Before the secret ballot, Americans voted by saying their choice out loud in a crowded courthouse, often with free rum waiting outside. With the 2026 midterm elections coming up and Election Day on November 3, this is the true history of voting in America: how the right to vote was won, fought for and counted.

From George Washington's 1758 election to the secret ballot, women's suffrage and the 1913 suffrage parade, Selma and the Voting Rights Act, the Battle of Athens and the 36-day Florida recount of 2000, you'll see how elections work and how close some of them came. Nine stories, every one of them true. History only, nonpartisan.

New episodes every day on Spotify & YouTube.

Photo credits (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY / CC BY-SA): Arniesc1, Maggie McCain, Mobilus In Mobili, ArielGlenn, Kenneth C. Zirkel, Tboyd5150, Reading Tom, Pauljoffe, Ktkvtsh, Jimmy Emerson, Ron Cogswell, Rochelle Hartman, Noah Wulf, Brian Stansberry, Minh Nguyen, Daniel Tobias (Dtobias), David from Washington DC, Douglas W. Jones, Jim.henderson, oscepa, Alex Johnson, Mrs. Gemstone. Other images public domain or free-licensed stock.

#Midterms #Midterms2026 #ElectionDay #Vote #Voting #VotingHistory #Election2026 #AmericanHistory #History #Democracy #VotingRights #HistoryPodcast

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