The entire process of political campaigns and electioneering efforts culminates in the actual casting of a vote. As the items in this case demonstrate, how we actually vote has changed a great deal over the past 200 years. Voice voting gave way to voting by paper ballot, but the form that those ballots took has changed a great deal over time, as has how those votes were cast.

The actual ballots that voters used to cast their votes sometimes took the form of “tickets” printed by political parties–voters wishing to vote a “straight ticket” would just sign their name to a pre-printed list and put that in the ballot box. The type of ballot we are familiar with today, where voters are asked to make a choice from a list of candidates, was a later arrival.

One controversial issue that arose during the Civil War was how soldiers who were deployed far away from their home towns could vote. There was extensive debate on the subject, but ultimately the decision was made to record soldiers’ votes in the field and bring those poll books back to their home districts for tabulation. As you can see, questions about mail-in ballots and voting technology are not new, and in fact have shaped what voting looks like today.