All the ballots cast in the election this week will be secret. But that is a relatively modern innovation.
For most of Virginia history, every vote cast in every election was done in public, announced out loud to an election judge. It was called viva voce voting, and Scott Vierick with the Alexandria Historical Society says Election Day often had a festival vibe.
"Because voting was a public activity, candidates' supporters were actively trying to get people to vote for them," Vierick says. "And one of the ways they did this, that's going to be pretty darn different than how we experience voting today, is they're giving people free alcohol."
This was a practice known as "swilling the planters with bumbo." Virginia ended viva voce voting to rejoin the Union after the Civil War, although it wasn't until 1894 that Virginia adopted a system of secret ballots.
"All states had adopted the secret ballot by the end of the 1800s, largely because they were trying to prevent vote buying, says Rebecca Green, a professor at William and Mary Law School. "So, the idea was if the vote was secret and nobody knew how anybody voted, then they wouldn't be willing to fork over any funds to buy votes."
These days, buying votes is a class one misdemeanor punishable by up to 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.
