In the history of voting procedures, Massachusetts has often been an innovator.
In the 1600s, Puritans moved beyond dropping beans and corn kernels in a basket on Election Day to submitting votes for governor and other colony-wide offices in writing. After independence, Massachusetts ratified a constitution that – pointedly – did not exclude Black or Native American voters (although limiting the vote to men of property).
The process of “gerrymandering” also started in Massachusetts – creating legislative districts shaped to favor one party. It remains a controversial practice today. Surprisingly, voting choices were made openly in America, through most of the nineteenth century. A secret ballot was seen as cowardly and an invitation to fraud. That ended in 1888 when Massachusetts adopted the “Australian Ballot,” with private voting booths and ballots printed by the state. Some states called it the “Massachusetts Ballot” when following suit. In the twenty-first century Massachusetts remains an innovator in the conduct of elections.