ballot

A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election and may be found as a piece of paper or a small ball used in secret voting. It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters in Italy around the 16th century. Blackballing is a rejection in a traditional form of secret ballot, where a white ball or ballot constitutes a vote in support and a black ball signifies opposition.

选票是一种用于在选举中投票的装置，可以是一张纸或一个用于秘密投票的小球。它最初是一个小球（见blackballing），用来记录16世纪左右意大利投票者的决定。在传统的无记名投票中，黑球是一种拒绝，白色球或选票代表支持票，黑色球代表反对票。

The secret ballot is a voting method in which a voter's choices in an election or a referendum are anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote buying.

无记名投票是一种投票方法，选民在选举或公民投票中的选择是匿名的。这阻止了通过恐吓、勒索和潜在的选票购买来影响选民的企图。

Each voter uses one ballot, and ballots are not shared. In the simplest elections, a ballot may be a simple scrap of paper on which each voter writes in the name of a candidate, but governmental elections use preprinted ballots to protect the secrecy of the votes. The voter casts their ballot in a box at a polling station.

每个投票人使用一张选票，选票不共享。在最简单的选举中，选票可能是一张简单的纸片，每个选民都以候选人的名义写在上面，但政府选举使用预先打印的选票来保护选票的保密性。投票人在投票站的一个盒子里投票。

In ancient Greece, citizens used pieces of broken pottery to scratch in the name of the candidate in the procedures of ostracism. 在古希腊，公民在驱逐程序中用碎陶器刮取候选人的名字。If a group of people ostracize someone, they refuse to accept them as a member of the group.

A ballot box is a temporarily sealed container, usually a square box though sometimes a tamper resistant bag, with a narrow slot in the top sufficient to accept a ballot paper in an election but which prevents anyone from accessing the votes cast until the close of the voting period. It will usually be located in a polling station.

投票箱是一个临时密封的容器，通常是一个方形的盒子，但有时是一个防篡改的袋子，顶部有一个狭窄的槽，足以在选举中容纳选票，但在投票期结束之前，任何人都无法接近所投的票。它通常位于投票站。