The invention of writing seems to go hand in hand with the invention of voting. Some method had to exist to record, indelibly, the decisions of the assembled delegates. Long before the spread of paper, civilizations notched their votes into whatever was abundant: the Greeks recorded their votes on broken pieces of pottery, and India used palm leaves inscribed with the candidates’ names. Paper, and then printed ballots did of course supplant the former, but not all at once, and very unevenly.

On this day, February 15, in 1799, printed ballots were authorized for use in elections in the State of Pennsylvania. The marked ballots would slide into a heavy-paper pocket, which was just the right size for placement in a vest pocket, giving rise to their nickname “vest-pocket tickets.”

For most of the following century, the balloting system was a free-for-all. State election laws typically specified the dimensions and thickness of the paper and the size and type to be used, but the rest was left to the political parties issuing the tickets and the candidates themselves. Needless to say, the resulting variety led to many confused voters and dishonest types preying on them.