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ballot
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
ballot
I.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a strike ballotBritish English (= when workers vote on whether to strike)
▪ The union is going to hold a strike ballot.
absentee ballot
ballot box
▪ The people have expressed their views through the ballot box.
ballot paper
ballot rigging
postal ballot
▪ Candidates are chosen by a postal ballot of all party members.
secret ballot
▪ The chairman was elected by secret ballot.
spoiled ballot papers (=ones that have been marked incorrectly and so cannot be counted)
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
absentee
▪ Buchanan and the pundits credit Forbes' early use of absentee ballots.
▪ Although the exit polls predicted a very close race, they could not measure early or absentee ballots.
▪ She insisted that the boys vote as Avonites by absentee ballot and send the envelopes to her for transmittal to polling officials.
▪ An absentee ballot was counted in that race and moved the candidates further apart.
▪ You can also get an absentee ballot within three days if your application is received before Oct. 28.
postal
▪ Should both sides of a case be heard before the postal ballot?
▪ Can anyone think of a way of proposing amendments before the postal ballot without the wasted expense of additional mailings?
▪ The electricians are holding a postal ballot with the results announced after Christmas.
▪ The blasted Fabian Society was insisting on a postal ballot of all its members there.
▪ Will there be a postal ballot?
▪ He was appointed by postal ballot and takes up his new responsibilities in July.
▪ Members of the Transport and General Workers' Union are taking part in a postal ballot after a breakdown of pay negotiations.
▪ Daily Mail journalists voted for industrial action over plans not to recognise the National Union of Journalists in a postal ballot.
presidential
▪ Just 4. 4 percent of the 80, 000 presidential nominating ballots sent to party members were returned.
▪ Gramm is still on the presidential ballot here, and he is advertising on television for his Senate re-election campaign.
primary
▪ Stephanopoulos turned thirty-one as New Hampshire voters cast their primary ballots.
▪ It will appear on the March 26 statewide primary ballot.
▪ Last week, you officially became a candidate for the White House when you appeared on the primary ballot in California.
▪ But when Silicon Valley executives bankrolled a trio of anti-lawyer initiatives on the March primary ballot, trial lawyers rebounded.
secret
▪ On Oct. 27 the central committee proposed that multi-candidate elections with secret ballots be obligatory.
▪ An election by secret ballot shall be held. 3.
▪ Pawar called for an election of the parliamentary party leader by secret ballot.
▪ The secret ballot gave these students their first free opportunity to express opposition.
▪ The President would be elected on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot for a five-year term.
▪ Under the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, elections are by secret ballot.
▪ Gorbachev's re-election as general secretary Gorbachev was re-elected general secretary on July 10 by secret ballot.
▪ In a secret ballot of reporters who have covered both, Dole would probably defeat President Clinton.
■ NOUN
box
▪ Only the last two ballot boxes overturned his lead.
▪ Accordingly, that liberty need not seek refuge at the ballot box.
▪ I would like my vote to be 100 percent secret between me and the ballot box.
▪ Haider and his followers have been gradually building their support at the ballot box for the past decade.
▪ In the meantime, the Polytechnic will still use old-fashioned ballot boxes.
▪ Another ballot box was available at the central library.
▪ The one thing politicians care about more than anything else is the ballot box.
▪ She went to the ballot box touching her hat.
paper
▪ Also on the ballot paper was the one candidate, Lucy Courtney, for the post of senior vice-president.
▪ Pupils will cast their ballot papers in mock polling booths before school and at morning break on the day.
▪ Why did that county have that weird ballot paper?
▪ Antiquated equipment, badly designed ballot papers and inefficient vote-counting machinery contributed to the confusion.
▪ They called into question various electoral procedures including the drawing up of electoral lists and the issuing of ballot papers.
▪ But voters could have another choice on their ballot papers.
▪ If you want to vote by post give the full address where your ballot paper should be sent.
strike
▪ But unions would be effectively debarred from holding a strike ballot in support of workers already sacked for taking part in unofficial strikes.
▪ The unions are already holding a strike ballot because they fear compulsory redundancies.
▪ The union also voted for a further strike ballot on the new contracts.
■ VERB
appear
▪ Fulani's minor-party ticket will appear on the November ballot in nearly all 50 states.
▪ Eventually, 16 names will appear on the ballot.
▪ Candidates did not have to gather any signatures of voters or pay any sort of fee to appear on the ballot.
▪ Last week, you officially became a candidate for the White House when you appeared on the primary ballot in California.
▪ The question will appear on the ballot as Prop 107.
cast
▪ He praised the smooth running of the election, and denied reports that people had been forced to cast their ballots.
▪ The majority of eligible voters said they would rather not cast ballots, leading to the worst percentage voter turnout since 1924.
▪ In Gampola, a United National Party candidate said that when he went to vote, some one had already cast his ballot.
▪ Just four Republicans cast ballots for some one other than Gingrich, six short of the number needed to block his selection.
▪ Theyaccount for nearly one-fifth of the electorate, and will cast the deciding ballots in many constituencies.
▪ Less than half of the voting-age population cast a ballot in November.
▪ Some middle-class voters have supported the Labour Party and about one-third of working-class voters have traditionally cast their ballots for Conservative candidates.
▪ Stephanopoulos turned thirty-one as New Hampshire voters cast their primary ballots.
count
▪ Dishonest counting and ballot stuffing are not countenanced.
▪ We will have a portable computer down there election night to count the ballots.
▪ And after his death, it never occurred to anyone that maybe one day the government would count the ballots.
▪ Fortunately, every state has rules on how those votes are counted and which ballots are considered legal.
▪ Marcos, who counted the ballots, declared himself the winner.
decide
▪ Theyaccount for nearly one-fifth of the electorate, and will cast the deciding ballots in many constituencies.
▪ In the 1994 statewide elections, voters decided nearly 150 ballot initiatives.
elect
▪ The six teachers are all elected by a ballot of all teaching staff.
▪ The new ministers were elected by an open ballot enbloc.
▪ With the Second Ballot the winning candidate must poll more than half the votes to be elected at the first ballot.
hold
▪ But unions would be effectively debarred from holding a strike ballot in support of workers already sacked for taking part in unofficial strikes.
▪ The electricians are holding a postal ballot with the results announced after Christmas.
▪ The club thought the fairest way to decide which disabled fans went to Wembley was to hold a ballot.
▪ The unions are already holding a strike ballot because they fear compulsory redundancies.
qualify
▪ To qualify for the ballot, Perot and Lamm each had to get at least 10 percent of the votes cast.
▪ The Natural Law Party qualified for the ballot last December.
▪ Organizers need the valid signatures of 480, 000 voters by April 19 to qualify for the November ballot.
▪ Unfortunately, it only takes about 1, 500 signatures to qualify for the ballot.
vote
▪ So, in protest, they are voting in local ballots to refuse to cover for staff vacancies or for long-term absences.
▪ The best-film voting went to three ballots and no big studio film was a serious contender.
▪ This year, citizens in 20 states will vote on 89 ballot initiatives on issues from property taxes to gambling to education.
▪ On Dec. 5 the Congress voted by secret ballot on nine amendments to the Constitution.
▪ On April 29, Cahill temporarily blocked backers from collecting signatures to put the immigrant voting measure on the ballot.
win
▪ Supporters of Mr Paul Davies, his chief opponent, believe he won on the second ballot.
▪ He said the party is still trying to get enough valid signatures to win ballot access in Texas.
▪ Lincoln won on the third ballot.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
cast a vote/ballot
▪ I had to assert the authority of my casting vote.
▪ In 1996, 8,605 people cast votes for mayor, including 6,570 for Owens.
▪ Its voters first cast ballots by mail on a state housing initiative in 1993.
▪ Just four Republicans cast ballots for some one other than Gingrich, six short of the number needed to block his selection.
▪ The deadline for casting votes is February 1, 2001.
▪ The majority of eligible voters said they would rather not cast ballots, leading to the worst percentage voter turnout since 1924.
▪ They can not accept that I should cast votes on their behalf without first asking each of them what they think.
▪ Those who do are forced to cast a vote of questionable worth.
the ballot box
▪ The issue will be decided at the ballot box.
▪ The voters have expressed their views at the ballot box.
▪ They are determined to win power through the ballot box, not by violence.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ He was elected by a ballot of all the teaching staff in the college.
▪ It was decided to hold a ballot of all party members.
▪ November's general election ballot
▪ The result of the ballot showed that nurses were not in favour or a strike.
▪ Voting will be by secret ballot.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Calday Grange Grammar School also faced a second ballot over opting out after it applied for grant-maintained status last year.
▪ For the first ballot each voter will indicate one choice from the candidates listed. 12.
▪ Of the 34 seats on the ballot Tuesday, 19 were held by Republicans and 15 by Democrats.
▪ The voters are capable of taking a long range outlook when they consider initiatives on the ballot.
▪ They equally fear losing power through the ballot box.
▪ Theyaccount for nearly one-fifth of the electorate, and will cast the deciding ballots in many constituencies.
▪ Under the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, elections are by secret ballot.
▪ With the new dynamic of California politics, getting any ballot measure passed with just Anglo votes is fast becoming impossible.
II.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
member
▪ They now have to ballot their members before being able to call a strike.
▪ The unions are balloting 24,000 members in four companies next week on an indefinite strike.
▪ In one case the union concerned had balloted its members on several variations of industrial action.
▪ The idea of unions balloting their members before taking industrial action took hold.
▪ The breakaway union is balloting its members for a one-day token strike in protest over the amended pit closure plans.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
the ballot box
▪ The issue will be decided at the ballot box.
▪ The voters have expressed their views at the ballot box.
▪ They are determined to win power through the ballot box, not by violence.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Baseball writers will be balloted on Hall of Fame candidates.
▪ The union will now ballot its members on whether to go ahead with strike action.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Members ballot for the right to introduce bills on Fridays allocated to this purpose.
▪ The idea of unions balloting their members before taking industrial action took hold.
▪ The workforce will be balloted on the issue next month.
Related phrases:
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ballot

Ballot \Bal"lot\ (b[a^]l"l[u^]t), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Balloted; p. pr. & vb. n. Balloting.] [F. ballotter to toss, to ballot, or It. ballottare. See Ballot, n.] To vote or decide by ballot; as, to ballot for a candidate.

Ballot

Ballot \Bal"lot\, v. t. To vote for or in opposition to.

None of the competitors arriving to a sufficient number of balls, they fell to ballot some others.
--Sir H. Wotton.

Ballot

Ballot \Bal"lot\ (b[a^]l"l[u^]t), n. [F. ballotte, fr. It. ballotta. See Ball round body.]

  1. Originally, a ball used for secret voting. Hence: Any printed or written ticket used in voting.

  2. The act of secret voting, whether by balls, written or printed ballots or tickets, or by use of a voting machine; the system of voting secretly.

    The insufficiency of the ballot.
    --Dickens.

  3. The whole number of votes cast at an election, or in a given territory or electoral district.

  4. the official list of candidates competing in an election. There are no women on the ballot. Ballot box,

    1. a box for receiving ballots.

    2. the act, process or system of voting secretly; same as ballot[2]. ``The question will be resolved by the ballot box.''

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
ballot

1540s, "small ball used in voting," also "secret vote taken by ballots," from Italian pallotte, diminutive of palla "ball," for small balls used as counters in secret voting (see balloon). Earliest references are to Venice. By 1776 extended to tickets or sheets of paper used in secret voting. Ballot box attested from 1670s; metonymically from 1834 as "system or practice of voting by ballot."

ballot

1540s, from ballot (n.). Related: Balloted; balloting.

Wiktionary
ballot

n. 1 A paper or card used to cast a vote. 2 The process of voting, especially in secret. 3 (context chiefly US English) A list of candidates running for office; a ticket. 4 The total of all votes cast in an election. vb. 1 To vote or decide by ballot. 2 To draw lots.

Related phrases:
WordNet
ballot

  1. n. a document listing the alternatives that is used in voting

  2. a choice that is made by voting; "there were only 17 votes in favor of the motion" [syn: vote, voting, balloting]

ballot

v. vote by ballot; "The voters were balloting in this state"

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Ballot

A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election, and may be a piece of paper or a small ball used in secret voting. It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters.

Each voter uses one ballot, and ballots are not shared. In the simplest elections, a ballot may be a simple scrap of paper on which each voter writes in the name of a candidate, but governmental elections use pre-printed to protect the secrecy of the votes. The voter casts his/her ballot in a box at a polling station.

In British English, this is usually called a "ballot paper". The word ballot is used for an election process within an organisation (such as a trade union "holding a ballot" of its members).

Ballot (automobile)

Ballot was a French manufacturer, initially of engines, that also made automobiles between 1919 and 1932.

Édouard Ballot became well known as a designer of reliable engines. He helped Ettore Bugatti in developing his first engines.

Ballot (horse)

Ballot (April 18, 1904 – May 16, 1937) was an American two-time Champion Thoroughbred racehorse and damsire of the very important sire, Bull Lea.

Bred and raced by James R. Keene, owner of Castleton Stud in Lexington, Kentucky, he was out of the farm's broodmare Cerito and sired by Voter, their 1897 Metropolitan Handicap winner and the retrospective American Champion Older Male Horse of 1899.

Trained by future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee, James Rowe, at age two Ballot won important races in 1906 but was overshadowed by that year's Champion, Salvidere. However, the following year he began winning consistently and set a new track record for a mile and a half in winning the Second Special Handicap at Gravesend Race Track. At age four in 1908 Ballot set a new world record at Sheepshead Bay Race Track for a mile and five sixteenths on dirt in winning the first of two editions of the Advance Stakes. His performances in 1908 earned him retrospective American Champion Older Male Horse honors.

Ballot raced in England in 1909 but met with little success on their grass racecourses. Returning to the United States for the 1910 season, he immediately returned to top form. His biggest win of the year came in the Advance Stakes in which he beat King James by two lengths. Ballot finished second in the August 4 Saratoga Handicap on a track described as a "sea of mud" by the Chicago Tribune and came out of the race with a foreleg injury that ended his racing career. His win in the Advance Stakes combined with top three finishes in other major races earned Ballot retrospective honors as the Co-American Champion Older Male Horse of 1910.

Ballot (disambiguation)

A ballot is a device used to record choices made by voters.

Ballot may also refer to:

  • Ballot (automobile), a defunct French automobile manufacturer
  • Ballot (horse), an American two-time Champion Thoroughbred racehorse
  • Ballots, Mayenne, a commune in northwestern France
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "ballot".

A new method of secret ballot abolished the influence of fear and shame, of honor and interest, and the abuse of freedom accelerated the progress of anarchy and despotism.

Pope, only a very few had the respect necessary to command a two-thirds majority in the ferociously partisan balloting procedure.

Mortati had waited patiently at the main altar as each cardinal, in order of seniority, had approached and performed the specific balloting procedure.

Friday, June 6, the day before the balloting, I made an arrangement to meet Mr.

Diefenbaker, who came third in the balloting, after the Liberal and Progressive candidates.

On the final night before balloting, two conga lines of enthusiastic delegates from each camp formed up in the front lobby of the Chateau Laurier to perform a victory dance around the bust of Sir Wilfrid Laurier.

Although technically any cardinal under eighty years old could become Pope, only a very few had the respect necessary to command a two-thirds majority in the ferociously partisan balloting procedure.

November balloting, Florida Governor Jeb Bush and his Secretary of State Katherine Harris ordered local elections supervisors to purge 57,700 voters from registries on grounds they were felons not entitled to vote in Florida.

This booth was offering some spicy chicken wings, as well as brisket Heaven took a small bite of the chicken, which was smoky and tender, and then marked her ballot.

Gadsden County, very Black, the same machines were programmed to eat mismarked ballots.

The proposed communist conference would consequently be a congress of radical political Socialists to consider the question of discontinuing the use of the ballot and adopting the methods used by the Russian communists in the past in overthrowing capitalist society.

The last of the big states, Texas, was polling its delegation for the second ballot.

The Populist vote as a whole was much larger than 223,000--the total usually given in the tables---for this figure does not include the vote in the twenty-two fusion States in which the ballots were not separately counted.

That thereafter elections shall be held only on such days and under such regulations as to ballots, voting, and qualifications of electors as may be prescribed by the Philippine Legislature, to which is hereby given authority to redistrict the Philippine Islands and modify, amend, or repeal any provision of this section, except such as refer to appointive senators and representatives.

California, with their voter initiative process, was collecting signatures to get voting rights on the ballot for the next election, though many government workers were moaning about the cost of redistricting to include the lutin hives.