Ballot Reform and Economic Voter Intimidation in New York State, 1888–1890

Historians and political scientists have typically viewed the introduction of the compulsory secret ballot in the late 1880s and early 1890s as an antidemocratic reform, or at best an antibribery reform.¹ There is certainly truth in this narrative. White supremacist leaders in southern states saw the reform as a way to further limit African American voting, and elite mugwump reformers in northern states were enthused at its potential to limit the votes of recent immigrants.² However, this was not the only reason Americans fought for the secret ballot during the Gilded Age. To an extent that has remained understudied by scholars, when ballot secrecy was up for debate in northern states, the economic intimidation of wage-working voters was one of the most raised and difficult to oppose arguments in favor of reform. The electorally critical state of New York offers the best example of this dynamic in action.

Scholars' emphasis on the regressive forces advocating for ballot secrecy have led them to overlook the importance of economic coercion as an issue and labor/left advocates as a lobbying force in the campaign for the secret ballot. Economic coercion, or economic voter intimidation, refers to employers or economically powerful parties or people threatening to fire employees or otherwise damage their livelihoods if they voted "incorrectly." This was a common practice in the late nineteenth century, particularly as voters cast their ballots openly and unemployment during winter was a dangerous prospect for wage laborers who went to the polls in early November. Ballot secrecy could prevent employers from connecting voters to their ballots, making political discharge threats far less effective. For labor leaders, socialist politicians, and ordinary workingmen, the secret ballot was a positive reform that was well worth fighting for. Their efforts to combat economic voter intimidation helped bring ballot secrecy into the political mainstream in the 1880s. This article argues that the historical consensus that regressive impulses were the prime movers in favor of ballot secrecy is particularly inaccurate in states where the reform's passage was difficult and contested. When ballot secrecy was the subject of tough debate in the most divided of these states, it was not the restrictionists and racists who made the critical coalitions and shifted key votes. It was arguments of labor leaders that only secrecy could protect workers from their bosses at the polls that ultimately won the day for the secret, or Australian, ballot.

Understandably, the first American state to enact a secret ballot law, Massachusetts, has garnered particular attention. With the support of wealthy Boston reformers, Republicans and Democrats, and labor leaders who were enthused about its ability to halt coercion of working-class voters, the Massachusetts secret ballot law passed relatively quickly. Yet the Massachusetts experience where, as historian Sarah M. Henry put it in her superb study: "the reform found few opponents," was to some extent an aberration.³ In Massachusetts and other states where reform came quickly, it is difficult to discern whether the restrictionist impulses of the reform's elitist supporters or the anticoercion protectionist vision of labor advocates was more impactful. This article explores the difficult struggle for reform in New York, where secret ballot bills backed by a wide array of reformers and labor/leftist groups were blocked, derailed, vetoed, and watered down over the course of several years.⁴ Only when labor and leftist advocates joined with reformist politicians in both major parties, did ballot secrecy come to New York.

Advocates and Opponents

Support for the secret ballot in the nation's largest and most electorally important state came from all parts of the political spectrum, but its enactment still took years of struggle.⁵ The loose coalition in favor included Mugwump reform groups like the Ballot Reform League, City Reform Club, Commonwealth Club, and the New York State Bar Association. It also featured nationally prominent labor unions such as the Knights of Labor and the emergent American Federation of Labor, leftist parties including the Socialistic Labor Party and other socialist organizations, and groups with more local constituencies such as...