What the heck is this?

It’s an old-timey voting machine! The word “ballot” comes from the Italian word ballotta, which means little ball. (This particular machine wasn’t used in a government election, rather a social club.) But throughout American history, ballots and voting have taken many forms, and while the principle of voting hasn’t changed, the method in which it is done certainly has.

Check out more at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History’s fascinating online exhibition, Vote: The Machinery of Democracy.