The Long Night continues: To keep freedmen from voting, Louisville, Kentucky, becomes the first jurisdiction in the nation to use the Australian (secret) Ballot, in which the printing of ballots by political parties and candidates is made illegal.  The city of Louisville now limits the number of candidates for public ofice by restricting who gets their name on the ballot, “to save the taxpayers money.”  Before ballots had been printed and distributed by candidates and political parties at their own expense, and ballots cast were a matter of public record.  “Kangaroo voting” now “furnishes them [Jim Crow] with the only method by which they can get rid of the colored vote in a legal, peaceable, and unobjectionable manner.”  It can “keep the negros (sic) from voting [without resorting to intimidation bribery, tissue-ballots,” etc.  This reform makes possible the theft of elections through ballot access laws and the “stuffing” of ballot boxes.

       [restored 5/15/2022]