In July 1872, 150 years ago this month, the Ballot Act introduced the secret ballot to all UK parliamentary and local elections. Here guest blogger Dr Gary Hutchison, of the Causes and Consequences of Electoral Violence project, discusses how the secret ballot affected violence at elections. An Interactive Map of over 3,000 violent events, from individual assaults to riots, can be found on their website.
Victorian elections in England and Wales were far, far more violent than has previously been thought. During the last general election before the secret ballot in 1868 there were at least thirty-seven riots, over one hundred smaller disturbances and almost two hundred smaller violent incidents. Seventeen deaths were directly caused by the contests taking place. This state of affairs was, in fact, not particularly out-of-the-ordinary for an election. Violence was a fact of everyday electoral life. Below are two images – Market Square…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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