ballot

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A sheet of paper or a card used to cast or register a vote, especially a secret one.
2. n. The act, process, or method of voting, especially in secret.
3. n. A list of candidates running for office; a ticket.
4. n. The total of all votes cast in an election.
5. n. The right to vote; franchise.
6. n. A small ball once used to register a secret vote.
7. v. To cast a ballot; vote.
8. v. To draw lots.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A little ball used in voting. Hence A ticket or slip of paper, sometimes called a voting-paper, used for the same purpose, on which is printed or written an expression of the elector's choice as between candidates or propositions to be voted for.
2. n. A method of secret voting by means of small balls, or of printed or written ballots, which are deposited in an urn or a box called a ballot-box. In the former case, each person who is entitled to vote, having the choice of two balls, one white and one black, places a white ball in the box if he is in favor of the resolution proposed, as the admission of a person to membership in a club, or a black ball if he is opposed to it. Hence, to blackball a person is to vote against his election. In the latter case, the ballots or voting-papers are so folded as to prevent the voter's preference from being disclosed, and are usually handed to an authorized officer called an inspector of elections, to be deposited in the box in the voter's presence. The ballot is now employed in all popular elections in the United States (except in the State elections of Kentucky, in which the voting is viva voce), throughout the United Kingdom and the British colonies, and in the national or parliamentary elections in Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, and most other countries of continental Europe.
3. n. A casting of ballots; a vote by ballot; also, the whole number of votes cast or recorded: as, a ballot was taken on the resolution; there was a large ballot.
4. n. A method of drawing lots by taking out small balls, or the like, from a box; hence, lot-drawing.
5. To decide upon a question, proposition, or candidacy by casting ballots; take a ballot or a vote by ballot: often with for in the sense of ‘in relation to’: as, to ballot for members of a club. See the noun.
6. To bound, as in the bore of a cannon: as, spherical projectiles ballot in the bore of the piece.
7. To select by lot; draw lots (for): as, to ballot for places.
8. To vote for or against by ballot; choose or elect by ballot.
9. To choose by lot; select by drawing lots for.
10. n. A small bale, weighing from 70 to 120 pounds.

Wiktionary

1. n. a paper or card used to cast a vote
2. n. the process of voting, especially in secret
3. n. a list of candidates running for office; a ticket
4. n. the total of all votes cast in an election
5. v. to vote
6. v. to draw lots

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Originally, a ball used for secret voting. Hence: Any printed or written ticket used in voting.
2. n. The act of secret voting, whether by balls, written or printed ballots or tickets, or by use of a voting machine; the system of voting secretly.
3. n. The whole number of votes cast at an election, or in a given territory or electoral district.
4. n. the official list of candidates competing in an election.
5. v. To vote or decide by ballot.
6. v. To vote for or in opposition to.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a choice that is made by counting the number of people in favor of each alternative
2. v. vote by ballot
3. n. a document listing the alternatives that is used in voting