The Pontefract ballot box that changed the history of British democracy forever

The government claims a change to the law was needed to prevent election fraud.

The new measures come just over 150 years since the Wakefield district played its very own part in electoral reforms that would change the history of British democracy forever.

Pontefract took centre stage in August 1872 when the first secret ballot was used to elect an MP.

It is a system we all take for granted.

But it was the first time that people voted in secret by placing an ‘X’ on a ballot paper next to the name of their choice.

Before the Ballot Act of 1872 those lucky enough to vote had to declare their choice in public.

This system was open to bribery and intimidation.

The simple wooden box used on that historic occasion remains in tact and is displayed at Pontefract Museum.

It is still marked with the wax seals used to ensure the votes were not tampered with.

The seal was made with a liquorice stamp, used to make Pontefract cakes from a local liquorice factory.

The votes were counted and the results announced at Pontefract Town Hall, where the Liberal candidate H.C. Childers was elected MP for the town.

In 2015 the ballot box was displayed in the Houses of Parliament as part of a year-long celebration of democracy marking 800 years since the signing of Magna Carta.

A comic called Potwallopers tells the story of the town’s historic role in UK democracy.

A potwalloper was the name given to a man who was qualified to vote because he owned his own house with a fireplace big enough to boil his own potatoes or, as it was described, to ‘wallop a pot’.

Pontefract was known as a ‘potwalloper borough’.