History of the Government-Printed Ballot

The October 13, 2008, issue of THE NEW YORKER had an outstanding article by Harvard historian Jill Lepore detailing how American elections evolved from voice voting to the current "Australian" ballot, printed by the government, and the consequent decline in voter turnout. (Unfortunately the article is not yet available online.) Those interested in further elaboration on how Progressive era reforms made U.S. elections far less representative, see the excellent Mark Lawrence Kornbluh, WHY AMERICA STOPPED VOTING: THE DECLINE OF PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY AND THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN AMERICAN POLITICS (New York: NYU Press, 2000). Contrary to the implications of Bryan Caplan's MYTH OF THE RATIONAL VOTER and the impressions of many libertarians, government policies--at least in the U.S.--were at their most libertarian when voter turnout was highest.