50 million early votes before Tuesday's midterms
More than 50 million Americans voted early ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms, and early turnout rose sharply in several states, North Carolina among them at more than 30% above 2022. Read at AP via PBS NewsHour →
Rome adopts the written ballot
What happened then
The tribune Aulus Gabinius passed the Lex Gabinia tabellaria, which replaced voting out loud with written tablets in elections for public office.
What caused it
Romans used to announce their votes aloud, so powerful patrons and their agents could see exactly how their clients and dependents voted. That invited pressure and made bribery easy to check.
How it was resolved
Further ballot laws followed within a generation and extended the written ballot to trials (137 BC), to votes on laws (131 BC), and finally to treason trials (107 BC).
How it turned out
Bribery didn't disappear from Roman elections, and conservative writers, Cicero among them, later questioned whether secrecy was a good thing. The principle outlived the Republic, though, and the modern secret ballot, first adopted in Australia in 1856, rests on the same idea.
Sources: Wikipedia: Ballot laws of the Roman Republic · Cicero, On the Laws III (tr. Barham, ToposText) · Britannica: Australian ballot
Further reading: SPQR by Mary Beard