The story of Australia’s people: the rise and rise of a new Australia'’, Viking, Penguin Random House, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia, p.18. Victoria was the fourth jurisdiction in the world to enacted a law for a secret ballot. France adopted a secret ballot law in 1795. The movement for a secret ballot in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

was led by pioneer and advocate South Australian Electoral Commissioner

William Boothby William Robinson Boothby (26 September 1829 – 12 July 1903) was Electoral Commissioner for South Australia, in charge of every parliamentary election from 1856 to 1903. Boothby was the eldest son of South Australian Supreme Court Justice Ben ...

.Australian Dictionary of Biography
William Boothby
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Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

adopted a secret ballot law on 7 February 1856. South Australia enacted a similar law two weeks after the Victorian law, on 2 April 1856. The South Australian system in 1858 required an elector to place an X against the name of his preferred candidate instead of crossing out unwanted names and for the ballot paper to show 'no other matter or thing' apart from the names of candidates and on the back the returning officer's initials. The other Australian colonies followed the SA example:

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

(1858),

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

(1859), and

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

(1877).

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

implemented secret voting in 1870. When the secret ballot was adopted in the United States, it was called 'the Australian ballot'.

References

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References

Further reading