ballot box

noun

1

: a box for receiving ballots

2

: ballot sense 2a

Phrases

stuff the ballot box

chiefly US

: to attempt to control the outcome of an election by having multiple illegitimate votes cast in support of the desired candidate

They said the vote-rigging included stuffing ballot boxes, buying votes and absent names on the voter rolls.

—Sonia Verma

By a margin of just 277 votes (some say ballot boxes were stuffed), Brooklyn, the nation's fourth-largest city, had voted to give up its proud and independent history.

—James Sterngold

Examples of ballot box in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In the long term, another part of the law that takes effect in August restricts judges from rewriting misleading language on measures that voters see at the ballot box. —Kacen Bayless, Kansas City Star, 5 May 2025

At the ballot box, in the streets, in schools, in our culture, with our dollars. —Hashim Coates, Denver Post, 5 May 2025

Conservative leaders faced a scathing rejection at the ballot box. —Matina Stevis-Gridneff, New York Times, 4 May 2025

Australia’s incumbent Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has won a second term in a close general election Saturday, local broadcasters projected, in a defeat for the conservative coalition that was undermined at the ballot box by its association with President Donald Trump. —Astha Rajvanshi, NBC news, 3 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1677, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for ballot box

• aftershocks
• chatterbox
• equinox
• goldilocks
• hollyhocks
• interlocks
• orthodox
• paradox
• tomahawks
• balks
• blocks
• blocs