I like to think it was ballot stuffing…but there is no evidence of that

During the 5th century BCE the Athenians held ostracism votes where the people could force any one member of the citizens of Athens to leave Athens for 10 years. these votes were made by all citizens writing the name of one person on a pottery shard. Archaeologists have thousands of these shards from one particular vote and it has been determined that they are all written by a total of twelve individuals which makes it appear that there was a (successful) attempt to organize an ostracism against one particular person.

(The Great Courses – The Long Shadow of the Ancient Greek World)

One thought on “I like to think it was ballot stuffing…but there is no evidence of that

  1. Judy B.

    Just wondering: is it possible citizens used (12) scribes to record their votes and the outcome was not necessarily skewed?

    Reply

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