Rhode Island Election Tickets and Proxes collection

In early colonial years in Rhode Island, elections were open to freemen who voted either by voice in a town meeting or on blank pieces of paper with their name. Printed ballots began to utilized by the mid 18th century and were known locally as a "prox". Proxes (or, proxy ballot or proxies) were a printed election tickets with a list of candidates in which the voter would indicate their candidate of choice or could write in a candidate. These printed ballots supplied by parties often included slogans for particular parties. Proxes were utilized until 1889 when concerns over election fraud prompted the Rhode Island General Assembly to pass a law to standardize the printing of ballots at the expense of the state and controll printing and distribution of the ballots.

For additional information on Rhode Island election ballots, see "Rhode Island Election Tickets: a survey of eighteenth- and nineteenth- century paper ballots" by Russell DeSimone (Rhode Island Publications Society, 2023).