William Robinson Boothby (26 September 1829 – 12 July 1903) was Electoral Commissioner for

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 ...

, in charge of every parliamentary election from 1856 to 1903. Boothby was the eldest son of South Australian Supreme Court Justice

Benjamin Boothby Benjamin Boothby (5 February 1803 – 21 June 1868) was a South Australian colonial judge, who was removed from office for misbehaviour, one of four Australian supreme court judges removed in the 19th century. 01312 Macquarie Law Journal 21. B ...

. William was born at

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, and emigrated to Australia with his parents during 1853 In 1854, he was appointed as Deputy-Sheriff and its electoral officer for the colony, and he was promoted to Sheriff during 1856 He prepared the clauses of the South Australian Act of 1856 that instituted voting by ballot and those of the Act of 1858 that provided for the placing of a cross against the name of the favoured candidate. He based his reform on ballots pre-printed with the candidates' names. In a manner similar to that still used widely today, the voter marked the form in secret and placed it in a sealed box. The ballots were collected and counted so that no one could be identified from their voting paper. On 2 April 1856, South Australia enacted a law introducing the

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 ...

, which had been adopted two weeks earlier in Victoria. This was a significant change from the British practice, where elections were conducted "on the voices". Voters assembled at local election centres where they called out the name of their chosen candidate, and the choice was then entered on a register. That public process made the voter vulnerable to both bribery and intimidation, which caused wide concern. Boothby's system was adopted for use in federal government elections in Australia. In the second half of the 19th century, the use of the secret ballot spread to the US and to Europe; in 1892,

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

became the first US president elected by Boothby's system, universally referred to as 'the Australian ballot' for nearly a century. In 1893, he was created CMG. Boothby was the State Returning Officer for the first

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the ...

election in 1901. The Federal seat of Boothby, established in 1903 in

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, was named in his honour. In his later years, he became

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of Prison Labour and a senator of the

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in South Australia. He died in Adelaide.

Sources

* G. N. Hawker
'Boothby, William Robinson (1829-1903)'
''

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

'', Volume 3, Melbourne University Press, 1969, pp 196–197.
Constitution Act 1856 (SA)
National Archives of Australia * Castles, AC and Harris, MC, 'Lawmakers and Wayward Whigs', Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 1987. * Jaensch, Dean (ed.), 'The Flinders History of South Australia: Political History', Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 1986. * Keeley, Rod, 'The Secret Ballot', in Brian Crozer "If We're So Great, Why Aren't We Better? A Critical Look at Six Great South Australian Firsts", South Australia Old Parliament House Museum, Adelaide, 1986.

See also

Sources

Further reading