How assemblies, candidates, voting and public office were named.
ballot (n.)
A ballot is a vote, or the paper on which someone records one. The word once referred to a small ball.12
Italian ballotta meant a little ball. In Venice, small balls could be used to register votes without a public show of hands. English borrowed the word for this way of voting.12
Paper ballots eventually took the place of the little balls, and the name went with them. The object changed, while the word kept its place in an election.1
The voters marked their ballots in private.