In ancient Greek democracies (e.g., Athens) public officials
were occasionally elected but more often were chosen by lot. In
Rome the popular assemblies elected the tribunes. In the Middle
Ages elections were abandoned, except for such processes as
elections to the papacy and, in a more limited sense, of the
Holy Roman emperor by a small and partly hereditary body of
electors. In the modern period, elections have been inseparable
from the growth of democratic forms of government. Elections
were associated with the parliamentary process in England from
the 13th cent. and were gradually regularized by acts
prescribing the frequency of elections (the Triennial Act of
1694, and the Septennial Act of 1716), by successive reform
bills widening the franchise in the 19th cent., and by the
adoption of the secret ballot in 1872. In colonial America the
election of church and public officials dates almost from the
founding of the Plymouth Colony, and the paper ballot was
instituted in elections to the Massachusetts gove