A ballot is the official instrument, paper or electronic, on which an eligible voter records choices in an election run by a legally responsible authority. A ballot is secret, it is counted under law, and it can be audited against durable records. My Vote Forward does not issue ballots; its demo shows a simulated sample ballot that has no legal effect.
Definition
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) defines a ballot as “the official presentation of all the contests to be decided in a particular election,” in paper or electronic format, and “the mechanism for voters to show their voter preferences”.1 The Voluntary Voting System Guidelines 2.0 (VVSG 2.0) define it more briefly as the “presentation of the contest options for a particular voter”.2 Both definitions share three features: a ballot is official, it is specific to an election and a voter’s contests, and it is the medium through which choices are recorded.
Two related terms matter. A provisional ballot is given to a person who claims to be registered and eligible but whose status cannot be confirmed at the polls; it is kept separate and not counted until eligibility is confirmed.1 A ballot item is one contest or measure that appears on a ballot.
Origin and history
The modern ballot is defined as much by secrecy as by paper. Australia’s electoral commission notes that until the 1850s “people voted publicly, which left them vulnerable to intimidation and coercion,” and that the so-called “Australian ballot,” now known as the secret ballot, was then implemented.3 International law later made secrecy a standard: Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted in 1966, requires genuine periodic elections “held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors”.4 The history is told in full in Secret ballot.
How a ballot is used and checked
In the United States, federal law sets minimum requirements for the equipment that presents and records ballots. Under the Help America Vote Act, a voting system must let the voter “verify (in a private and independent manner) the votes selected” before casting, give the voter a chance “to change the ballot or correct any error before the ballot is cast and counted,” and produce “a permanent paper record with a manual audit capacity” that is available “as an official record for any recount”.5 VVSG 2.0 adds that every conforming system must be software independent, achieved either through voter-verifiable paper records or an approved cryptographic end-to-end protocol.2
These rules exist because a ballot is the evidence of an election. After the count, election offices check results against ballots through audits, including risk-limiting audits. The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) reports that “all 50 states and Washington D.C. conduct some type of post-election audit”.6 Those audits only work if the ballots are kept intact under documented chain of custody.
Common confusions and neighboring terms
- Ballot vs. opinion. An opinion is voluntary, revisable, and may be published. A ballot is final once cast and must stay secret.
- Ballot vs. survey response. A survey records answers from a sample to estimate what a population thinks. A ballot records a legal choice by an eligible voter that is counted, not estimated.
- Ballot vs. voter-verified paper record. A paper record is one way a ballot’s content is preserved for audit. A hand-marked paper ballot is itself the record; a machine-printed record is a copy the voter can check.
- Ballot vs. ballot measure. A ballot measure is a question that appears on a ballot; the ballot is the whole instrument.
How My Vote Forward uses the term
My Vote Forward uses “ballot” only in its legal sense. A ballot is secret and cannot be made public through the framework, and a person’s published opinions are kept entirely separate from anything ballot-like so that no one can infer a vote from a public statement. The long-term ambition of real, authorized private voting is described in Private voting, together with the legal authority, independent evaluation, and approvals it would require. None of those approvals exist, and none is claimed. The demo at demo.myvoteforward.com shows a simulated sample ballot labeled as such.
What My Vote Forward can and cannot do here
My Vote Forward can explain what makes a ballot official, secret, and auditable, and it can show in a demonstration how ballot information might be presented clearly. It cannot issue a ballot, register a voter, count a vote, or certify a result. Only an election authority acting under law can do those things, and nothing cast on the site or the demo is counted in any election. See Status and About.
Unresolved questions
- If remote ballot casting were ever authorized, how could it keep the protection against coercion that a supervised polling place provides?
- Can a ballot be both fully accessible to voters with disabilities and produce a record that every voter can independently verify?
- How should provisional ballots be communicated so voters understand whether their ballot counted?
Sources
- U.S. Election Assistance Commission, “Chain of Custody Best Practices,” version 1.1, July 12, 2021 (definitions of ballot and provisional ballot). eac.gov/…
- U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Voluntary Voting System Guidelines Version 2.0, February 10, 2021. eac.gov/…
- Australian Electoral Commission, “Voting history” (The Secret Ballot). aec.gov.au/About_AEC/25/theme1-voting-history.htm
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 25, adopted by General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI), 16 December 1966. ohchr.org/sites/default/files/ccpr.pdf
- 52 U.S.C. 21081, Voting systems standards (Help America Vote Act section 301). law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/52/21081
- National Conference of State Legislatures, “Post-Election Audits,” updated September 24, 2026. ncsl.org/…
